I can’t believe how much time has been spent this week on discussing whether or not the Duchess of Sussex is a thunder-stealer extraordinaire for daring to be visibly pregnant at Princess Eugenie’s wedding. It’s clear to me at this point that Eugenie’s wedding rolled around when Meghan was passing the first trimester and her little bump was beginning to show. She and Harry told close family before the wedding, like Doria, Prince Charles, Prince William and the Queen. But everybody else? I’m assuming Meghan told other people at Eugenie’s wedding and that it wasn’t some big deal. But the media is trying to make the most out of the Miracle Meg: Thunder Stealer narrative.
The world heard the news of Meghan Markle’s pregnancy on Monday — but the royal family had a heads-up three days earlier. As the extended family gathered at Windsor Castle to celebrate the wedding of Prince Harry’s cousin, Princess Eugenie, the parents-to-be couldn’t hold back their excitement. Why use that occasion to spill the baby beans? “It was a happy family event, and that’s where happy news gets shared,” a close source tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story.
It’s likely they had already told Harry’s brother, Prince William, and father, Prince Charles, before the wedding. It is thought that Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland, was told in person when she attended the launch of her daughter’s charity cookbook last month. Insiders say that baby buzz, which had started slowly in late summer, was only getting louder and that the couple felt it would be too difficult to keep the pregnancy under wraps during their 16-day tour Down Under. By announcing the news before the tour, the couple has been free to talk openly about it — from accepting baby gifts to getting a sneak peek of what’s to come.
In retrospect, the timing of the announcement made perfect sense. I would even argue that announcing the pregnancy as soon as they touched down in Australia was a brilliant PR move for the British Commonwealth ties – this tour will be remembered not just as Harry and Meghan’s first big tour as a married couple, but also the tour with Meghan’s little baby bump, where Meg-Mania took hold in Oz. As for Eugenie’s stolen thunder… keep in mind that for most people, the day really was all about Eugenie. She got her wedding day to herself – no one besides close family knew about Meghan’s pregnancy until days later.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
It’s like suddenly the fact that Eugenie couldn’t get the BBC to even cover her wedding because of ‘low interest’ is completely forgotten. This narrative is ridiculous and you are absolutely right, there was no way to hide it.
*rolls eyes*
I think most of it makes sense and is understandable, like the announcement on the first day of their tour. I just don’t think that telling the majority of family and friends at the wedding (if that’s really how it went down) was very respectful. It’s not like her bump suddenly popped on the day of the wedding. If it was that big that it was impossible to hide (which it wasn’t), they could have made the public announcement earlier. Looking at what she wore, I still feel that she was deliberately trying to give off maternity vibes. I say that as someone who spent months trying to hide my own pregnancy so I didn’t lose a job. I know that it’s possible, just as much as some shapes highlight pregnancy. They didn’t steal any thunder publicly but in terms of guests, I’d bet a lot of talk was about them.
But that assumes that Meghan wanted to hide her pregnancy. They’re around their social circle and family. The major players already knew ahead of time, including the bride Eugenie. Harry and Meghan’s baby, while happy news, probably wasn’t all that noteworthy to the people there.
People can be simultaneously happy about two things; one doesn’t lessen the other. Family could have had a great time at Eugenie’s wedding AND congratulated the Sussex’s about the baby and been thrilled about the whole thing.
@Kerfuffle – that’s exactly what I mean. I don’t think she was trying to hide it. I think she wanted to tell people that day and for the rest of the world to speculate. The York sisters clearly come across as the underdogs, unable to compete with the popularity of Kate and Meghan. They must feel it, with the wedding being constantly compared to Meghan and Harrys. It’s like having your pretty and more popular cousin show up on your big day announce they’re also engaged. It shouldn’t pull focus but it does, regardless of whether close family already knew or not.
That is 100% speculation on your part, that has no actual evidence in reality. Not to mention, by your logic Meghan should have just stayed home entirely. To insinuate that someone needed to keep their pregnancy an absolute secret is weird. Eugenie had a lovely wedding that she seemed thrilled with. She is a junior member of the family, no matter which way you slice it, and yet still had the massive Windsor shindig.
I think it’s kind of weird that so many people seem to think that other people’s life events have to take a backseat to the bride’s. I knew when I got married that my wedding wasn’t as important to anyone else as it was to my husband and me, and I was fine with that. I don’t understand the “stealing of thunder” point of view in any capacity. Unless someone makes a huge, ridiculous scene or shows up dressed in full bridal regalia, there isn’t much that can truly “pull focus” from the bride and groom on their wedding day.
People get engaged, have babies, get promoted, graduate from school, and have a million other happy things that happen in the several months it takes to plan a wedding. Celebrating those in addition to the newlyweds is part of what makes a family a family. It’s not like there’s a limited supply of love and attention and one has to hoard all they can for themselves.
