Last Thursday, the Duchess of Sussex posted a lovely Instagram carousel, with photos of her summer holiday with her husband and children. There were photos from Portugal, where Meghan and Prince Harry own a second home, a vacation home in a luxury resort. There were photos from Montecito. And there were photos from Althorp, the Spencer family’s ancestral estate. In the wake of Meghan’s Instagram carousel, there’s been nothing but angst, anger, rage and tears from the royalists. Tom Sykes – the Daily Beast’s Royalist columnist – immediately raged out a hilariously absurd piece which boiled down to “how dare Meghan show off her happy summer vacation when we did everything we could to humiliate her and target her!”
When Meghan Markle shared a carousel of recent photos on Instagram this week, she no doubt wanted to project an image of her family shedding the cares of recent months on a well-deserved European vacation. Instead, her pics summoned up the ghost of the Gauloises-smoking, wine-drinking, pinball-playing French philosopher Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007).
The central claim of this chin-stroking king of the media saturation age was set out in Simulacra and Simulation (1981), in which he argued that we have passed beyond the point of struggling to tell the real from its representation. The struggle is over. The simulation won. The copy, he said, no longer refers back to an original but has replaced it.
Baudrillard would have enjoyed Meghan’s Instagram feed, and this week’s pics of the family’s European summer vacation.
As The Royalist recalls it, this was a fraught period for the Sussexes. They were deep in life-defining security negotiations with the British state, a back-and-forth that threatened to make it impossible for them to travel to the U.K. for the rest of their lives.
Having a massive argument with the U.K. government while squinting at your phone under a parasol doesn’t sound like my idea of a great holiday. I was told by a source that Harry was close to tears on the phone. Meghan’s side told People magazine she was saddened by how it all unfolded. We hardly need their statements to work it out. Harry didn’t bring the children for much of the trip. This is not the usual description of an ideal family holiday.
Baudrillard would have given what I am contractually required to define as a “Gallic shrug” as that two-week break re-emerged, one Instagram post later, as a golden summer in which none of this ever happened. Here instead is a Meghan and Harry so relaxed, so ostentatiously at ease, that they eat dinner giggling against a stone wall, collapsing into each other’s arms. They visit a fish restaurant where the menu is chalked on a blackboard.
They swim. Harry hurls the children through the air with cheerful recklessness in a swimming pool. They process down an avenue of lime trees at Althorp clutching bouquets to lay on Diana’s grave, which seems a weird thing to post as part of your holiday content, but hey ho. “Then we went to a grave!” Even this somber task is sun-kissed and wonderful.
But for those of us who are not post-structural theorists, I suspect the truth is simpler; it just looks like a load of bulls–t.
You know the expression “living well is the best revenge”? That’s what is happening here. They’ve now spent days throwing tantrums because they didn’t break Harry and Meghan. The Sussexes’ revenge is that they had a lovely time in Europe for the most part, humiliation rituals notwithstanding. Tom Sykes is mad because Meghan didn’t post photos of Harry crying!! HOW DARE SHE! How dare she remind everyone that the Windsor Melodramas were only a small part of what was probably a month-long vacation.
Photos courtesy of Meghan’s Instagram.
They just need to eff off! How can anyone look at those pictures and grouse? That family is happy. Bless them. And any parent knows that no matter what horrible thing is going on in your life, you make sure your babies can never tell. They really did think that their pettiness was going to break them and are pissed it did not.
These people are miserable in their own lives, I’m looking at you Chuckles, his side chick, Prince Peggy Rosebush and his wife. Trying to make everyone else miserable, looking at you pathetic british press, attempting to ruin others lives, break up marriages and being racist has got to be the most vile yet tragic way to earn a living. Those poor schmucks, such a sad and empty life.
Sykes is enraged the scheming and plotting against the Sussexes landed in the dumpster. This couple is just living their best lives enjoying each other and their children. Using dead philosophers to try to make a point does not legitimize his argument. He played himself and is enraged that nothing he hoped and dreamed for this couple landed the way he hoped it would. He is one sick man.
