People really have fallen for their spin and sob stories.

The racists are horrid to us.
The royal family are horrid to us.
The Markles are horrid to us.
The press are horrid to us.
The news programmes are horrid to us.
The royal correspondents are horrid to us.

:bawling:

:joker:

People make their own decisions on them based on the information available to them just the same way you do. That doesnt mean they have 'fallen' for anything it just means they have came to a different conclusion it also doesn't mean that the opinion you have is superior in anyway.

I intend to abide by Harry and Meghan's wishes and ignore them completely. I don't care about them or anything to do with them. If nobody pays them any attention maybe they'll stop trying to manipulate the press into making them a headline every day.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...duchess-sussex

Montecito: the super-wealthy enclave Harry and Meghan now call home


There are moments, as you make the 90-minute drive up the coast from Los Angeles to Montecito, where Prince Harry and Meghan have set up their new home, when you can almost imagine you are heading into an unspoilt wilderness.
The mini-malls, car dealerships and fast-food joints give way, first, to jagged mountainscapes and plunging canyons. Then, after another stretch of asphalt and commercial activity where the mountains meet the Pacific, comes a deliriously unspoiled stretch of coastline, with pristine beaches to the left and the foothills of the Los Padres national forest to the right.

Then comes Montecito. It is indubitably a retreat, not a town in any recognisable sense but a cluster of narrow lanes that wind up from the coast through lush stands of eucalyptus and juniper towards a popular hot spring in the hills. It has a gas station but no chain stores – only a couple of small commercial strips known as the Upper and Lower Village.

What it does have is an extraordinary concentration of wealth and celebrity. This is home to Oprah Winfrey (she calls her sprawling estate “the promised land”), Ellen DeGeneres, Ariana Grande, Gwyneth Paltrow and a broad sprinkling of the US’s super-rich whose multimillion-dollar estates stud the hillsides and, occasionally, raise local eyebrows because of their sheer, unabashed extravagance.....

.....The spread that local real estate mavens say the couple has bought includes nine bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a guest house, a teahouse, a tennis court, a swimming pool and a custom jungle gym for the kids. Known as “Chateau at Riven Rock”, it is accessible only along a gated private driveway whose sign warns passersby to stay well away unless they have permission to pass....

There is, of course, a darker side – the noir behind the sunshine. All those wealthy homeowners cling jealously to what they have and are unafraid to use their money and their power to stare down anyone – local elected officials or local newspaper columnists, usually – who dares to suggest they should make room for more affordable housing, or are consuming more than their fair share of California’s desperately short water supply.....

------------------------

Landed where they wanted at last (or Meghan wanted anyway) while Wills and Kate slog away at home taking on the extra workload they fled from in an already heavy schedule.
Watched 'William and Kate: Too good to be true?' last night. Nearly 300 engagements a year, plus their charities and patronages to keep up with - and 3 kids to bring up. All done with dignity and without complaint - but then those are not seen as desirable qualities these days by the public - thankfully a minority though!

Well I hope they are happy....she will be like a pig in ****....I don’t think he will as time goes on.

...I’ve been watching all of the Royal documentaries over the last few weeks as well...I can’t think that anyone sees William and Kate as not having ‘desirable qualities’...their Royal role has always been quite different though to that of Harry and Meghan....there are two Royal brothers and the Royal role fitted one, but not the other, because one size doesn’t fit all, even with Royal princes, it would seem...it was interesting to see that Harry has always been quite protective with the ladies in his life and how the media was impacting them...that was mentioned and I think it was Chelsy Davy in particular who was mentioned and how he had always had concern for her also, with the media intrusions ...he really does seem to have had a very uneasy relationship with media intrusion through his life...

It's probably to be expected when it's killed your mum. What's happening right now must literally be his worst nightmares coming true.

A drunk driver going to fast and the fact she was not wearing a seatbelt killed his mum.

If she had her seat belt on she would still be alive.

you would have thought he would have the sense to be more low key then wouldn't you, as a man in his 30s he seems to have very little in the way of common sense, its like he wants what he wants but only on his terms, that is not how the world works for people like him

...yeah for sure, the documentaries have really shown for me how protective Harry must have been feeling for Meghan ...maybe overly so, who knows...?...but I do feel that he’s been very active in driving their decisions...


...just off topic...but staying with ‘Royal and Royal duty’ type stuff..?..Royal families are strange breeds, I watched the documentary about Princess Grace of Monaco, who was very unhappy in her marriage...(...and also who died in a car accident, as you know...)...and she had many affairs..(allegedly...)...but she was told at the time of marrying him, if they had children and she ever divorced him for whatever reason....she would never see her children again....

if they had messed up one time and rectified it no-one would care less, but its been a catalog of issues with no lessons learnt. They don't need to work, they are already financially independent (how else could they afford 22 million on a house) So there is nothing stopping them disappearing from the public eye if they really wanted to. The issue is that they want to remain high profile but want people to be obsequious toward them and that's not going to happen

Exactly.
I can take on board how still haunted he must be by that.
No matter the circumstances, and it was in part involving trying to avoid rabid photographers too as to what helped lead to his Mother's life being lost.

