I wonder what the editorial meetings are like at the British tabloids as they try to figure out the next steps in covering the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Should they outright trash them? Should they try to do sympathetic coverage towards the Sussexes? Should they ignore the Sussexes in favor of embiggening the Cambridges? Here’s a test case for the post-Sussexit British coverage: baiting the public with fake-positive stories which seem, superficially, to be nice about Harry and Meghan but really the stories make Meghan sound pushy and “above her station.” Case in point, this Daily Mail story:
Meghan Markle has been telling her close friends that quitting the royal family is the best thing that could ever happen to Prince Harry and said ‘it was her love for him that made this possible,’ a friend exclusively told DailyMail.com.
‘She said that like her, his spirit was being crushed and she simply couldn’t stand to see him suffer anymore,’ the friend added. The couple have been staying at an opulent $14 million Vancouver Island mansion, which they have used since Thanksgiving, and the close friend revealed the two have no plans to move out anytime soon. Meghan and Harry also have no intention of stripping the word ‘royal’ from their SussexRoyal website, as the insider added: ‘Meghan says they will always be considered royalty regardless of where they live or what they do.’
Still, a number of unresolved issues remain, including whether Harry and Meghan will be required to strip the word ‘Royal’ from their SussexRoyal website, and who will pick up the hefty bill for their continuing security requirements. However, Meghan’s friend told DailyMail.com: ‘Meghan and Harry are not planning on changing their website or Instagram name. They are still considered the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. And they will keep the Royal part in. She described herself and Harry as game changers destined to hack the status quo. And now they can finally go about their business.’
The friend added: ‘Meghan has been telling her close friends that this is the best thing that could ever happen to Harry. That out of anyone he will flourish the most and that it was her love for him that made this possible.’
The insider also revealed that ‘Meghan told her friends that there is no rush to move out of the place they’ve been staying. That they’re welcome to live there as like as they like. Meghan calls it her happy place and says that in the last couple of months, she’s felt more at home than she ever did in the UK.’
I mean, my guess is that there is a kernel of truth to all of this, that Meghan is happy that she and Harry got away, that Harry was in a bad place psychologically over the past few years, and that Meghan believes that she and Harry will flourish now that they’ve moved away. But of course the “source” tilted everything to piss off the British public reading this. How dare Meghan consider herself a game-changer! How dare she take credit for bringing about positive change! How dare she!!
Also: the Sun had a similarly baiting-type of story about how Harry relies on his mother-in-law Doria Ragland for advice. One source says, “Doria has been an absolute tower of strength in recent months – not just for Meghan but for Harry too. He obviously doesn’t have a mum whom he can turn to for advice but he has always been incredibly close to Doria and never more so than now. Harry has a huge amount of respect for her and for her judgement which is why he and Meghan have both spoken to her throughout about what they planned to do.” I don’t doubt it. But you know those British editors, they’re all aghast at the thought of a prince of the realm getting advice from an African-American lady with dreadlocks.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid and Avalon Red.
Not surprised that the character assassinations continue. Ugh.
Meghan has become Wallis 2.0, as far as the ratty British tabloids have surmised. They will continue to place the blame squarely on Meghan until the end of time. Everything they write are lies and I can assure you that her friends are not leaking or discussing any details of how they are feeling.
What’s amazing to me is that all her close friends are SUPPOSEDLY leaking like sieves to the tabloids, and yet if asked directly in public, people like Serena Williams, Oprah, Gail, Elton John say no comment or they say something discretely positive and shut the conversation down. I think the tabloids have decided to designate one or two people on their own teams as “Meghan’s close friends.” Then they interview each other for their stories. Sort of like a designated driver. 🤔. I also agree with Kaiser, almost every article that starts out positive, simply seems to be a hook to get you to read it, because by the end it is all subtle shade or outright nastiness.
On a totally different topic: I hate that picture of Meghan with the poppy. Too dark, too much blush, to rigid, to “wicked witch of the west” look. Hate hate hate it.