I’m a huge Meghan fan but I do see the problem here. That coat she wore was in the same style as a maternity one I wore. The way it’s buttoned makes it look like pregnancy wear. If she’d buttoned right up, I think it would have had a different effect on those rumours. She could have worn a loose fitting dress and not told extended family and friends until after the event. I don’t think she did it with any negative intention. She was probably just excited to tell everyone and show off her bump and normally I guess that wouldn’t matter but I guess when you know you’re as popular and as much of a big deal of Harry & Meghan, you know you’re going to become centre of attention. So I guess it’s not so much about stealing of thunder – sure people can share in the happy day – it’s more about being centre of attention. Again not everyone worries about that but I think out of respect, most people avoid big announcements like getting engaged or having babies on other people’s wedding days, unless they’re very close and everyone is ok. Even then, I’d be nervous.
Imagine attending a family wedding and NOT telling your family that didn’t know but ANNOUNCING it to the world Monday so your trip isn’t weird by strange speculation. How offended your family would be that you didn’t say anything until after everyone else knew. Noodles, you sound pressed.
Big families tend to have a lot of overlap in happy news. My cousin just got engaged this week and I found out today I’m pregnant. My due date, if everything goes well, is the same week they are hoping to get married at a four hour away destination. I’m letting them know just so they have all the information but it’s their day and I want them to make whatever decision they think is best for them. I feel badly that my happy news might affect their happy news right now but, big families can do that.
@Noodles in the minority here, but I totally agree with. It sounds like thats maybe not how it went down. But IF it did go down like that, I’d find it super tacky. I also agreed that Meg’s outfit at the wedding was totally giving off maternity vibes and didn’t even really look like the style of something she would normally wear. Then when she debuted the white dress in Sydney I couldn’t see any bump at all and was like “well dang she could have left well enough alone…” but in other photos (like the navy dress) she absolutely looks pregnant. So, she could have passed but I think it probably didn’t go down the way the media made it sound and I get that with them leaving for their tour why they announced it when they did.
This. No one (or very few people) cared about Eugenie’s wedding. There were no watch parties, no cheesy (but secretly good) lifetime movies, and hardly any broadcasting. In fact, I’m willing to bet that if they had announced the Polo Baby BEFORE Eug’s wedding it would have gotten more coverage.
People also conveniently ignored the shady comments from reporters and nasty articles that popped up throughout the 2 (or 3?) day extravaganza. The nature of the wedding was quickly starting to grate on the media and they would’ve fully moved on to H&M’s tour even without the pregnancy announcement.
Esp as it seems that there was an expectation that the press would cover all 3 days of ‘celebrations’. If they had just stuck to 1 day then I don’t think it would have gotten the snark it did but they went overboard and everyone could tell that it was all about the brides parents and their massive ego’s.
In a way, Eugenie’s LUCKY Harry and Meghan’s news has taken the focus off her wedding, because the extravagance of the occasion and multiple days of partying- and her guests posting ill-advised social media posts from said partying online- was getting a lot of people very angry. And it was making news headlines. This has taken the place of all of that, so she won’t feel the heat that she likely would have had that story really gathered steam.
word is she’s 4 months pregnant (tip off from someone who met her with her own baby on the Oz tour) so probably told all relevant family members a month ago…
Someone was saying the other day (on here) about it was sad because Meghan’s announcement killed the momentum from Eugenie’s wedding. Um, what momentum? She had her wedding, it was beautiful, lots of gushing, and then it was over. How much momentum is she supposed to get?
and I completely get why Meghan and Harry announced before the tour. Not only did it make the tour more exciting, but this way she’s not worried about an outfit maybe showing the bump or her lost waist (like the blue dress yesterday), when she misses those few events due to Zika concerns there isn’t going to be rampant speculation about whether she is pregnant or they are TTC, etc. Also, if she is super wiped out by the end and they have to juggle the schedule a bit, I think people will understand.
If she is around 12-15 weeks, announcing at this point just makes perfect sense.
That was me. I’ve never been quoted in a another comment before!
I didn’t meant monetary momentum, I just meant excitement. The wedding itself is over when the guest leave, but the air of excitement lingers. People talk about it, share pictures, share things on social media and in Eugeneie’s case they write articles about it. I’m not staunch York defenders, I think Andy is shady AF, but I think this was the most international press Eugenie will garner. The Sussex will have years and years of press.
After the day itself, the press (at least in the UK) that Eugenie’s wedding garnered was uniformly negative. It was a good thing for Eugenie that Meghan and Harry’s news took over (as their tour would have done anyway).
Tina – just curious, why negative? I thought she did a lovely job.
Yeah, I’d like to know why the press was negative. Did they think it was just too much? I thought it was lovely, although the guest list seemed excessive.