No matter who you are or your status,losing a parent so tragically would leave scars on anyone.

His Mother did ask for the press to ease off.
His wife finding the same thing hard must have triggered his concerns too.

There's times I quite like being photographed for instance, then times I don't.
I can feel quite irritated if a photo is taken of me when I don't want it to be.

A good point TS.

...well the utility bills on that place are going to be pretty high so I expect keeping that high profile will earn some pennies ...it’ll all be more their choices though....great to be masters and mistresses of our own lives...

Keeping a high profile by jumping on the racism bandwagon.

To pay for his millionaire life style.

Ah, racism is a bandwagon now and not a serious societal issue in which Meghan can speak freely about because she is in fact, mixed race and has likely faced racism all her life (not least of all from the British public and media).

Diana, Fergie and Kate had paparazzi literally following them, crowding round them, flashbulbs going off in their faces when they were going about their daily life when news broke of their relationships. They had no protection from the palace.
Even after their engagement and marriage, and with security, the paps were always hanging about waiting for their photo op. That doesn’t happen anymore, Diana’s death stopped all that.

Meghan was the most protected bride to be ever and there has never, not once, been a paparazzi shot of her, before or after her marriage in the UK.

Their litany of bad decisions, petulance, selfishness and wanting a relevance way beyond their importance draws criticism of them - and they see every deserved criticism as victimisation of one sort or another. They don’t seem to have any self - awareness at all. Nothing is ever their fault. I’ve never seen a couple so paranoid and wrapped up in themselves. If its a nightmare, it is largely of their own making.

Yes Harry was concerned about racism before he met Meghan when he had to apologise while in training for referring to one of his fellow cadets as our little ****

Great person to be talking about racism, not

Harry and Meghans plan to pay for their lifestyle is to live of the back of other people’s money in the name of charity.

Like charity muggers on the streets harassing people for donations while getting paid 10 pound an hour.

People can learn from their mistakes and grow, shockingly enough.

Are you still the same person from when you were young? I'd hope not since that would mean you never learned from your mistakes. People should always be changing and learning, to remain the same is to never learn.

So, they're too rich to suffer any kind of hardship and any act of charity is instantly deemed as them being branded as 'muggers'.

Do you think, if you truly look at what you are saying, that you might sound just a touch irrational?

So true Jet....not once did you see Meghan surrounded at arms length by photographers. Never was she chased down the street.
I think the book has really shown us their desire for only positive press...anything else won’t be tolerated.

...it was mentioned in the documentaries that the media’s interest was very much focused on Harry and Meghan, to the point that it could cause jealousy from other Royals...social media and the toxicity from that..(...which obviously is the basis of the thread OP...)...is also a more modern day thing but which adds substantially...Meghan in particular, more so than Harry has been fairly media blasted with a negative slant...it was early days when the media started to paint Meghan’s villain...she was a Suits actress, not really an A lister even...and she was older than our ‘Arry, I mean, what even was her financial status...was she after the Royal purse...and then there was her ethnicity, she was an ‘exotic lady’ and she was an American...she wore trousers and the media headlines would run...’look who wears the trousers with Harry and Meghan..’.... when Kate wore a one-shoulder gown to an event, she was declared a “true princess” and “vision in white”, when Meghan did the same, the press branded her “vulgar”...Meghan’s nail polish colour was an in appropriate colour...Meghan ate an Avocado and she was supporting drought and murder...she was criticised for putting her hand on her pregnant tummy...and on and on...


....eventually they told the media to sod off and they’re trying to build a life/a career, more on their own terms and feeling more control that they’ve felt in the past...and for Harry, it’s been his whole life, so must have been a very difficult decision...(...for both of them...)...they’re now being vilified for leaving, obviously...they really never quite win, it was always lose/lose so far as the media were concerned...and that’s probably the way it will always be and maybe they’re naive to think otherwise....but at least they’re doing it their way which should afford some control to help create a balance that has been absent from the media...

Excellent post Ammi.

Nice to read more reasoned points.
I doubt they'll find the real peace they wanted.

Because the media will always seek them out to build or develop some controversy.

While there's people who are so determined to follow an agenda, that Harry shouldn't have married her and that in their view she was wrong for him and the Royal family too.

I just cannot go down a road of negativity towards one Woman or the Man who married her.
When they are people I don't know, never will know really.
Also those firing on all cylinders against her particularly, don't know them and never will know them either.