Think about Harry’s life. I doubt anyone in his life truly cared about his happiness except his Mother. Along comes Meghan and her mom….both genuinely nice people who are encouraging Harry to do what will make him happy. I bet Harry is a bit shocked he’s prob never known people like that
I wish them happiness.
Yes, this! I just go back to how Harry now has a supportive partner and what impact that has had on his relationships. His family used to walk all over him under the guise of “silly, amiable, funny Harry” but really at some point he needed to self actualize. Sometimes that means boundaries, particularly with older siblings who feel a sense of propriety over you. I had to put my foot down in a similar way and nearly cut off certain family members. I don’t think it’s forever, in my case or Harry’s, but sometimes you have to put some space in order to get the outcome you want.
Hi knowitall
knowitall, I wish you all the best. I am going through something similar myself. It’s not easy. All Harry and Meghan really asked for in their instagram post was space and financial independence from Harry’s family of origin, which is a completely reasonable request for them to make, but the royals hit the rough. It’s a sign of enmeshment, which makes setting healthy boundaries very difficult. I found that the book, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents has been helpful in my situation.
This is how I see it too.
Harry needs a good long break from the BRF so he can establish his own terms for his relationships with each of them as well as the crown itself. There is no other institution like the BRF, which means Harry needs to figure it out on his own.
Among many other untruths in this article, I cannot see them staying in that house. It has been ID’d, their privacy has been invaded, they’ve filed a complaint against those photos, it is a security issue now.
I’ve always had the feeling that this is a temporary arrangement, but I could be wrong.
Agreed. That house isn’t their style. They have, together and independently, always chosen smaller and more casual housing.
I don’t believe for one second that anyone close to her would ever talk the mail.
But nice try
‘Meghan says they will always be considered royalty regardless of where they live or what they do.’
This does not sound like Meghan at all, to be honest. I doubt she cares how she is “considered”.
It definitely doesn’t sound like her. If she really were a gold-digging, gung-ho wannabe princess she would be pulling a Kate and doing whatever she could to stay on board the RF gravy train. That argument just doesn’t make sense.
@Maria, exactly! There is no way Meghan would say she is royalty no matter what. The article is a complete lie intended to rile readers against her. None of her friends will speak to the media, especially now. The papers know they will never be challenged on the lies, so they ran with it. The Press wants to shift the focus on Doria, so she becomes a topic of discussion. They are implying she was instrumental in H&M leaving.
And the new obsession of the daily and the sun for Meghan and harry’s Royal title or Instagram is qwhite funny.
This story is nothing but bulshit
A friend of hers talking to the faily mail? Yeah, tight.
Yeah, I’m not seeing the racist subtext that the author is reading in the Doria Ragland story. This story has been written a lot before, just replace “William” for “Harry” and “Carole” for “Doria.” The theme they’re going for is “these poor men-children didn’t have a mother and seek them out in their mothers-in-law.”
Of course you aren’t.
What @notasugarhere said
It’s see not to see what you don’t want to see. And, of course, there’s no difference between the woman who GROOMED her daughter to ‘catch’ a prince and has the tabloids on speed-dial, and woman who has never said A SINGLE WORD.
The mental gymnastics are awe-inspiring. It makes me wonder why some people are so DETERMINED to ignore the racism that’s so clearly there. Why is it so important to them to tun a blind eye to blatant racism?
I think it’s because they don’t want to lose people or things that they like. If something is racist, that’s disgusting, and we (or most of us) stop enjoying and repudiate it. I think they’re emotionally invested in the queen, or Kate (it doesn’t make sense to me either), or their idea of each, or the BRF in general, etc. They don’t want to give up the things/people they like, therefore these things or people cannot be racist.
Yes there were many stories of William being mothered by Kate’s mother, same same.
When Carole made cheesy toast for a William they said it was a good thing because he doesn’t have a mother. They are not using a positive spin about Doria potentially doing the same thing for Harry. The difference is obvious.
You should take an introductory sociology class at your local college. It will help you understand what racism looks like in the 21st century. You can then understand the “racist subtext.”
