I have a limited trust of royal reporter Katie Nicholl. I’m not going to always 100% believe that her articles are the complete truth of the royal situation, but I believe that she has deep sourcing in the Middleton camp especially, and she has significant sources in various palaces and communications offices. As such, I find Nicholl’s takes on various stories valuable, because of her pro-Middleton slant, we know the objectives and we can extrapolate as to what the Cambridges/Middletons are trying to do. In an article last week about Meghan and Kate’s similar color schemes on their separate appearances, Nicholl talked a bit about how Kate and Meghan were likely not coordinating with each other on purpose. Nicholl also wrote this:
According to Palace sources, there have been early-stage talks about how the two separate households will operate, though it is not expected that any change will take place immediately. In the meantime, the four will continue to focus on their chosen initiatives and it seems that they are being mindful of stepping on toes. Aides will want the spotlight to be on Kate in the new year, when she launches a new campaign to help disadvantaged children in Britain. The duchess wants to see initiatives launched that will help families tackle anti-social behavior, addiction, and mental health. Meanwhile, Meghan has told aides she wants to work as close to her due date next spring as possible, and she is expected to announce a collaboration with at least one more charity by the end of the year.
Just a little speculation – Kensington Palace aides want the next few months to be about Kate and her “children of Broken Britain” initiative, and it seems those aides have tried to tell Meghan that this is “Kate’s time,” and Meghan has basically shrugged and told them that she’ll be working consistently too, and she’ll be announcing something big as well. Which might explain this weekend’s hissy fit and smear campaign from Camp Cambridge. Nicholl followed up on the British tabloids’ smear campaign in another article. Most of this piece is just a rehash of other stories, and Nicholl argues that Harry – not Meghan – is the one driving the split between the Cambridges and Sussexes. Nicholl’s sources say that while Kate and Meg don’t see eye to eye, “they have made an effort to get along” and “Any issues are between the brothers.” Here’s the new info:
Once known as “Team Wales,” the brothers’ lives are now moving in different directions. Sources say that Harry wants to embark on a new life of royal duties with Meghan, which will be different from the work the Cambridges plan to carry out. While William will one day be Prince of Wales, Harry will have a very separate role. However it is not unusual for the brothers to come to loggerheads, and they have on several occasions.
According to one of the princes’ mutual friends, there was a fallout last Christmas when Harry told William he didn’t think his older brother was doing enough to welcome Meghan into the family. “Harry felt William wasn’t rolling out the red carpet for Meghan and told him so. They had a bit of a fall out which was only resolved when Charles stepped in and asked William to make an effort. That’s when the Cambridges invited the Sussexes to spend Christmas with them.”
Since his engagement, Harry has become less reliant on his brother and his sister in law, with whom he often tagged along to public events. “Two years ago the idea of Harry leaving Kensington Palace was unthinkable but a lot has changed,” said a source. “He wants to be his own person not in William’s shadow. The countryside works for him and Meghan because they want to raise their son or daughter away from the limelight.” The source continued, “They were considering making the Cotswolds their full-time base, then the idea of Windsor was presented to them and it seemed the perfect solution.”
Well, that’s an interesting wrinkle, isn’t it? The original beef was between Harry and William over how William wasn’t doing enough to welcome Meghan into the family. Huh. As some royal-watchers suspected, it’s not so much “Meg vs Kate” or even “Harry vs Will.” Perhaps it’s been Will vs. Meg this whole time. Could it be that the tantrum-prone Will is the one with the biggest chip on his shoulder about Meghan?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN, Avalon Red.
I mean Will dated Kate for over a decade; and she constantly had to prove herself to him. I could totally see William thinking that Harry moved too fast with Meghan and also probably not liking the fact that Meghan was an American divorcee, actress, and a couple of years older than Harry. I would imagine that William meant well, but yeah, I can see why Harry was hurt. I am also wondering if William lumps MM in with her awful family and perhaps has pulled the “I told you so card.” Hopefully they’ll get past it.
I also wonder if William was worried about Meghan’s popularity and her outshining Kate. William doesn’t like Harry to outshine him, it stands to reason he wouldn’t want Harry’s wife to outshine his own wife.
In the UK Kate is still more popular than Meghan. In fact when they did a recent poll in the UK Meghan was in 6th place behind Harry, the Queen, William, Kate, and Philip.
Seeing as Meghan has only been on the job as a royal for 6 months? I’ll take these polls of a few thousand people with lots of salt. She working hard, working far more than Kate did in her first year of marriage. We’ll see what happens regarding polls in the future. Harry often beats the Queen in popularity polls.
William has issues with his own wife outshining him so I can see him being very upset about Meghan.
Sure – I see it a lot actually in British rags how they HATE Megan for such stupid reasons it baffles me.
I have long wondered if this was all William’s concern. Additionally, I am not truly sure it has ever been out outshining Kate but outshining William. I think most of Kate is about putting the focus on William and I believe she allows that to be so. Harry has also gone along with the plan of #TeamWills but Meghan seems to be the wrinkle.
He couldn’t have known she had the potential to outshine him at the start of the relationship.
I think he was just understandably cautious given their positions in life. When Meghan and Harry first started dating, even people on this site were skeptical. Why would anyone expect William to think differently from what even the peasants were thinking?
Anyone who had a history of working hard, was already connected to the UN, and already doing their own charity work was easily going to outshine William. And William, like Charles and Diana, wants the positive PR on him.
I think if you look at things from William’s point of view there were red flags. Her interview to Vanity Fair in September 2017 probably had him pretty pissed off and not exactly ready to welcome her in. He’s super controlling and she’s been called the same. Since they probably have very different view points, I could see them easily butting heads.
That Vanity Fair interview would not have happened without the blessing of the BRF in some fashion (whether it was through KP or otherwise). The BRF has a history with VF so that interview basically confirmed things were getting serious between Harry and Meghan.
@BeachDreams – agreed re: the VF interview (that was when I became convinced they were engaged, although it wasn’t announced for a while afterwards), and in my opinion that also makes these latest stories ring true, since I don’t think VF would jeopardize that relationship/history by just publishing pure gossip.
Here is the issue for Harry and Meghan.
Any butting heads with William is a losing proposition. He has the power. They don’t. They can make their own world on the side, but William will have the purse strings, and Harry doesn’t have enough money to keep Meghan in bespoke Givenchy and multiple homes, plus all the private travel he does, etc. etc.
Harry is being Andrew-ed. That is my take. William doesn’t trust Meghan, and it all happened so fast, plus that VF article, plus the leaking of Kate not giving Meghan a ride to Lainey. I think they distrust Meghan’s motives, and she has made some missteps.
They need to kiss William’s ring, or he will cut them off. Just like Daddy did to his brothers.
The VF article would have been approved by the Palace as an intro to Meghan as future fiancee. With the lease at Frogmore Cottage the Queen and Charles have protected them from William. He cannot kick them out of that lease, like Charles cannot kick Andrew out of Royal Lodge.
They have been setting aside more money for Harry for years, starting with the Queen Mum and Diana. If it all falls to pieces, Harry and Meghan move to S.A. and run Sentebale. They’d continue as independent global humanitarians, making W&K look even worse in comparison.
@AlwaysSalty – sure, William is higher up in the chain of command than Harry, but (assuming no one dies prematurely) William probably won’t be king for 20 or so years! And who knows if/what kind of monarchy there will even be in 20 years. But, Charles will be king first, and he seems to LOVE Harry and Meghan, AKA Tungsten. So, I’m sure that Charles will take precautions to make sure Harry and his family are taken care of (and so will the queen, for that matter).