But I guess my thing is that the air of excitement still lingers. People are still excited when Eugenie shares a new wedding pic on IG. I am fairly ambivalent on the York princesses in general, and I really like Meghan, but I still think Eugenie’s wedding was lovely and well-executed and Eugenie looked super happy, and I’m happy for that, and I’m happy for Meghan. I imagine the same is true for people who actually know them.
There was a Times article on Sunday that was pretty brutal about the whole circus surrounding the wedding. KP sent their tweet Monday morning UK time and diverted the focus. There was not going to be any further momentum about Eugenie’s wedding beyond the day itself. Andrew should be thankful this happened because the Times was squarely pointing the finger at him for the ridiculous spending. The Epstein connection would have been raised again. As it was there were stories of wife abusing Chinese billionaires and Syrian arms dealers attending as guests.
Yeah, it was the expense. This is a time of uncertainty and austerity, and spending millions of taxpayer pounds on the wedding of a minor, non-working (I know she has a job but she’s not a working royal) was not a good look. (And nic919 is right, there were some mad dodgy wedding guests).
People keep saying the coverage of Eugenie was negative, but I saw almost uniform positive coverage of the wedding all weekend, in all the papers, the BBC and even the Daily Mail comments were very positive. People there hate Meghan, so of course, they used Eugenie to bash Meghan’s dress and lack of family there, and that they spent 10 times more on security than Eugenie, which is false, etc., but Eugenie seems to be well-loved in England and I thought the coverage was very positive.
In Canada, the CBC news I saw on the day of the wedding was negative in the sense that they spent all of the time explaining who Eugenie was and then the rest was devoted to whether or not the costs of the wedding were justifiable. The only interviews I saw were with British anti-monarchists. They were really questionning why anyone would pay for a minor royal who is not a working royal. Not great press in my books. The baby news really turned the ship around for the royal family.
Sunday Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/princess-eugenies-blowout-marriage-to-jack-brooksbank-needles-palace-dhb763j8w
The Times (different papers): https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/princess-yoojny-and-wotsisface-star-in-royal-wedding-ii-ns7kcv65b
Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/12/princess-eugenie-cut-perks-monarchy-magic
Express: https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1030842/Royal-wedding-2018-how-much-did-the-royal-wedding-cost-Princess-eugenie
If anything this pregnancy news has brought more attention to eugenie’s wedding after the fact.
The announcement was perfectly timed. Eugenie got the weekend to celebrate her wedding and other festivities and the Australian tour would have revealed Meghan’s pregnancy so they had to announce it when they did.
People need to stop all this complaining. The wedding took place on Friday and the announcement was done on Monday for goodness sake!
Amen!!!
Absolutely! The Monday picture of Meghan in the white dress, side view, accepting the toy kangaroo/baby Uggs – thicker midsection, fuller chest – it’s clear something’s going on, and will be more obvious by the time the visit ends in two weeks. “Is she or isn’t she” articles would be constant, and pull focus even more from the Invictus games and other events.
So there was a pretty small window to make this announcement, with the tour imminent. As far as letting family members know – discreetly – at the wedding, if that’s in fact what they did, it would be pretty obnoxious for family to find out via a public announcement, with the rest of the world, especially if they’d just seen Harry and Meghan at the wedding a few days before. And Harry and Meghan deserved a moment to enjoy the excitement of sharing news of their first child, privately. As far as the public was concerned, it was all about Eugenie and Jack (and Andrew and Fergie) and the wedding for a couple of months, right through the weekend celebrations. Actually the big wedding news could have been Pippa going in to labor…
Off to find pictures of Harry climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge…
I admit I’ve given very little thought to the York sisters in my life, but theirs is hardly a tragic tale, unless the lone measurement is that they garner less media attention than their cousins.
Exactly, I would hope they are not that shallow, and I don’t think that they are. I’m sure both sisters were happy for their cousin, whom they are close to. Their parents on the other hand, ugh.
I do agree that everything seemed well timed and not at all to take away anyones thunder. This particular group of royals seem grounded and supportive. Perhaps, Meghan and Harry (I don’t do titles with anyone) thought it was a good time to announce his wife’s pregnancy news as everyone was together… and it soon would be something that would start to show anyway.
It’s not as though they’d done it BEFOREhand and, clearly, the newlyweds appeared happy and caught up in their moment. As it should be.
Certain types of people tend to look for drama where none exists. Maybe it pays the bills, or, maybe, they’re bored.
I think the entire thing, from what I had seen, was stunning, loving and beautiful. I love “Fergie” as it is.
As a person in their 1st trimester of an unexpected pregnancy, believing I was not able to have any more kids (I have one), I can see myself breaking the news post a family gathering where everyone was in one place. I think it’s very tasteful and respectful.
Congratulations to both couples
Aww, Raina, congratulations to you, what happy news! 🎉 Wishing the best for your family.