In the face of blatant and subtle racism, Doria has steadfastly remained calm, dignified, and apparently not the least bit apprehensive of the royal family. She simply puts on her beatific smile and glides through everything with her head held high. The subtle “turning to for advice” is bullsh*t and feeds into the whole “Harry is fragile and needs a comforting black mommy to give him hugs and home cooking”. The low-key racism is all over that piece.
The photos of Harry getting off the plane in Canada are amazing. He looked calm and relieved – genuinely happy.
I know right!
What glorious hugs the three of them must of shared when they were reunited, Harry, Meghan and baby!
But it’s okay for Normal Bill to rely on Carole Middleton who has used her connection to the royal family for social advancement and to line her pockets from the very beginning.
Doria has not said a single word in public about her daughter or son-in-law. There’s no question who the ‘classy’ in-law is in THAT family.
Doria also isn’t doing interviews to slag her daughter’s sister in law.
The Middletons are proof that money can’t buy class.
I hope Meghan wins her lawsuit against the dailyfail.
I would happily ask Doria for advice, if I knew her. In all honesty, she strikes me as having an acute understanding of many of life’s harder questions.
I have to say… I normally only visit this site for celeb gossip. Since the whole Sussex thing went down I have been visiting other gossip sites and the actual UK websites. This is one of the few places that is Meghan positive. She is being absolutely torn to shreds everywhere else – even on American pages.
Same. I could do without certain commenters (won’t name names) and their passive aggressiveness
Go back to the Fail with that BS
I mean, Meghan sure seems to have a lot of “friends” that make her sound like an absolute twat to the media…”It was her love for him that made everything possible” – a grown ass woman would actually say that. Surrre, Jan.
None of their friends are talking to media. Just another pack of lies.
Her “friend” is talking to the paper she is suing?
I’m rooting for Meghan and Harry to win. I too have had toxic relatives or toxic relationships with non toxic relatives, and there was a time when I wanted to get away from them so badly. But I was a teenager and it took my parents years to realize it, once they did it was not too late per se, but a lot of damages have been done and it took years to repair. But every now and then, I’ll think about those times, and that’s enough to give me anxiety on the spot.
I really want this new arrangement to work for them, I was hoping Meghan would be less Hollywood and more Aristocratic/Royal, but I must trust hers and her husband’s judgment to know what is best for their life.
What do you mean by hoping Meghan would be “less Hollywood and more Aristocratic/Royal”??? Would love some further clarification.
Meghan has been the antithesis of “Hollywood”. She has gone under the radar, only been spotted a few times around Victoria and Vancouver in jeans and boots dropping in on women’s and animals’ organizations on the low down. She’s not blabbing with some fashion or design maven on TV, and Lord knows with her contacts she could do guest shots on all the major stations. Meghan and Harry need to cocoon for a while, not be bothered by the paps and get grounded in their new life in Canada.
Meghan has behaved more like a gentlewoman (I’m not going to use the word “aristocratic” because I think by and large aristrocrats behave atrociously) than most of the people in the fetid royal family. She hasn’t gone out of her way to draw attention to herself unless she is working. She and H haven’t gone out and about living the party life and getting papped that way. She got papped walking her dogs with her baby on a nature trail, and then promptly sent out legal warnings about it. Oh, my! How very Hollywood. She’s also an actress who chose to live in Canada instead of commuting back and forth between LA and to do charity work while on hiatus, and had never been part of the US tabloid culture – how very Hollywood. She and her husband chose a location with incredibly strict stalker laws to deter paparazzi (and, again, have taken legal action to stop them from stalking them) – how very Hollywood.
Stop projecting.
Aristocratic? Like Keen Katie, the coalminer’s grand-daughter?
One thing that we know about Miss Katie is that she definitely IS NOT an aristocrat. I’m sure that William’s Turnip Toff friends remind her about that on a regular basis. I think that William deliberately chose Rose as his side piece because she IS an aristo. They might have to curtsy to her but they will always remind her about who and what her family is. And I have no doubt that George will be reminded too, as he gets older. Especially if they send him to one of those ‘posh’, toffee-nosed schools.