IMO, William may not need Harry for the purse strings, but he will need him to WORK when William becomes king. Just like Andrew and Edward, Harry will probably sign a 100+ year lease on Frogmore Cottage (assuming it’s a leaseable home?), so he and Meghan, their children, and even grandchildren won’t need to worry about housing. After that, Harry does have money from Diana, the queen mum, and will get more from the queen and Charles. Plus Meghan has money. I’d imagine that you (William) wouldn’t want to totally piss off your only sibling just because you hold the purse strings…because then maybe Harry would walk away and do his own thing and I don’t see how that would benefit William during his reign. If he decides to cut them off in 20 years, he may find that Harry and Meghan are perfectly happy to go ahead and retire at that point!
William is in no positon to talk crap about anyone’s family
It would make sense that this is between Meghan and William. Both William and Meghan love press attention (even though William likes to pretend otherwise). Kate is clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight and Harry seems indifferent but will of course take Meghan’s side.
Although this seems like a childish game of ‘look at me’, I hate to say it but I think the Cambridges are right that Kate should have her moment in the spotlight with her charity work. If the Royal ‘firm’ is operating as a business to draw attention to charities and their issues, then they would want to maximise the exposure with each one, since that is the entirety of their role. They’re not out there going door-to-door collecting money or getting hands on at all with this charity work. It’s all just photo ops and speech reading. If Meghan comes in part way through that and pulls attention onto another subject, it reduces the reach and impact of the first. There is room for both of them but they just have to take turns. Reading it the way it’s reported makes it sound like Meghan is being competitive but they’re supposed to be on the same team.
I kind of see your point, except that Kate has had YEARS to have her moment in the spotlight with her charity work. So I’m kind of not feeling the whole “Meghan has to wait her turn” vibe here, because Kate has had her turn, and just hasn’t chosen to take advantage of it. Kate had plenty of time to establish herself as devoted to charities and her work. She has chosen not to do so.
Kate had years to do anything and to establish herself as a hard worker when it comes to charity. And what we’re learned of her new “campaign”? We’re told she going to focus on kids with this campaign for the rest of her life. Gee, how revolutionary.
It isn’t Meghan’s fault that Kate hasn’t used all her time, resources and wealth to do meaningful work for the many years she’s been in the royal family. What is it SEVEN? Good lord, and now she wants to shine? Kate could have laid a strong foundation as being a hard working future queen but she wasted that opportunity and her SIL has now shown her up because really, it doesn’t take much. That’s on Kate not Meghan. Meghan shouldn’t hide her light under a bushel because someone else would finally like to shine. Too little, to late if you ask me.
Kate has had too long to have her moment. Meghan (a savvy marketer) knows that this is HER moment because the people are interested NOW. She can bring the most attention to the issues she cares about now. And she doesn’t want to just take a year-long maternity leave for Kate to get her project together. And she shouldn’t have to.
Maybe Kate should shadow Meghan to see how to do this duchessing thing. She clearly has a lot to learn when it comes to work.
Also, if Meghan isn’t hard-working, the criticism Kate got will seem like a picnic compared to how Meghan would be treated. She has to establish herself.
I don’t think I made myself very clear. Kate has had years to pick up her charity work and shine but seems to have dedicated that time to starting her family instead. She also is still very reluctant and uncomfortable most likely. I’m not talking about Meghan waiting in the long term. They just shouldn’t be walking all over each others news cycles. It comes across as a battle of ego’s between Meghan and William when it’s supposed to be about charities. I say Meghan and William, rather than Kate because I suspect Kate would still rather not be involved if she could but it’s her job. If they’ve marked a period of time for media attention to be on Kates new initiative, then it makes good business sense that Meghan’s waits until that’s done so they both get the attention they deserve. That’s likely a matter of days or weeks at the most.
Who knew that a black, American woman would be such a trigger for all those clowns.
Right? Minds blown, minds lost.
you forgot DIVORCEEEEEEEEEEE
…and she is older than Harry.
LOL!!!!
…married to the 7th in line! The hysteria is really mind boggling.
I don’t believe any of this. These reporters can’t even get basic information right so I’m supposed to believe they have the scoop on private disagreements. I don’t even like William but I think he’s done enough for his sister in law from the outside looking in. Meghan has Harry to ‘roll out her red carpet’.
With all of these stories, all I can think is “dang, someone on the inside is REALLY pissed off at Meghan and is trying to put her in her place”.
We went from matching duchess dresses to Meghan is a terrorist supporter who makes people cry in just two days. The tabloids are going wild right now.
Nichol wouldn’t post this without the Cambridges buy in. She is their stenographer.
Now we know that the ugly stories about Meghan are coming from the Cambridges. Can’t say I’m surprised.
Actually, the little nugget about Charles stepping in to smooth things over has me wondering if the leaks are coming from him/his office—he’s been leveraging Meghan’s entry into the family to show himself as the welcoming hero. Lainey has been outright saying that Charles is flexing and trying to bring his sons in line.
We’ve gotten every permutation so far except a falling out between Harry and Kate. Look for that next.
We’ve already gotten that one. That Kate was really the woman in Harry’s life he depended on and Meghan has ruined that.
ITA. Just a few months ago all the stories said how close Kate and Meghan were getting and that Kate was showing Meghan the ropes and Meghan was following Kate’s lead. Now it’s all about tension for months and months. Puh-leeze.
I don’t believe any of this either. It seems to me that the royals are more relaxed since Meghan came into the family. Kate and William seem a lot more relaxed and open. Meghan and Harry seem to be really comfortable. The queen did that day with just Meghan. The documentary on Charles is pretty chill. The whole move to Windsor probably is because of the extensive rennovations the Kensington appartment would need at a time when they’re going to be having a newborn soon.
It’s too many conflicting sources from the very positive stories in the beginning about the blossoming of a relationship between Meghan and Kate to the diva catfight now.
Huh. Interesting. A few people yesterday were commenting along those lines – that it was more about William vs Meghan – and this kind of reinforces that.
Maybe it wasn’t anything malicious – Meghan seems to be a very warm and physical person, and maybe William isn’t, so what she interpreted as coldness or him not liking her was just William being William? Or maybe he was actively rude to her?
I wonder if William just doesn’t consider how awkward others may feel. He has always has his role secured – both in the family and in his society – as the future king. So he may not consider that others may walk into a room and not immediately feel wanted or welcome. I’m reminded of the fact that Kate met the queen for the first time without William.
We’ve constantly been told by Harry supporters that he & Kate are not close & he once referred to her as the limpet which if true is damn right rude & offensive. At least William is behaving with a bit more class towards Meghan.
William had no problem with Harry referring to her as the Limpet.
Half of the people close to William had nothing nice to say about Kate while they were just dating and he was quite fine with it. Says a lot about him.
We don’t know if William had an issue with Harry calling Kate a limpet but it is beside the point. If Harry was rude & demeaning to Kate that makes him an asshole & he is in no position to criticize his brother for not laying out the red carpet to welcome Meghan.
@Cosmicblue – but wait, you’re happy to argue that Harry called Kate names but not that William had no problem with it? Shouldn’t you either believe both pieces of gossip, or neither? That’s what you’re advocating in your post below about people should believe the rumors about Meghan being difficult.
I also don’t think it’s beside the point that William allowed it because his own treatment of Kate (allowing Harry and/or “friends” to call her names, breaking up with her and yelling “I’m free!” in clubs, etc.) sets an example. If people observe William mistreating her then why would they think William would have a problem if someone else calls her names? And, I’d even argue that Kate’s allowing this treatment (not ending her relationship with William, getting back together, her mother supposedly putting William first when they argued, etc.) showed others what kind of treatment she would tolerate. IMO, she should have just dumped his a$$ after the cheating or name-calling or whatever.
William is often actively rude to people. He has publicly insulted his family members often enough that I’m almost persuaded to think that it’s his love language. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he made a “joke” about and to Meghan that she then took offense to.