I agree this generation do seem much more grounded than their parents, but some find drama wherever they can. Will and Harry have always seemed very close, and yet that doesn’t stop people from saying Will stole Diana’s ring from Harry rather than what’s most likely, that Harry gave big blue to Will for Kate. It’s always something. People like to stay caught up in the past and project their parents actions onto the younger generation regardless of what’s right in front of them.
“She and Harry told close family before the wedding”
BBC reported otherwise – that they told close family AT the wedding. Which is super thunder-stealing.
If we’re (rightly) going to go on about how bad it is to wear light yellow/possibly white to a wedding, announcing something like a pregnancy at a wedding is far worse in my book. And, I would have thought, far worse in all of yours if we took away who this relates to.
(It’s a shame though that it’s reported as “Meghan” stealing the thunder and not “Meghan and Harry”.)
I sincerely doubt Meghan and Harry casually told the Queen of England she was pregnant at a wedding. Same goes for Harry’s father and his brother.
So true. It’s all dependent on who it is around here.
I’m sure close family and friends knew prior to the wedding. Everyone else found out then-because it was getting announced on Monday. Should those people have just heard along with everyone else when Kensington Palace announced it? She clearly looks pregnant, so I’m sure they were ready to tell people. And I doubt Harry stood up at the reception to announce it.
Right? There were pages and pages and outraged comments about Kate wearing a light yellow dress. Of course, it’s rude to share the news even 2-3 days before. Why does that news need to be shared in person?
The two of them are starting to believe their own hype of being God’s gift to the royal family.
Wait, seriously? You think they should have texted the queen? lol okay.
Apparently they were supposed to send an email that included the directions “and NO ONE even talk about this at the wedding”
Folks are ridiculous.
“Sup Gran, totes knocked up Megs. C U @ E’s wedding”
Sure, because you would tell your parents you were pregnant via e-mail. That’s the way everyone shares exciting news.
Actually, quiet, there were many, many threads talking about the dress being yellow, looking yellow, and how great Kate looked only a few weeks after giving birth. You must be referring to another site.
According to royal rules the Queen is notified first. Most of these rules are for the first 7 or 8th in line of the thrown so Harry is sixth now so yes he would have to tell her first. I’m calling BS on most of this story. This is why we had the nice little announcement from Kensington Palace, and it is all orchestrated by the Queen. The negative comments are just people wanting to b&*(ch on Meghan or Eugenie, depending on their point of view. I don’t think either was upset. Seems Eugenie had a fun and extravagant wedding weekend and Meghan will have a baby. All is well.
Maybe BBC was the not informed and not the other way around in re: to how it went down.
I can’t imagine someone stopping the ceremony to announce this pregnancy. It was probably afterward, it was also probable that it was leaked.
Timing has a way of being confusing via grapevine.
Did anyone actually read the announcement? It said that the Queen, Prince Philip, Charles, William, and Kate were able to congratulate them in person at the wedding. That means that they already knew but hadn’t yet seen them personally since finding out. People misunderstood the announcement to mean that they told everyone at the wedding which wasn’t how it happened.
I’m a huge Meg fan but I hope she and Harry asked the bride first if it was okay to announce to family at the event. It’s just courtesy. I wouldn’t announce a pregnancy on someone else’s wedding day, it’s about the bride and groom that day, and no one else.
I have a feeling it was not an “announcement” in front of the group but more like said in casual conversation with various people. That would totally not steal any thunder from Eugenie and Jack.
I mean-when else was she supposed to ‘time’ the announcement? Before the wedding-stealing thunder. During wedding-stealing thunder. After wedding-stealing thunder. First day of tour-stealing thunder. During tour-stealing thunder. After tour-WHY DIDN’T SHE SAY SOMETHING?
Jeezus. They can’t win. They told close family-and then people found out at the wedding because it was obvious. That doesn’t take anything away from Eugenia’s big media day.
I have a problem with the word “announcement”. That indicates, to me, that they got in front of the whole reception and told people she was pregnant. It wasn’t an announcement until Monday.
YES! Aunt Anne asks what’s new. “Meghan and I are expecting!” “That’s WONDERFUL! Congrats!”
Boom. That’s them telling family at the wedding. Harry didn’t grab the mic away from anyone giving a speech and announce it during toasts.
Yes exactly. I think it went down just as Molly says. People in their inner circle (Her Majesty and Prince Philip, William and Kate, Doria) were told earlier and in private. At Eugenie’s wedding, people in the more extended family, like Anne and Edward and Sophie and Zara and whoever else, were given the news in private or group conversations. Some of them probably asked and Harry and Meghan decided they wouldn’t keep it a secret anymore. And the news traveled. They’d always planned to announce on the Monday before the Commonwealth tour anyway, so it was nice they could tell the larger family in person about it at a nice family event.
And these kinds of occasions are where everyone catches up. So hearing about a pregnancy would be totally normal. It’s possible to congratulate someone without ever losing sight of the reason you’re at a wedding. I doubt anyone is that single minded.