Psycho Sykes has no doubt been smarting about folks catching on that he’s a rather unintelligent former (hopefully) addict who was actually kicked out of Eton for using and other stuff. So here he is trying to sound erudite (and failing miserably). Yikes.
“These pictures are all lies! I know, because the Sussexes spent the summer living rent-free in my head.”
Tom Sykes
These people want them to be crushed by the life threatening drama that the firm, Chuck and Peggy created and target the Sussex’s with.. it is truly twisted and very sinister.. no matter what photos anyone post including Meghan they only give people a glimpse into their lives never the entire story so why must Meghan be the only person on the planet that this is some horrible sin? From body language during years of public appearances I would bet my life that the Sussex house hold is as loving as the photo show, and that the Wales house hold is as abusive, hate filled and chaotic as the briefings the put out.. it’s why their photos always come across as staged and insincere.
Awww, did Sykes read a Wikipedia page? Baudrillard would have been also amused by Sykes and his attempts to overwrite reality with his own narrative.
All Psycho Sykes needed to sum up the Sussexes’ ability to keep things in perspective and overcome obstacles is the word ‘resilience’. And nobody close to Harry – indeed, someone who’d have to be actually with him at the time, lol! – would tell Sykes that he was ‘in tears’ on the phone. Utterly pathetic.
“Close to tears.” Not even crying, just potentially.
Omg how desperate and hateful do you have to be to reference a dead philosopher to write a fussy and ridiculous article about H&M??? Get over yourself moron – y’all lost the most charismatic team the BRF has in this generation by your own racist stupidity. Cope.
It was super pretentious wasn’t it? Quoting philosophers doesn’t make a person’s premise make sense if they personally lack logic.
And poor dead Baudrillard wasn’t even useful in this article – he was just filler to get to Sykes’ final sentence which was “blah, blah, blah, I call bullsh*t.” Very philosophical.
This feels like the people calling Russell Wilson corny for loving his wife and being a good father. Way more indicative of their own lives than a critique on the celebrity. Even if something isn’t your style or isn’t something that you would want for yourself, being bothered that someone is effusive in their love for their partner is weird. Even more bizarre to be upset that a family is happy deep down, despite other stuff that may be going on in their orbit.
He seems fanatically obsessed with the idea that they must be unhappy, and anything else is a lie. So does he believe it’s not possible to be happy and upset or frustrated about certain things at the same time? Does that mean that W&K are lying about not thinking about the Sussexes, because you can only have one emotion?
I knew that those photos were going to cause a meltdown but this stuff is just so stupid. Strangers are happy and you’re mad about it. Because your ” sources” told you differently. Sources that I’m sure is just your head canon about how miserable they must be, because you are.
These poor snowflakes in the rota are so mad. I’m not swanky enough to compare Tom Sykes to a French postmodernist, so instead I’ll stick with what I know best: Sykes is nothing more than a cranky, hungry toddler who blew through their nap time and is now throwing themselves on the floor in the grocery store and wailing helplessly. It’s a pitiful sight.
He doesn’t even really understand why he’s so upset, poor lad. Is it that Harry “hurled his children into the air recklessly”? Or maybe he was mad that the children didn’t join their father on his business trip (?). He’s raging about Meghan posting sunshine and laughter, and also he’s raging that she dated to post a photo showing the family bringing flowers to Diana’s grave. I’ll be honest, I didn’t even clock that, I just thought the family was out for a walk, but paying tribute to someone doesn’t have to be morbid or somber – maybe it could be joyful as well. Well, not for Tom Sykes, but for someone who can feel joy maybe it could be.
Well, if Psycho Sykes is upset at photo of the family on the grounds of Althorp, then just wait until he hears what the Windsors made Diana’s children do at her funereal. He will just plotz when he learns the Windsors made Diana’s children parade behind their mother’s casket in order to divert attention from their feeding their mother to the media wolf-pack, removing her security, and saying “Go get her!”
Soooo, humans contain multitudes. Harry and Meghan both could have been saddened about how things went down while also having a joyful time with each other and their kids. Both can be true. And really we don’t know that Harry ever was close to tears over it. And even if he was, why would Megan post that moment in a happy summer photo dump. Like be so fr.