Somebody needs to step in and shut some of this down. Well, Meghan’s presence is getting Kate to take her duties more seriously, so there’s that.
Yes. Either the behavior needs to be shut down, if the stories are true, or if not, then the fake stories about the behavior need to end. We are seeing seasoned royal reporters share these stories. No, Katie Nicholl isn’t perfect, but I also don’t think she is going to publish a story about William and Meghan without “some” knowledge of it.
Yes. And I’m sick of negative stories about Meghan. She’s doing a lot of good work. Maybe those vicious gossip mongers can focus on that?
It’s precisely the good work that’s causing the knifes to come out. Her outreach to marginalized communities is authentic, warm and “real” in a way that most royals can’t manage. They hate her for it as much as the “regulars” love her for it.
Yes, it could be. That would so remind me of my own brothers, and what happened when my younger brother met and married his wife.
Yeah, it’s all so very normal and mundane, and I think the reality of whatever else is going on is very mundane too. Since they’re married to brothers, it’s probably best that Kate and Meghan aren’t besties. Maybe they can be more like workplace colleagues. All in all, no matter who the women are, sexist media like the DM will have them at each others throats and the new one will be a diva, etc.
Andrew saw himself like Charles, and he’s not, and floundered a bit. I think Harry is trying to avoid this mistake by creating a unique role for himself and for Meghan, and that’s smart. He can’t be the little brother tagging along forever.
BTW, when the DM ran it’s usual anti-Meghan story this morning, a great many people wrote in scolding the DM for its negativity. Then, all the sudden, trolls appeared, and the good comments were down-arrowed a lot. Suspicious.
The Daily Mail is known to manipulate their comment sections to their liking.
DM won’t allow my comments to go through….very suspicious .
By all accounts Harry was very welcoming to Kate (yes, he had a long time to get used to her) but they were always photographed laughing and joking and smiling together. So maybe Harry was annoyed that Will didn’t make an effort when the roles were reversed?
Or, it’s all made up and whateverrrr
None of them come out smelling of roses from all these reports. It makes them sound like petty overprivileged twats the lot of them.
150% agreed!
I think it makes the Cambridges seem like petty, jealous assholes.
It’s not just the Cambridges. Allegations of Meghan being a diva, throwing tiara tantrums & being rude to staff are not exactly glowing reviews of her. If we are to believe all the negative things that are being written about W&K then likewise we should also believe the negative things being said about H&M.
@Cosmicblue, it’s obvious you don’t believe any of the negative things said about W&K, so what is your point?
If those parasites had to move out of their taxpayer renovated houses and find themselves real jobs, they wouldn’t have time for so much nonsense.
At the end of the day, whether william or the courtiers or anyone else hates Meghan, it makes Zero difference, as long as she stays married to harry she’ll be duchess.
She’s a smart girl, I doubt she’s clutching the daily mail and crying in her givenchy dress whilst looking at Frogmore floor plans.
She’ll be fine, she’ll ride this out.
I hope so and I hope she can flourish for all this adversity and I know her supporters will love her more. I know I love an underdog (as odd as it may be to put Meg in that category) Is Michelle Obama available for a pep talk? She had to deal with stuff like this, the virulent racism and everything.
All of these stories are becoming a little jennifer garner like….saturating the media so that its hard to know what to believe. Obviously there’s a there there, but what’s truly going on is harder to know.
These tabloid rumors are out of control this week, eh? This is crazy.
It’s out of control tosh, in a silly season.
There was a famous quote that from the famous Brit editor Charles Moore – “If you can’t become a pianist in a brothel, you become a royal reporter”.
They’re all cloying for stories with ‘insiders’, ‘onlookers’ e.t.c.
Diana and Fergie are not around to give the media the dynamite they need, Prince Philip is still around and until then these ‘royal exclusives’ about the Cambridges and the Sussexes will continue to the death.
I shudder to think of the avalanche of ‘insider exclusives’ when the Sussex baby is born.
They are laying heavy on this narrative and it just consistently falls apart.
This reminds me of the Cambridge PR driven crap against Charles. Painting William as the son who just wanted to raise his family and be a better man, husband, and father than his flawed Daddy. That or it was the Rowdy Harry is getting mentored and parented by the stable and mature William and Kate. Now it’s the humble Cambridge’s can’t deal with the Sussex’s attitude.
I’m so sick of Cambridge PR. They do this to anyone who dare doesn’t march to the beat of their drum.
I’m also equally upset and sadden by the fact that William has grown into something far worse than his father. The arrogance is beyond imaginable and when all else fails, he pulls out his Diana card. This man needs help.
#100
The latest story actually makes William look bad. Do you really think the Cambridge PR team are putting stories like this out?? Seriously?
If you do I have a bridge to sell you!
I actually think William sounds normal here. I would expect someone in his privileged position to be cautious. Sure, we know Meghan is great now, but he wouldn’t have known that when he first met her.
I never said the Cambridge PR were smart ones.
Their hit pieces usually don’t hit as hard as they like (See Charles) or end up with a difference affect (see Harry being more popular and relatable).
Though we see through it, the whole point is the make them look better. Katie is a Cambridge fanatic. She would never post anything with the intention to make them look bad even if that’s what it ends up doing.
I think that’s unintentional as the article was written to make it out like Harry was being demanding and difficult over Meghan.
Katie Nicholls used to party with the Princes’ back in the day, she’s walking the fine line here as she won’t want to completely alienate herself from Harry. She has been a mouthpiece for both of them over the years.
Normally a husband looks out for his wife regarding his side of the family. William didn’t really bother helping Kate out in this way and trying to make Harry look demanding when he’s really being thoughtful is backfiring here.
Remember the story about the Cambridges not going skiing because they wanted to be respectful about austerity measures and then they went to Mustique? And then they went skiing? The Cambridges can be heavy handed and short sighted.
I don’t know why Darth Vader popped into my mind reading your comment lol
It’s like he’s slowly turning into him. We need the hopeful with the potential aka Anakin back.
People who are saying the reporters are being controlled by the Cambridges, how does this latest article make William look good? If anything it makes him sound cold & aloof. Which is why I don’t believe all these conspiracies that the Cambridges are behind it. All the recent reports have also been savage about William calling him jealous, difficult & petulant. These are not exactly positive traits.
Because even here you have William defenders talking about how William was just being protective and cautious (even though this story is about a time after the engagement, so he had probably met Meghan a few times by then.) It goes to the narrative of William being protective of his family and wary of outsiders, and it goes to the narrative of Meghan causing a rift between the brothers. I don’t buy that angle of it, because I agree it makes William look bad, but I can certainly see what the goal of this story might have been.
William also pulls out his Diana behaviors, like being temperamental and dragging other royals to get good PR for himself. He learned plenty of PR games from both his parents, and Harry was often on the negative receiving end. It was to William’s benefit to keep the lies going about Harry being the lesser.
Totally right!!! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Not knowing if any of this is true, I can see Will beefing with Meghan (and Harry intervening as any husband would feel obliged to get involved). He is the heir to the heir and at the top of pecking order among kids. Naturally he might feel like HE gets to decide who works more and less to maintain order. Then came Meghan, an independent person and a very talented professional. She is much better at this humanitarian/public stuff than Wills. AND she didn’t grow up thinking that she should yield, because there’s some stupid pecking order.
Yeah, I see Wills putting his foot down and trying to show everyone their place.
Agreed, and I can also see Meghan thinking – “wait, you want me to do less work? You don’t want me to do more CHARITY work?” and just ignoring any suggestions to “stand down” and do her own thing.
ETA – someone yesterday mentioned that Meghan’s list of patronages should be coming out soon. If so, and if this theory of William vs. Meghan is even partially true, it fits and makes sense.