Eugene also had a second day of parties and ‘coverage’, correct? Some kind of fair thrown by Sarah where Eugene wore a custom motorcycle jacket. One of the guests said it was very ’diverse’, though I haven’t seem an explanation of what she meant by that!
Someone shows up to a social function where the champagne is flowing and chooses to abstain, and has a little bump – it doesn’t take a detective to figure out that Meghan was pregnant at the wedding. Nor was it something that she needed to hide. Unless she stood up at the microphone and made an announcement, that’s not stealing thunder. The reception would have been filled with people in their social circle and family, who wouldn’t have been breathlessly excited about the news. It would have just been regular nice news.
Sorry my definition of stealing the bride’s thunder is if Meghan grabbed the mic at Eugenie’s reception or they announced the baby news on Thursday or Friday or she wore an outfit to the wedding with blinking lights and signs saying she’s pregnant.
😂😂😂. Picturing MM grabbing a mic.
“I’m knocked up, bitches!”
LOL!!
@Alexandria and @minx omg, you made me laugh so hard. Glad I wasn’t drinking anything. Due to working, and in places without access to social media or internet, I didn’t know it was becoming an even bigger thing. Probably in proportion to how successful and amazing the tour is and how they’ve been received. Bots and trumpets have their heads spinning, I’m sure. Oh well. It is what it is and I’m very happy for them and I’m low-key obsessed with seeing everything from the tour. I think I’ll stay in the kid and Daphne section for this tour. I don’t need to be in the too cool seating, cynically dissecting clothes and manners and status.
This is ridic. Women get pregnant all the time and those pregnancies last for almost an entire year. You can’t plan your life around a one day wedding. This bugs me because I was pregnant with my first when my brother was engaged. He was engaged for about a year and a half. His fiancee was super mean to me about it the whole time because how dare I not put my life on hold until her wedding was over. She accused me of stealing thunder. My baby was born 5 weeks before the wedding and there was all kinds of nastiness over whether I should drop out of the wedding if my bridesmaid dress did not fit etc. The wedding came and went. My brother’s wife never got over it and never spoke to me after I “stole her thunder”. They are no longer married, because she was unreasonable about many things including that. Babies and weddings are happy life events. If someone is pregnant or engaged or a new parent at your wedding, just say best wishes all around and move on. No thunder stolen.
My matron of honor was 7 months pregnant when I got married. I was happy that she was willing to be my matron of honor. I don’t understand why this is such a big deal to people, especially anyone who had no investment in the wedding.
I don’t get it either. I just can’t imagine being so self important. I can’t imagine not being happy about another family members joyful news, it’s bizarre. It says a lot more about the people insisting thunder was stolen than it does about the couple who were simply sharing good news at a Family function.
Steen, your ex-sister in law sounds like an awful person. Talk about bridezilla, your brother is so much better off without her.
If she told guests during wedding then why nothing in the press about the pregnancy before the official announcement. Only after Monday twitter then Megan distractors condemned her for hijacking the wedding. Besides should at the wedding, people can only talk about the bride and nothing else?.
Also YES! You can expect the BRF to keep things on lock down, but if there was some thunder-stealing “announcement” at a reception with 800 people, it totally would have leaked.
And there were tons of social media posts from the guests at the wedding. There’s no way this went very public because it would have been referenced since many other things relating to the wedding were.
There was even a woman taking a selfie in the background of one of the reception pics. No one was discreet except obviously the family members who were told.
Not crazy about the idea of them telling people at the wedding, but their Monday announcement was more than okay. All this fuss about them announcing it a couple of days after the wedding as though it’s some kind of insult to Eugenie is absurd.
She got weeks of attention and media coverage in the lead up to her wedding. How much more does she need? Eugenie just isn’t that important to the general public, and she doesn’t need weeks of post-wedding coverage. It’s like grown women who talk about their “birthday week.” No. You get a day.
There’s no way she could have completed this tour without an announcement. She has a bump. Her breasts are bigger. People just want a reason to hate on her and Eugenie’s wedding is it, as if Eugenie wasn’t the center of attention on Friday-Sunday.
Oh geez, this again?!
So many just enjoy projecting their own pettiness. It was a happy day for all. Move on.
Yes, a lot of projection going on here. Current petty Bettys, and future Bridezillas everywhere.
I mean I would never ever in a hundred years announce my pregnancy at someone’s wedding even if they told me I could! That’s just me though. Maybe people already ‘knew’ and it was just at the wedding they were talking about it openly? Who knows, I wasn’t there. Lol
It sounds like that’s what it was. The major players knew ahead of time, including the bride, but likely this was how more ancillary members of the family/social circle found out.
Who the god damn hell cares?