I can say with clarity that this story is fiction, complete with made up quotes. There is no “insider,” especially anyone who would give an anonymous source story to the Daily Mail.
Doria isn’t Carole Middleton. She hasn’t used her position with Harry to get anything. If she’s been there for him, it wasn’t to get her daughter a husband and title. It’s because she’s a good person who saw he needed someone to talk to. She isn’t the 3rd person in the Sussexes’ marriage.
I doubt they stay in BC. I think it’s a strategic location. BC has strict laws regarding the paparazzi. Hopefully, by the time their tourist visas have expired, the hype around them will have died down somewhat and they can move to the States. It’s easier to establish a home there than in a country where none of them are citizens.
For after all the hype has died down: South Florida, like Sweden’s Princess Madeline and family. Diverse, relaxed, great wildlife, easier access to Europe than the West Coast, plenty of celebrities whose privacy is respected,… plus polo!
Yeah, I seriously doubt they’d ever move to Florida. Especially Meghan – she likely doesn’t want to live too far away from her mom again, and Florida is 3000 miles/ 5 hour plane ride at least.
If they live in the US, they’ll either go to California, or even Seattle, WA IMO. They’ll stay on the West Coast, close to her mom. And there are many places outside of LA that aren’t crawling with paps, especially around the Bay Area or somewhere like that.
They won’t be traveling back to the UK that much, mark it. IMO that’s why they picked the West Coast in the first place.
Meghan’s friends aren’t talking to the Daily Mail, the paper that she is suing. Give me a break. No does she care about ” always be considered royalty”. That’s just more of the “Meghan always wanted to social climb and be royalty” narrative they’ve tried to pain her with since her relationship with Harry became public, and they are still trying to square-peg-round-hole it now that she’s walked away from it.
Frankly, anything from here on out about Meghan and Harry from the Daily Mail can safely be considered fiction as far as I’m concerned. They are too far away for even KP to have any info to leak about them anymore. And that pretty much goes for all the British Tabloids IMO.
Yeah, I think both stories are 100% made up by interns who couldn’t dig up any dirt before their print deadlines and so blew these fantasies out of their asses at their editors. Seriously. I wouldn’t blame H&M for hunkering down on Vancouver Island (one of my favorite places on the planet) for awhile and let the storm blow over a bit. If I were them I’d head north to Tofino and get really out of the way. The pansy-assed reporters would be hard pressed to find a campsite up there to stay at, much less a hotel. They wouldn’t last a week.
I think it will be interesting to see if the press turns its collective critical eye back to the Cambridges. They can’t survive without somebody to crucify, and if H&M go dark for awhile, Kate may become a fairly easy target. It could be that this phase of “embiggening” the Cambridges only worked when there was someone to compare her to.
Not believing this. Her friends have shown support .
Since when we have so many friends and leaks? Because of the sheer number I don’t know when it’s made up and when it’s a standard pr.
Try using logic.
It’s very much a troll theory that Doria& Meghan are a con pair & Doria has been off the radar pulling strings& making money. It’s funny how many troll theories make it into the press.
Anyway seems illogical that actual friends of Meghan and Harry would leak to the same press they are suing so I wouldn’t believe any of these type of stories from places like the Fail, Sun or Mirror.
What about when the Middleton’s dominated Wills life and he spent holidays with them instead of with his own family?
Well certainly Victorians aren’t taking too kindly to the paparazzi that have attempted to bother the couple, by literally confronting the cameramen on the walking trail and boat charters not taking them out on the water.
These are made up/ imaginary friends. Genuine friends will not sell them out.
It’s perpetual judgment, not reporting. So blatant. I’m not surprised they bailed from that cesspool.
I know I’ve said a lot but I want to add, thank you to Kaiser and CB for not posting that pap shot of Meghan in the park with Archie. It shows that clicks aren’t all that matter to you. Thank you for respecting their privacy even though the rest of the world continues to share an unauthorized image of them.
The comments on their Instagram page are brutal..who are all those people?