I said right from the beginning the Palace will not allow Meghan to outwork Kate. They are trying to rein her in, and now everything is spilling out.
And if that’s what happened, with the Together cookbook we can see that Meghan just went ahead and did private charity meetings. William can’t forbid her to do that and he can’t stand in the way of such a good cause.
Which is so backwards, imo. I highly doubt Queen Elizabeth would tell someone to WORK LESS. I can’t say Prince Charles would either. His sister, Anne, is one of the hardest workers in that family and no one dare suggest she slow down.
You need worker bees! William doesn’t know that because it’s not about the work, it’s about the recognition. He’s gotten by on doing the bare minimum and treated as if he solved world hunger. See the Cyberbully speech they hailed as oh so great but he admitted to accomplishing nothing.
Not only that, @Leyton, but Will is the heir behind Charles. He’s like 3 seats away!
If anyone is dictating work schedules (which we’ve been told that royals set their own schedules…so unlikely), it should he 1) the queen and then 2) Charles and THEN 3) William. It’s like the royal reporters (or William himself?) don’t realize that Charles will still be king so will be in control of money, property, gifts, etc. I mean, assuming no one dies prematurely, William probably won’t be king for 20 years. But he does seem petty and vindictive, so maybe he’ll just be storing up all his anger at Harry and Meghan for the day he becomes king and then let them have it. Lol.
And, yeah, that cyberbullying speech cracked me up. Did he even do anything between launching the initiative and giving his ‘I’m so disappointed in you, social media companies!’ speech? I don’t think so, right? And he’s shocked that it failed? Clueless.
@Royalwatcher, thank you for reminding us of the royal pecking order. Commenters who relish putting H&M in their place never seem to tire of reminding the rest of us that righteous Will is the future king, Kate is the future queen, and Harry is so far down the line he’s gonna have to kowtow to King Willie until he’s old and grey in order to stay on the royal dole. People tend to forget Harry’s got his own money, and TQ will make sure he and his family have a secure future.
And Meghan didn’t grow up thinking she’s something special. I hope Harry and Meghan stick to their guns and make their own way so they’re shoved in the background by the Cambridge camp, unless they want to be in the background.
William doesn’t get to decide who works and when. All royals set their own schedules and select their own work. Royals and courtiers have been saying that for years.
@notasugarhere – no, he doesn’t directly so putting out negative articles in the media would be an excellent strategy to passive aggressively do essentially the same thing. Given, that he doesn’t like to work yet wants to keep his princely perks, but is supposed to be the big brother, leading by example, curtailing someone too eager in this way is the only way. If someone in the lower position does more than him so publicly it makes him look bad.
But, again – who knows if any of this is true.
That’s why I’ve written before that Meghan needs her own charity. One she makes outside of the royal fishbowl, like Harry has Invictus and Sentebale.
@ notasugarhere – gawd, she’s only been a royal since May! I’m sure she will establish not one but many of her own charities. Maybe even working on it now.
Most royals do not establish outside charities. They show up at other people’s charities and help promote them. Harry has Sentebale which he established with Prince Seeiso, which is his charity outside of royal work. I’m suggesting she also develop her own single charity outside royal work.
I disagree that she’s better at the humanitarian/public stuff then William, he’s been doing this his whole life. The BRF is supposed to be completely neutral in politics which is why the mosque thing is a bit of a blunder, imo, given that Jihadi John attended there.
Oh please!…are you buying the negative story put out by DM to undermine her good work at the Grenfell kitchen. The mind boggles that you are seriously talking about Jihadhi John and Meghan in the same sentence. Just shows how easy it into use negative articles to sway peoples thinking.
No I’m not at all, I was more meaning that maybe they want her to avoid anything that could give th daily mail a headline like that
So other royals visiting Grenfell is okay, William working on some sports project with Grenfell is okay, but Meghan working with survivors of Grenfell to fund a community project is bad. Right.
I think the 2016 US election is the definitive example of how to use negative articles to sway people’s thinking.
Several Royal Family members have visited that mosque. Now it’s an issue because Meghan was most successful with her project. I read a psychology article that said we believe negative news about people we consider ‘different’. No wonder a lot of people are choosing to believe all these negative stories about Meghan because they see her as a suspicious person who doesn’t belong.
@Wooley – sorry, that’s bull. Both William and Harry visited, waaaay before Meghan…and no headlines about William and Harry’s murderous mosque. May and Charles (I believe, or was it actually the queen?) also visited and again, no headlines. Why is it only when Meghan visits that we get these racist headlines?! And, the Daily Heil will make up anything, regardless of where Meghan goes or what she does so she taking them into account for her decision-making is just ludicrous.
Harry sounds a little odd. Why would he expect William to “roll out the red carpet” for someone he barely knows? Siblings are generally pretty cautious when it comes to someone they’re sister or brother just met. If anything, I think William sounds like the normal one here — they’re princes of privilege and have to be cautious by design. Maybe I’ve just watched too much of The Bachelor though.
In the end, it worked out for Harry anyway. He got to marry the woman he wants and William seems cordial towards her. And Kate looks happy in general, so I don’t buy that she’s jealous of anyone.
Yeah especially when Harry didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet for Kate. Did Harry call Kate some unsavoury names like limpet or something?
Yep, I commented exactly this below before seeing the comments from the two of you. Harry made a comment in his interview about their engagement that he was ‘looking forward to getting to know her’. William and Kate dated for nearly 10 years by the time they married, he had had a LOT of time to get to know her by then!
(By the way, I’m not really knocking Harry. As I said in my comment below, I’m not even sure I believe much/any of these stories. But IF this one has truth to it, I’m not sure he has too much of a leg to stand on there.)
Harry was away at Eaton, at Sandhurst, and then in the military for 10 years. William chose to keep Kate away from the royals, dither about, chase other women, keep stringing her along, and finally married her. Why is Harry supposed to be responsible for William’s treatment of Kate as a last last last resort?
And conversely why is William required to “roll out the red carpet” for Meghan? Goes both ways.
I vaguely remember reading an article where Harry thought Kate was with William for fame by association. Those were the stories coming out when Kate and William broke up. If that’s how princess in general, including Harry, think, I don’t get why it should be expected for William to think differently.
If anything, I think Harry comes off entitled in these stories (i.e “what Meghan wants Meghan gets”). If he wants to give her the world, maybe he should start a billion-dollar start-up. I’m sort of kidding and sort of not. I’m undecided. To be fair, I’m not sure I believe any of these stories. All four of them look perfectly content to me. If they secretly hate each other’s guts, they are very fine actors in public (not just Meghan).
Kate and her family were busy trading on the royal connection with PP, cozying up to tabloids and paps, and Kate was demanding the royal discount as a royal girlfriend at the time. Easy to understand if Harry thought she was glorying in the attention and wanting William for his position, while his own girlfriend Chelsy wasn’t doing those things and was desperately trying to stay away from photographers.
Don’t forget that much of the PR spin around the most public breakup, 2007, came from the Middletons hired PR firm. Including the Doors to Manual story.
It’s still pot meet kettle.
Not to me. William kept Kate away because he was dithering for years about not wanting her, wanting other women, giving up and going back to her. She was never his first choice. Most of that time Harry was away at school or away in the military, while his brother was actively keeping Kate and his family separate. Now both are in the UK, Harry meets the woman he knows he wants to marry, is actively getting family and friends to meet her. And if William wasn’t open to that effort? Typical selfish William.
“Not to me.”
Well, to me it is. We can agree to disagree. None of us really know these people or even what went on behind closed doors, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually all get along. None of these people seem nearly as obtuse as someone like Sarah Ferguson or Prince Andrew. William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan all seem to have some level of common sense, which I think diminishes conflict to some degree.