I was 15 weeks pregnant at my SIL’s wedding and we told people at the rehearsal dinner (the night before), because the extended family would figure it out when I toasted with water and once they saw me in my much more fitted dress. (compared to loose t-shirts) . We had told our immediate family a few weeks prior. It was nice because no one was offering me alcoholic drinks, but rather a place to sit and and being understanding that I was feeling exhausted and not busting a move on the dance floor.
@ HeyThere, that was my supposition! A handful of close Royals knew about the pregnancy and it became a bit of the buzz at the wedding. Were it me I would’ve tried to keep it on the down low ( knowing how some brides can be, because I would’ve taken the news as an Xtra reason to add to the celebration ) but the news took on a life of it own. The reactions of Eugenie and family comes across as pettiness now and that’s not a good look…
Has Eugenie said something? I was under the impression that it was her parents doing all the howling.
I don’t think their is any animosity between Eugenie and the sussexes. She even liked a picture of Meghan on insta to stop the chatter about the fake wedding news scenario produced by the dailyfail.
This ^^^^
Harry is rather close to Eugenie, he wouldn’t do anything to upset her. This narrative against Meghan and Harry bugs me.
While we are on the topic, why did Eugenie and Brooks delay their wedding? Not because of Meghan and Harry. It was because Dave Clark dumped Beatrice after 10 years of dating at the time. Remember, they all had to down play the engagement and say, ‘no, no they are not engaged, not yet’ when most likely they were. I believe Eugenie and Brooks became engaged and that is when Beatrice confronted Dave about their status and he had to confess he had no intentions of marrying her, and so they finally split up. The DM ran many stories on Beatrice and she garnered public sympathy. I believe Fergie, Andrew and Eugenie all agreed it would only prolong those sad stories for Beatrice so just put it off.
No, it was because of Harry and Meghan’s weddding. Since meghan is older and Harry is higher in line, I’m sure the decision was made to allow them to get married earlier. Which happy bride would want to postpone her wedding?
To prevent adding to her sister’s pain? I would imagine there is more than a few.
I was unaware of the timing of Beatrice’s breakup but this makes sense. Eugenie would be sensitive to what Beatrice was going through.
Thanks Nic, I believe Eugenie would protect Beatrice too.
Not sure why I kept calling Jack “Brooks” above, other than I watch RHOC and was just reading an article on Vicki and her ex Brooks. I realize his last name is Brooksbank – ha
This whole pregnancy announcement has really shook some meghan haters to their core to the point where there has been three article already stated over and over that meghan and harry didn’t announced any thing at Eugenie wedding. Seniors royal were already aware of meghan pregnancy their this pregnancy has shook their tumbler conspiracy theory about meghan and they can’t handle it so instead of letting this go their double down hard on this nonstory and lashing out any one who dares tells them their wrong. To me this whole meghan stole Eugenie thunder was just a excuses to say every vicious petty insults they want to said about meghan its was never about eugiene it was about tear down meghan and using Eugenie and her wedding as the reason. They use the wedding as a guise of saying well meghan supposed did this so I’m just going to call her every nasty names in book because I already have some bias toward her anyway. I haven’t see this much hatred toward meghan since they announced their engagement its ridiculous that a pregnancy announced has turned into a conspiracy theories of meghan stealing a bride thunder when the bride her self had a three day wedding with a Carnival media attention how much more attention should eugenie have gotten.
Like you said Vanessa, it’s not about Eugenie. It’s about what they perceive as the perfect opportunity to destroy Meghan, and use every foul invective they can find to do it. They are delighting in it.
Have you been on a Kate article? Her HEIGHT was accused of stealing meghan’s thunder at TOTC. There is weird hatred from everyone about everyone. Just par for the course for royal ladies it seems. Ugh.
As her pregnancy progresses the jealous hatred will intensify. People will say that the pregnancy is fake and all of that stuff. These racist nutters will go completely insane once the baby is born. Thankfully we know that these people are a small vocal minority encouraged by the media who make money out of bad gossip sensation, rather than nice stories.
Please someone let me know if we find out that Harry made an announcement as part of the toasts. That’s the only way you’re going to get me to agree this was some kind of thunder stealing faux pas.
The most likely and reasonable scenario is that close family was told just prior to the wedding and then people congratulated them in person during the reception.
As for looking or not looking pregnant, how our bellies look can change throughout the day, the week, with the garment, how much we eat or drink, sitting or standing, or the angle. And this says nothing of the small gestures one makes without thinking.
Good money says that in person miss ma’am looked pregnant and/or that people heard or overheard.
And this confirmation on Monday at the start of the tour means that the discussion surrounding Eugenie’s wedding pics can be on Eugenie and not an is she or isn’t she search for Meghan sightings.