Syko is really losing it … you can add all the dead French philosophers you want to your overwrought prose, but it’s still crap … or in this case, merde.
(They visited “a fish restaurant where the menu is chalked on a blackboard.” Mon dieu!)
The rota and royalists really, really hate that the Sussexes enjoyed a blissful visit to Althorp and that the Spencers gave them what the stingy, self-important, racist Windsors refused to provide: a holiday refuge.
Charles Spencer visible in the background behind Meghan is my favourite part. Another f u to KC.
Sykes needs to sniff around his own abode to find the bull***t.
He keeps saying that Harry is devastated and he’s mad that he doesn’t look it.
I was very happy to see the mostly positive comments on this article on the DB site. And they all were coming for Sykes.
Yeah, so this is actually worryingly alarming.
@Tuesday I am worried about Tom Sykes state of mind. Tom Sykes is crying because his and his mates from the RR and BM scheme to make Meghan’s and Harry’s lives miserable is not working. Tom Sykes needs an intervention and get some help.
You know what? I read that piece and sat here thinking, “what the f is he talking about”? I can only guess that he is trying to say that you can’t have a minor setback and easily get over it. Well, Harry and Meghan proved him wrong. Royalists are so bitter and angry all the time. Sykes is angry that they enjoyed their vacation. That is so pitiful.
LOL, they’ve been reduced to quoting FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS!! 😂😂😂
The headline could have just been “royalists are very upset about Duchess Meghan.” They dont like Harry either – they think he betrayed the Firm, betrayed his brother, etc. Whatever. But they really loathe Meghan and they hate that she is living her life with barely thinking about them anymore. as kaiser said living well really is the best revenge and Meghan knows that.
Do I think there were some stressful moments over the last month? Yes. Do I think Meghan was disappointed she couldn’t support Harry at the Invictus events? Yes. Do I think Meghan and Harry overall still had a wonderful July? Yes. Do I think Meghan knew these pictures would send the haters over the edge and she didn’t give a flying eff? Yes – and I love that for her, that she is just going to post her life and her moments and to hell with the haters.
Also Tom sykes is just off the rails here. He sounds like he’s foaming at the mouth with rage.
Aside from the hilarity (and it IS f*ing hilarious) this man sounds really delusional – he’s trying to postulate that Meghan living outside of the fetid bubble that is his own imagination is some form of distorted reality on her part -? There’s only one ‘reality’, Tom? And it’s yours? That’s the very definition of being unrealistic. He’s either a highly-paid flying monkey for spoiled baby William or he’s losing his personal grip on reality. Either way, they need to stop publishing his childish and silly paranoid ramblings. He knows absolutely nothing about Meghan or Harry, he’s just very aggressive with his haterade fantasies.
I mostly loved the one about how Meghan wearing a back one piece swimsuit was an insult to Diana. the person who wrote that spent thrice as much time staring at M’s ass as she did writing it.
I agree Syko is upset that they didn’t break Harry and Meghan. Plus, the photos contradict the narrative that Harry and Meghan are unhappy.
People are paying their bills off of outrage directed at the Sussexes. I saw one of the reports and thought that Meghan likes certain elements in her photos like Harry behind her or his arm behind her while she laughs at something off camera. I noted it as interesting. Otherwise, I couldn’t get worked up over them one way or another. I just couldn’t be bothered.
Bringing Baudrillard into this is absolutely unhinged.
Poor Tommy Yikes! The Sussex family had a lovely holiday in Europe and he just can’t stand it! There goes all those stories he’d pre-written before they even landed of Meghan in tears/cornered by paps/ etc. All wasted because they dared to have a good time and even worse the sun shone too!
All this fuss over a few Instagram photos about summer vacation. They really wanted Harry’s trip to be dominated by Windsor drama and the court case and it just didn’t turn out that way. Also Sykes has no idea what was happening behind the scenes with Meghan and the children. Her summer photos are not a newsreel.