It seems like everyone is hoping that William and Harry dislike each other or something, but they really don’t give off that vibe like Charles and Andrew do (though I probably wouldn’t get along with Andrew either since he seems weird).
If they had a falling out, it probably lasted all of 15 minutes. From what I can tell, they’re all still talking to each other. They’re all probably a little temperamental given the amount of attention lavished on them for simply being famous for being famous, but I doubt it’s to the degree that would make our bones shake.
Whatever one may think about William and Harry, Andrew is much, much worse than either of them. From his ties to Jeffrey Epstein (conveniently hushed up – HM has a lot of media power when she chooses to exercise it) to his really dodgy Saudi etc friends, Andrew is incredibly problematic.
I co sign all of this. I’m taking all stories about these people with a huge grain of salt.
Was coming here to say the same thing. William’s an ass, but it’s not his job to ‘roll out the red carpet’ for new in-laws. It’s Harry’s job to roll out the carpet for Meghan, to prepare her and integrate her into the mammoth and difficult job that is becoming a senior British royal family member. The family should certainly help out and be cordial, but ultimately this falls on Harry, who was born into the labyrinth and has known the score since birth.
These stories are giving a bit of insight not just into William’s obstinance but Harry’s too. He seems to have turned into a bit of Groomzilla this year, understandable but it’s time to calm down, sit down and take time to help Meghan navigate the rules and regs, guide her while helping her shine in her role…stop using her and this time to replay out old grudges with his brother, father and family. He’s not helping the situation and it’s backlashing on his wife, who so far is trying hard to do a good job.
Harry himself said in their engagement interview that he had spent all that time scheduling, planning, organizing, and making sure she got to spend time with his family family and friends. If William chose not to take him up on the invite, that is on William not Harry.
How much time did Harry seriously give to get his family to know Meghan properly. They conducted a long distance courtship & Meghan only moved to the UK a year ago. The whole journey from courtship, to marriage and now baby has been a bit of a whirlwind. Not every friendship is instant & sometimes it takes time to develop a connection with people. Just because Harry fell in love with Meghan very quickly doesn’t mean the rest of the family should be expected to do the same. The fact is W&K haven’t known Meghan for very long, and from what we know about the Cambridges is that they are very guarded about who they allow in their close circle.
Not every courtship moves at the pace of a reluctant snail like W&K’s did. Kate is notoriously not other women friendly, and she and Chelsy were never close. Doesn’t surprise me if she made no effort to be friendly or welcoming to a women in Harry’s life.
They stated they were never apart for more than two weeks, which means at least 25 weekends of chances to meet family in a year as she was the one doing most of the traveling. So that’s what he planned, from the start, was getting family and friends to spend time with her every two weeks or more. That is more time than most friends and family have with someone before they become an in-law.
I…kinda believe all of it? I can see a woman who works, and has worked consistently all of her adult life, justifiably balking at the idea of being told that she can’t work because another woman tangentially connected her, who does not and has not consistently worked, wants to suddenly start. I’d stand my ground on that too. And snotty/classist/racist aides would frame that as being “opinionated” knowing that the equally snotty/classist/racist media will lap it up.
I can see a spoiled older sibling who has made a point of surrounding himself with people who do not outshine him, except for his little brother that he can always minimize, balking at the seemingly sudden appearance in his realm of someone with Star Power and the potential to eclipse him and not being overly friendly, at first but maybe eventually getting over it. And I can definitely see a younger sibling who’s found love and genuinely had enough of this treatment, finally putting their foot down.
As work-oriented as the Queen, Charles, and Anne are, I can see them preferring Meghan.
I think you are spot on.
Kate set the bar low for work ethic. Maybe that suits some of the royal aides. Kate gets kudos for the most minimal things duty wise. The other week I think it was Rebecca English the royal reporter for the DM tweeted the fact that Kate had mentioned studying psychology in college as if Kate was secretly a doctoral level expert. It was all like, Wow! Kate has never mentioned this before! Maybe this is where she gets her keen-ity for mental health work! So she took a psych course in college–BFD. Same with how they trot out the story of her Lewis Carroll thesis from St Andrews every time she does some kind of art event like it was a BFD. I get they don’t have much to hang their hat on with her “expertise” in any area but it’s ridiculous.
Meanwhile Rebecca English writes an article for the DM basically likening W and K to George VI and the Queen Mum, and H and M to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, tangentially from the Frogmore thing (the Windsors being buried there), but I thought it was such a horrible and toxic comparison to make.
You hit every point exactly!
Very well written, yes to all of it.
Yes to all of this – sibling rivalry can be nasty.
This ^^ slightlyannony. Meghan has been a worker since a very young age (I’m really impressed with the number of charitable organizations she was associated with long before becoming famous). Kate has had 17 years to get up to speed. That she has not is on her. I don’t think it’s right to tell someone else to slow down because their work ethic is making you look bad. Also, the point of these people (royalty) is to go out and use their star power to draw attention to important causes. It’s the only thing of value that they do, really, and no one should be working less than they can.
@Anners – “I don’t think it’s right to tell someone else to slow down because their work ethic is making you look bad.” Yes, THIS!! Not only that, can you imagine how much MORE flack and bad press Meghan would get if she worked less often than Kate? OMG, it would be nuts. Headlines calling her lazy and everything else under the sun. I don’t even think she will get any leeway for maternity leave, the way so many people here and elsewhere defended Kate’s leaves.
I think something big for Meghan is coming out soon and that is what has got the KP leakers going nuts. I’m guessing it will be her patronage announcements or another project the same size/scope as the Hubb Kitchen cookbook (i.e. one that shows she is doing loads of real work behind the scenes and has been since before marriage).
I mostly agree, the framing of all these stories has been terrible and gross. Meghan has hit the ground running and is working hard, and there should be straight up gratitude for this. She’s only been a royal for 6 months and it takes time even for the best to ‘get in the groove’ of such an archaic and lumbering institution.
However- isn’t popular to say but: like it or not Will and Kate are the future monarchs, not Harry and Meghan. It’s the way it is, and the latter couple will end up serving the former, no matter how stuffy and boring they are. This “Star Power” thing often mentioned is very, very transient, and may matter in the short term but holds very little import over the long for the Royals and their set-up; they’ve been around for a 1000 years with or without it…I get nervous when I see people mentioning it in regards to these people, because in the end it matters so little.
But, TheOtherSam, does anyone tell Anne not to work as much as Charles? Or Charles not to work as much as the queen? No. No other royals tailor their schedules around those higher in the line of succession, so why should Harry and Meghan have to do that? If anything, William and Kate need to be working more, as the future-future monarch and consort, not encouraging others to work less so they (W&K) aren’t shown up.
And, I agree, it’s not about star power. It’s about working “hard” (for a royal) and often. And when you show up, it’s about being well-informed (not bragging that you don’t read your briefings *coughWilliamcough*) and engaged and acting like you want to be there.
So now it Meghan and William, let me grab a popcorn for the comments
So, what does rolling out the red carpet entail, exactly? I’m lukewarm on William but I’m not sure I follow what he did that was bad. Apart from “hello, Meghan, lovely to meet you,” what else is there to do? This all sounds made up. Literally, like there was nothing and something was created from it.
And just for levity’s purpose, perhaps we can stop acting like either Kate or Meghan hopping in a car, being driven somewhere and popping out and shaking hands/posing, listening to people speak and perhaps speaking for a few minutes is so hard on the pregnant body. “You’ll be standing in a building while 40 weeks pregnant?! My word!” It’s not like they’re in the mines, folks.
I actually wonder if it has to do with when Harry put out that statement about the racist treatment Meghan was receiving from certain press. Wasn’t the rumor initially that William was shocked and thought Harry made a mistake with the statement? My theory is that Harry knew at that point that he would propose and expected William to have his back and William balked. So, less that William didn’t make some sort of “red carpet” effort, and more that Harry wanted William’s support and felt like he didn’t get it.