I love Meghan as a general rule, and I don’t think there was anything “thunder stealing” about the official announcement, but I do think it’s a bit unkind to announce to friends/family at the wedding or reception itself. If people notice that she’s pregnant or speculate about it, fine, there’s no helping it, but making the wedding the big occasion where you tell most of your friends/family for the first time is a misstep IMO. I understand why she would want to share the good news, and I don’t think it makes her terrible or anything, but I think it would have been more generous to not bring it up at the wedding and, if asked why she’s not drinking or whatever, to just smile and say it’s Eugenie’s day and we’ll talk about it later. People would still get that she’s pregnant but unless one of them was OTT about it the focus would’ve stayed on Eugenie. They could have made the calls to the Queen or whoever the next day. I don’t think they are required to put their whole lives on hold, but not announcing it literally during the wedding would be better. Just my 2 cents.
The Queen and senior royals already knew. They just congratulated them at the wedding.
Not according to the BBC: “The Queen and other senior royals were told about the pregnancy on Friday, when members of the Royal Family gathered in Windsor for Princess Eugenie’s wedding.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45861683
But, Chisey, that quote you provided doesn’t specifically say they were told AT the wedding reception itself.
“…gathered in Windsor (for the wedding)” could mean at breakfast that morning, or some other time before the actual wedding reception. Maybe they all got together for breakfast or something before heading to the chapel and H&M made the announcement then.
They were in a difficult position. Wasn’t it also considerate of them to let family know prior to the official, public announcement, scheduled for the following day, due to the tour?
Eugenie strikes me as a lovely young lady, who can share in other people’s happiness without feeling bereft. Her father, on the other hand. . . . .
Good GOD does this story NEVER end? Do people REALLY think that if they had announced this at the wedding reception, it would have stayed quiet? This wedding had SO many leaks from the guests (pictures, etc) even more than Harry and Meghan’s. The family knew ahead of time, that much is pretty damn clear. Especially since various reports have come out that they only attended part of the afternoon reception and none of the evening one. Camilla wasn’t even at the wedding so how could they have told ALL the senior royals at the wedding?
What is more, this tour is a massive undertaking, perhaps one of the biggest royal tours in recent times. That means coordination between multiple foreign governments, the UK, Kensington, Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. No way the Queen, Charles, their staffs and the senior government officials in charge of the trip did not know. And Harry’s best friend is William, no way William and Catherine didn’t know.
And why all this attention on how awful Meghan supposedly is for telling folks at the wedding? Eugenie is HARRY’S cousin who he is extremely close to. So why do folks only fault Meghan?
They only fault Meghan because they don’t like her this whole pregnancy has turn into a three day investigation With people throwing out allegations against Meghan .
Because they “hate” her and hoped she would not be able to “conceive.”
i dont thinkk that eugenie wd be that bothered but andrew and sarah certainly were – they kept posting pics of the wedding very pointedly esp when the pregnanncy announceemnt happened
Meg is not showing, she looks like a normal person-she does not have a bump yet. it was not impossible to keep her pregnancy news to herself until after the wedding. taking out the fame aspect of this, if I was getting married and learned even the day before or at the reception the day of that a guest was telling everyone they were pregnant-i’d be pissed, wouldn’t you? this is my and my partners day, you can’t take a backseat on this day? you couldn’t call everyone the day or two after to say hey, we’re expecting, wanted to wait so you could have your day as you deserve.
No, she is clearly showing and her bump is quite visible in the dresses she’s worn on the royal tour so far. There was already an increase in “is she or isn’t she?” speculation well before the wedding. She wouldn’t have been able to hide it any longer.
Why is all the blame being point at Meghan you guys are acting as if she jump on stage at the reception and announce her pregnancy to all the guests. When it’s been said over and over again some of the senior royal knew already why are some people so obsessed with attention you guys are acting like those sweet sixteen girls on mtv with their parties and all the attention has to be on them. Eugenie had months of attention from the wedding and then a three day party I doubt she is upset as someone guys are getting over this supposed faux pas how selfish are some guys that a news of baby would upset you on your wedding day that you guys would been upset at loved one. I thought a wedding is supposed to be celebrating life with loved ones not a attention seeker event where all the attention has to be on the bride at the times.
My sister-in-law announced her pregnancy at my wedding. I thought it was great news and took it as a good-luck-fertility sign sort of a thing.
My relationship with my husband is private, but the vows were public, and I wanted to share the happiness with everyone. More good news is even better.
E is the second child of a second child. She invited famous people as guests. She knew she’d be overshadowed at the reception. M’s pregnancy is the least of it.
You sound like a wonderful person. I, however, would have drowned my sister-in-law in the punchbowl after calling the Priest to watch.
No. Because that’s weird.
No, I wouldn’t be upset if someone in my family had good news, especially at my wedding, which is a family event. But I’m not starved for attention, or petty.
All this fake outrage is actually done to hide how much the haters are pressed by Meghan’s pregnancy. Until a week ago they almost insinuated that Meghan and Harry wouldn’t have had children (I have read several comments on twitter) and instead … bump Meghan is pregnant. This is a very bad thing.