Who has the most to gain from a public fallout between the Cambridges & Sussexes. The media know that it is extremely profitable to have two royal courts at war which is something they haven’t really had since the Diana days. The media might be making up the entire thing which started with the authorized book ‘Charles at 70’ and since then it’s been open season. We’ve had the tiara incident, William & Harry being rude & difficult, Meghan being a diva, Kate & Meghan not close, William & Harry falling out, William not being welcoming to Meghan. I fail to see how any of them come out looking good from this. Or there are fractions which have developed in the palaces where several courts are leaking.
Why I’m buy the Middleton angle is that everyone comes out looking bad to varying degree except for Kate. In these stories, Kate has been either, unflappable, hurt to the point of tears, the peacekeeper, or wanting to do her duties without the showboat sister in law taking all her work.
Could it be that Kate is coming out well in these articles simply because there’s just not that many stories about her due to the fact that she was on maternity leave and was “checked out” so to speak? Based on the narrative flow of the info being released and the subjects/time period, I think this is material the Charles at 70 book wasn’t approved to use and it was distributed or sold to other outlets to release.
The media is profiting from this just as they have profited from the insanity in the US. The white Markles are quiet for the moment so it’s like they had to find something else to bash Meghan about.
The white markles have probably finally been visited by some spooks (MI5 agents) and told to cool it.
William needs to be very careful how he plays this. I have a feeling that it will all blow up in his face. I have said all along that W&K , and especially William must be alarmed at the popularity and successes Meghan has had. He must be fuming at how Grenfell, which at the beginning made him look good and empathetic turned into Meghan’s triumph. The survivors actually asked him and Harry to bring Meghan.
Anyway William needs to tread carefully as this could rebound on his own marriage. William knows his wife’s limitations more than anyone . He has on several occasions had to defend her lack of doing anything and has tried tell people unconvincingly that she is the brainchild behind their mental health initiative. The presence of Meghan, whose abilities and charisma are far more suited to the position of future Queen, is painfully reminding Willam that he had serious second thoughts about Kate, and was ordered by the Palace to stop keeping her on a piece of string, and either marry her or dump her.
I do hope that William doesn’t end up taking it all out on Kate.
Look, I’m not sure I really believe much of ANY of these stories. To me, it would actually be more believable if there had been just one or maybe two articles. The fact that everyone is now racing to have a new angle on the Cambridge/Sussex split looks to me more like media nonsense than anything else!
But that said, I remember when Kate and Will got engaged, in an interview about it, Harry said “I’m looking forward to getting to know her”. Which really struck me as weird, because they had been together for close to a decade- he had had a LOT of time to get to know her already. Now, I’m not really criticising him here- he DID go on to seemingly have a lovely relationship with her for years after they were married. But IF there’s truth to him being annoyed that William didn’t immediately rush to befriend Meghan or whatever, well, he seemingly didn’t do much of that for the NEAR DECADE Kate dated William either!
William kept Kate away from the royals. He wasn’t sure of her, sure of himself, stories about him fearing he didn’t love her enough to be faithful. He took a decade to give up on getting another woman and married Kate. Harry was away at school or in the military most of the time, so why is he blamed for William’s treatment of Kate?
I’m not blaming Harry at all for William’s treatment of her! But I also don’t think it’s unfair to say Harry had plenty of time to get to know Kate if he was interested in making his brother’s significant other feel welcome (which she WAS, for most of that time, regardless of whether he felt certain whether she was going to be the one he ended up with forever or not- it’s not like we’re talking about Harry holding off on getting to know her for a year, or even two. It was a lot longer than that.)
If William kept Kate away from the royals including his brother, that remains on William.
I agree with you- William’s behaviour, and his relationship with Kate, is ENTIRELY on William. But Harry’s behaviour, and Harry’s relationship with Kate, is on Harry. William may have kept Kate away from the wider Royal circle, but she did socialise with the brothers from time to time- I remember reading about a couple of times they were out in the same group or whatever. They had acquaintances in common over the years, and attended some of the same events. And the fact is, she was his only brother’s girlfriend for a lot of years. If he wanted to get to know her then, if making her welcome was something he cared about, there was nothing stopping him.
My point was, and is, if Harry really, truly was upset that his brother didn’t immediately befriend Meghan a short time into their relationship, I actually wouldn’t fault him for that, it’s nice if he wanted everyone in his life to welcome her into theirs. But it’s a little bit rich, considering the short time he and Meghan had actually been together at that point, when it took him 6 or 7 years (or however long W&K were together before getting engaged) to do the same thing.
(Again- I never actually meant this to be a big criticism of Harry. I like Harry and Meghan (more than I like William, actually), I like the friendly relationship H has seemed to develop with Kate over the years, and like I said, I don’t even know if I believe much of what comes out in the media about any of them anymore.)
You’re still sideways blaming Harry for William’s behavior. There are only a handful of occasions where William, Kate, and Harry socialized. Where we got the stories about Kate drinking Harry under the table. Otherwise, Harry was off in the military and William was clubbing with Kate, cheating on kate, dumping Kate, and generally keeping away from his brother and other Windsors.
If your brother makes it clear this woman is not important to him, as William did for years with Kate? Why would Harry believe otherwise? But if Harry goes to William and state this woman is it, the one, I have her meeting everyone, how about you? And William refuses? It is on William. Just because he took a decade to finally settle on Kate doesn’t mean Harry’s courtship of Meghan is lesser or less true because Harry knew straightaway.
No, I don’t think I am. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that just as William’s relationship with someone is on William, so is Harry’s relationship with that person on Harry. He was not gone all of the time all of the years they dated. Kate lived right there in London. They had mutual acquaintances and friends, and for most of that time over 7 years or however long, she was William’s girlfriend. Whether William respected her position as his girlfriend as he should for all of that time is another matter. But that’s not really what we’re talking about here. She attended events with him, lived with him for some of that time, and was by his side as his acknowledged girlfriend since his university days apart from during their split. It wouldn’t have been hard for Harry to get to know her had he wanted to.
If any of my siblings was in a relationship for that long, I’d want to get to know their partner. I’d want that to have happened long before 7 years, actually. It wouldn’t only become important to me to do it once I knew they were getting married. So I remember being a little surprised at Harry saying that only after they got engaged. It’s why, IF this story is true (I keep saying IF, because at this point I think there’s probably very little truth to much of what comes out about them in the media), I actually have plenty of sympathy for Harry’s position, wanting everyone in his life to know and welcome Meghan. I love how wholeheartedly supportive has been of her from the get-go. I can support him wanting that welcome for her, and still think it’s a little bit rich IF he got annoyed that William didn’t immediately rush to befriend his girlfriend of only a short time (because yes, I absolutely believe it was just as important and true a relationship, but fact remains, NOT a lot of time passed) when it took him many years to do the same thing for his now sister-in-law.
If William never said he was serious with her then Harry wasn’t going to build a relationship with her even if William was off an on with her for years. Brothers don’t work that way. They aren’t going to make an effort for some girl who is just considered a fling to the brother. Harry was living his own life with chelsy and then Cressida as well.
I can see William being protective of Harry especially since their mother died. He probably wanted to be ‘parental’ when the relationship was getting serious plus he is the older brother ( and going to be king someday). Being a Royal has its own dynamic which involves public life which involves family plus their work. It all overlaps.
Any close family dynamic the new person coming in can meet resistance, and has to somewhat sell themselves.
I think they are all doing great, they don’t look like they want to kill each other. Lol.
William and Harry have a father, an engaged and active one. William used his younger brother for PR for 15 years, I’m not seeing him as protective.