The IVF advice provided here was also enlightening. Lots of gynaecologists who apparently post on CB.
HEE! 😀
She’s showing, if she hadn’t told, it would have been fodder for gossip, sheesh
What kind of bridezilla cares if a guest tells people they’re pregnant at a wedding? I just don’t get it.
I am by no means a crazy Meghan Stan but I don’t think you can really fault her for telling people she’s pregnant as and when SHE chooses. I went the other way with my first pregnancy and didn’t tell anyone (inc work) until I was 25w as for some reason didn’t want to cause a fuss – I look back on it now and just think how ridiculous. She’s pregnant, one way or another that baby is coming out in the spring, what does it matter when you tell people?!
When i saw MM in the black jeans, white button down and oversized blazer my first thought was huh, they could have waited to announce the pg if they wanted. But then I thought. I guess they didn’t want to! It’s their choice imo. They are surely thrilled. Best wishes for her pg and their long marriage. I was annoyed about Eugenie from the beginning. No reason for her to have that huge wedding. Perhaps QE insisted on seeing her lovely gd get a great wedding, but thinking about her own wedding, I sort of doubt it……
I may have my facts wrong, but it’s my understanding that there was early concern that Meghan might have to excuse herself from some of their scheduled engagements, due to morning sickness/health concerns.
The timing of the announcement was likely influenced by a perceived need to manage expectations.
I understand that she announced it before the tour but let’s be honest…there is no bump. It is hilarious to me that this is supposed to be “showing” – I am currently pregnant and also very slim and at 12, 13 weeks you just not show…the baby is soo tiny…bloated maybe yes, but no baby bump. Things start to get more visible around 16 weeks….by the time you need to shop for maternity clothes you are “showing”…but before…no.
So, your pregnancy experience dictates how every other woman on the planet will show or feel or when they’ll need/want to start wearing maternity clothes? In a lot of people’s opinions, she has a pretty clear baby belly in the tour pictures so far, not to mention her bust looking bigger. And, we’re only on day 3…it may be a lot more obvious by the end of the tour.
There is also some speculation that she is further along than 12 weeks – maybe she is more like 15-16 weeks. The announcement only stated that she has had her 12 week scan, it didn’t say when. I’m guessing that she had the scan when Doria was there for the Together launch. If that’s the case (3 weeks ago) then she would be 15 weeks now.
Right on, royalwatcher!
What Upstate Diva said. Thanks @royalwatcher.
She looks pregnant for her….
I definitely see a bump when she is photographed from the side.
Did anyone even really care that much about Eugenie in the first place? Not in America, anyway. Team Megan.
Clearly, Americans don’t care enough. Cos it’s Meghan not Megan. And Europe loves royal weddings. We all have or had royal families. Team York sisters were always supportive of Harry.
Today is my wedding anniversary, 15 years.
Looking back, if someone had shared this sort of news at my wedding, I’d have been thrilled to bits, happy to have a connection with the baby forever.
We don’t know if she asked Eugenie first. We don’t know if Eugenie was upset (no sign she was).
All we know is that Meghan and Harry are all smiles, and Eugenie and Jack are all smiles. Everything else is projection.
Congratulations!!! This is a huge achievement.
I agree with Kaiser’s presumption about M&H’s announcement.
As Meghan would put it the rest is just ‘noise.’
Today is my niece’s wedding; tonight it’s the reception. There’ll be family from all over the place attending. Some of the nieces and nephews I haven’t seen since Christmas (some maybe even longer). One of my sisters lives a fair distance away and I don’t see her all that often either. I’m looking forward to having a good catch-up with all of them and finding out all the latest news. If I get a text on Monday telling me about an engagement or a pregnancy or any other family news, I’ll be all: Why didn’t you tell me *IN PERSON* at the wedding when I was *RIGHT THERE*? It’s a family event and that’s the time for sharing family news. And I know my getting-married-niece would be as thrilled by any such news as anyone else. We’re family! We love each other! Honestly, the whole idea of “stealing thunder” is just absurd to me.
To me the conflict aspect was speculated on when they made the announcement AFTER the wedding and Fergie started sharing pictures presumably to steer the topic back to Eugenie’s wedding. Which doesn’t really make sense to me, because the wedding had already passed when they let the cat out of the bag. I dont understand what the big deal is, why cant the family just share 2 blessed events without it being an ordeal? Does one really have to be more important and notable than other? Cant the family just be double lucky?
I think and pray everything will work out for them. But I keep feeling a little bad for them and her, she’s so tiny she could have wanted to keep it undercover. It’s nerve racking at 37 or any age . Again no harm but I had a mc at 12 weeks and I have had friends who had them at 24 weeks.
Again I think it will all work out but I truly feel bad if she carries that fear and has too be so public.
Why would it be Megan that announced the news (). Why wouldn’t it be Harry. Oh wait…