Me either. I think Harry is used to William to using Harry as a scapegoat to get out PR jams. I don’t think Harry is going be as forgiving of the Cambridges smearing Meghan to help their image.
I doubt William had any particular problem with Meghan. I think, like Kate, he just has very little interest in other people. He strikes me as exactly the type of person who would have to be told he should he should give a crap about his brothers fiancee, and exactly the type of person who’d be annoyed at being expected to make any effort.
That’s my take as well. The Cambridges come across as pretty self absorbed
He has little interest in people or the world around him, just like Kate. But William has always been jealous, touchy, and wants accolades for doing little to no work. He used his brother for PR for years. Meghan shows up, Harry stops being a doormat, and the two of them do real work and get good PR. That won’t please William. But it pleases Charles who likes Meghan and her initiative.
This^^^.
I agree as well.
What if Harry had married a bland aristo, pretty but nothing unique? Would all be harmony in camp Wales? Or would tgere be just as much manufactured dramz?
The press wouldn’t be talking about work and charity initiatives, but about aristo!bride stealing Kate’s style/being not as stylish/not as good at royal protocol/struggling with weight etc
They would have found something, as they did with Di and Fergie.
Looking forward to Meghan’s new charity initiatives.
Same here, I’m excited!
Me too! I Hope they are announced soon. I’m hoping for before their Christmas hols and then Meghan would start working with them right after the new year.
Look I could see Will saying to Harry are you sure because it all happened so fast, long distance etc? I get that way when anyone moves fast in a relationship.
The real issue is why are all the knives out? Who is out to get Meghan? Thoughts?
I like that Meghan and Harry are just letting this stuff play out in the media. We dont have any inside stories from their “sources”. I think that eventually we will, but it really seems like they are sitting back and letting these stories come out. The shenanigans with the Markles taught them how to play the long game well I think.
Interesting point. I really hope this leads them to split their admin office off from KP as well. Charles and his siblings don’t share PR or admin staff, so it’s odd to me that Harry and William would be expected to continue to do so now that they are both married with their own interests and charities.
All these headlines are so typical and predictable that I can see the RF sitting around a few months ago laughing and accurately predicting what the media will say.
The Queen smartly weakened the ‘mistakes with the Queen’ angle by being so welcoming to Meghan. They’re still trying that, but it falls a little flat, so they have to think up other things to sell their stories.
And yes, it’s very predictable.
Yes, the Queen’s actions speak volumes.
The Queen’s actions towards Meghan in front of the media/world were a smart way to lay the foundations of their relationship. “The Queen would never say this! Why would she when they got along so famously on their girls trip?” “They were laughing together, didn’t you see?” “The Queen adores Meghan!” Very smart, indeed. They’re all about the public image, always have been. The Queen and Kate, have very similar shots from the early marriage years. There is a boatload of new “royal watchers” who don’t understand, though.
Megan is getting Fergi’ed. For us that remember how she was treated after she married Andrew, it is a very similar pattern and story. There were rumors & tabloids stories at the time about Charles and Andrew fighting. Diana and Fergi not getting along, Fergi making mistakes with the Queen, etc…..The media is going after Megan like they did Fergi years ago.
It’s quite sad, isn’t it? They always go after the spares wife to prop up the heir and his wife. This is all a repeat. It is only new to the new fans, lol, which is why they’re trying to pin the blame on anything and anyone they can find. Wild theories being made up all over the place.
Either KP is leaking like a sieve to the press OR they are keeping a lid on it so tightly that they are making up these stories.
Either way, this whole “Meghan” is the bad person in our previously, pristine Royal Family is ridiculous. I don’t know why the press assumes people get “amnesia” overnight and that what they print THAT DAY is 100% true. As if we can’t remember or go back to look up previous stories that are just the opposite.
I take these stories with a grain of salt.
Another angle? This time it’s William vs Meghan.
Harry shouldn’t force his girlfriend(now wife) on anyone. William obviously did not trust someone he just met with a loud dysfunctional family. He had every right to keep his distance. This doesn’t make him cold or aloof, just cautious and uncomfortable.
William didn’t even trust Kate or her family, nor did he have her interacting with his family during the dating years. She was kept separate as the distant choice while he cheated on her, dumped her, chased other women, and finally married her.
Harry talked in the engagement interview about how he knew very early on that Meghan was the one. That he worked hard to schedule things and introduce Meghan to his family and friends every time she was in the UK. He wanted her to be part of things, for people to meet her, for those relationships to start building. To have his own brother give the idea a cold shoulder?
But was it a cold shoulder? Or was it a case of him not being as interested as Harry deemed appropriate. I mean – it says that Harry didn’t feel William was “rolling out the red carpet”. Did he just want William to treat her like my husband would treat his sisters now-husband when they met – which was polite, small talking for the most part – or did he expect William to go above and beyond the typical hanging out with your siblings SO at family get togethers.
There’s a big difference between actively ignoring and being friendly but not bending over backwards to be accommodating. And the article implies that he expected red carpet treatment, though it doesn’t go into enough detail to know what he expected and what was actually done.
I don’t have the kind of energy that thrives on spending time with people I don’t know well, so I guess I kind of think of it from that angle. I make small talk with my SIL’s husband and genuinely like him, but I’m not about to go hang out with him or go very far out of my way for him.
“I don’t have the kind of energy that thrives on spending time with people I don’t know well, so I guess I kind of think of it from that angle.”
That’s the kind of temperament I have as well. So in some ways I think I can relate to the idea of not always taking an active interest in other people. I am interested in people I like, but I also think it’s a little dumb to take interest to the point that it depletes my energy. Some people thrive off of other people, but it fatigues me and I don’t necessarily think I’m self-absorbed because of it. I just manage my energy differently so I can stay focused.
If your brother comes to you and says, “I’ve found the woman I want to marry. She’s wonderful. I’m trying to get everyone to meet her and get to know her. Will you meet her too?” and William says no? That’s William’s choice and pretty damn typical. He’s never supported Harry, why would he support him in this?
That’s what this whole article is implying.
All courtships move at different paces. Felipe and Letizia dated for five months and married within a year. Similar timeline for Rania and Abdullah. Both of those marriages going strong.
Harry and Meghan were never apart for more than two weeks, which was plenty for them to figure it out. Not all courtships take 10 years of on-again, off-again, dump you this week, take you back and cheat on you the next like William and Kate.
But maybe it wasn’t possible early in Harry and Meghan’s relationship for his family, William included, to really get to know her very well. She was still working on Suits at the time, wasn’t she? Even if they weren’t apart for more than 2 weeks at a time, as you pointed out, she wouldn’t always be in London or the UK for his family to get to know her very well. In fact Harry went to her a lot of times in Toronto. Plus, I don’t think “rolling out the red carpet” meant meeting her.
Firstly, I doubt Harry ‘forced’ her on anyone, and at the time the Markle family debacle was in the future. William did not know about them yet, to hold against Meghan. He also could have been friendly towards her while still being cautious. Whatever happened to the manners of a prince?
I think William saw the lightning bolt coming and knew how it would make his wife look.
Interesting twist if Charles ordered William and Kate to invite Harry and Meghan for Christmas. So much for the, “Oh Kate is so welcoming, she’s been showing Meghan the ropes for over a year now” idea.
And that twist fits in more with the stories from yesterday about how they don’t get along.
Kate traditionally does not get along with women outside of her sister and mother.
Kate’s friends were all William’s friends first, including the one who got her into William’s circle and the one who runs the orgies.
Meghan’s long-time, not famous best friend was in the quire at the church. Did you manage to miss her in your blind support of W&K?
@AlwaysSalty: Meghan doesn’t only have famous friends, but keep pushing that narrative. Your username suits you well.
Good lord – I wouldn’t believe a word Nicholl says about anything. And I don’t believe for a moment that Windsor was Meghan’s and Harry’s first choice for a “home base”, either. It’s a dull market down, Frogmore is basically a swamp, and it’s directly under the flight path from Heathrow. It ain’t the Cotswolds and it ain’t the Lake District, and the house as it turns out is far less impressive than Anmer House that the Queen gave to the Cambridges. There has also been confirmation that H&M will be giving up Nott Cott when they move, so they will be minus a London base except for rooms in St. James like other royals who aren’t in the direct line of succession.
I doubt this would have been their first choice – but that doesn’t mean they can’t be happy there!
Oh to have such a swamp. It must be horrible to be surrounded by birds, water, wildlife, frogs, peace, privacy and nature. Please oh please, can I have such a home.
Airplane noise would suck, but a trade-off I could make. I used to live 100 feet from the train tracks. I learned to sleep through them for almost 20 years with little problem and it was never a problem for my newborn. He did however start hearing them in the womb, lol.
Why not? They had their engagement photos on the grounds, they had their wedding reception at Frogmore House, and they apparently spent much of their dating time there. Is it so hard to believe they actually *gasp* like the place?
All this gossip and nastiness is coming from a source with inside knowledge of the goings on in KP. No surprise that Harry and Meghan want out of KP.
It appears they love Windsor. If that’s where they wanted to live, a place was found for them by the Queen. From their engagement interview and more, they spent much of their courtship walking around Windsor. And mentioned yesterday, the Heathrow flights aren’t that noisy or big of a deal.
The Queen is in Windsor every weekend, and moving to Windsor for the duration of BP renovations or until she passes. Ditto talk of Charles wanting to be at Windsor when king, not in London. Beatrice and Eugenie and their families will be there eventually at Royal Lodge. Sophie and Edward are there.
Private, near family, away from the paps in London. Sounds like just what they wanted.
@violet. I love your takes on this. Windsor is a dull market town and now it’s a swamp!
It’s okay for people who aren’t the Cambridges to have nice things. It really is.
I actually believe that there could be tension between William and Meaghan, same reason I believed the tiara story and that Harry got his back up. This is a family where there is a hierarchy. William is near the top and I think coming from a normal world Meghan might struggle with that being told she can’t do certain things and work in a certain way because she has to come behind Kate. So I think she and William are butting heads.
Kate had seven years to get to work, build solid projects, and earn accolades. She chose to be lazy just like William chose to be lazy. As written elsewhere, Meghan isn’t stealing Kate’s thunder because there is no thunder to steal.
William doesn’t get to dictate or control Meghan’s work. If William and Kate want better PR, the answer is for them to get off their asses and work more. Not try to use press leaks to bully Meghan into working less.
William didn’t dictate this move, don’t be ridiculous. The Queen and Charles have set up Meghan and Harry in a way that means William cannot touch them. Even if he pitches a fit and decides they cannot have any paid staff? Doesn’t matter, he cannot break their lease at Frogmore Cottage. Nor can he remove any of Harry’s private inheritances.
I can see both sides to this, but I’ve always thought the royals were a bit wary about Meghan simply because they didn’t have the time to get to know her the way they did for, say, Jack. William is notorious for trying to control what information makes it to the press (and for planting lies with friends to test their loyalty), so it makes sense to me—as others said—that he might not have warmed to her immediately and kept some distance since all of it seemed to happen so quickly. He and Kate seem to have an incredibly small and tight group of friends they socialize with. I’m sure the Cambridges’ staff didn’t miss the fact that Meghan or Meghan’s friend leaked that story about Kate not offering Meghan a ride to Lainey, which might not have instilled confidence.
I’m so curious about what Harry wanted from him in terms of a red carpet welcome. He and Meghan did so much traveling to see one another and, as they told us, often spent time away from London when Meghan was in town. Are we talking dinners? Events? A statement of support?
Anyway, the Christmas walk photo op with the four of them and William publicly embracing Meghan in greeting at the one event just after Louis was born suddenly makes more sense.
I actually wonder if Charles or someone in his office is the leak here, just based on the detail that shows him playing the hero role again.
Megan is my new favorite famous person.
She’s got so much to give and I’m good with it.
She’s really using her position to make changes and break molds. Kate is just another pretty face with not much else to it.
I think Megan is a force to be reckoned with and the Royals are a bit off their rockers due to this. An American with a great work ethic? Sounds great to me!
I think Harry for the most part is being unreasonable. Why do he and Meghan act as if they are so groundbreaking, the world should stop and acknowledge them and go out of their way to welcome them. Man and woman fall in love, they marry. Important only to them. I don’t remember him going out of his way to welcome kate? And then he expects his brother, with a pregnant wife, two young children, trying to take on more work to do more to welcome his wife. What did he want? A public ad in the times to welcome them from the Royal Family? From everything it seems like bothe Harry and Meghan are being over indulged. Time to grow up and stop this over the top constant drama , it’s not a M&B romance, for God’s sake.
As for Will, of course knowing all the things they’ve been exposted to, I can understand him being cautious. He saw how his own parents used the media to score points, how his mother undermined the Royal Family. on top of that, he’s always been very protective of Harry and has tried to make sure he got the pyschological help he needed, after he quit the army. My older sister would be just as cautious if I went and married an actor, someone they didn’t know, after a whirlwind romance.
Harry and Meghan, or at least Harry has decided that the world is against them. Not really, most don’t care, besides the fashion and the wedding show.
William uses the media just as much or more than Charles. He has thrown his brother under the wheels of the bus for years, and led him astray with Club H. He’s publicly mocked Harry i interview. He’s not the protective older brother you’re fanfictioning him to be. Let’s not pretend otherwise.
Harry made the point of saying in the engagement interview that he knew pretty much right away she was the one. And spent loads of time scheduling things so she could meet all the friends and family. Harry wasn’t asking William to do that, so I doubt he’d have asked more than, “She’s important to me. Please can you make time to meet her?”.
William and Kate had no problem both dumping their kids on the nanny so they could take separate skiing vacations the same weekend. No reason to think their schedules were so full they couldn’t spend an hour with Meghan.
Oh my God, what has will and Kate done to you. You sound as bad as the dailyfail… seriously
I see pointing out the obvious W&K stan fanfiction gets under some people’s skin.
@Auka it’s what she does.
Better than accepting the silly drivel being peddled constantly by Kate stans.
Amen, nota.
You said, “Harry for the most part is being unreasonable. Why do he and Meghan act as if they are so groundbreaking, the world should stop and acknowledge them and go out of their way to welcome them.” No facts here; just your perceptions. Typical hyperbole and projection. I’ve seen nothing from this couple that equates to your exaggerated descriptions of their public behavior.
If I were second-in-line to the throne, I wouldn’t be trusting by nature either.
Lainey’s take is interesting.
I guess Lainey has access to info via her connection to the Mulroneys? I hope for their sake they are more discreet than that.
Can you recap? I don’t read that blog. One celebrity gossip site is enough for me lol.
Never mind I popped over and read it. I do think its interesting, and the timing makes sense, but I’m not sure I entirely believe it. I would be more inclined to believe it had the Sussex tour of Australia etc not gone so well. I feel like its more typical to see gossipy articles like this over the summer, when the royal work is slower and there is more downtime as far as royal coverage goes.
So given the onslaught of these articles now, the theory about Charles’s biographer does make more sense, as the timing works out in terms of the book being published and additional gossip coming out that wasn’t included. But considering these articles do seem aimed at hurting Meghan and her popularity, the Cambridge theory makes sense too after the popular tour and pregnancy announcement.
I understand of course that it is possible that Meghan is just this awful person and everyone at KP and all staff etc hate her, but I feel like more gossip along those lines would have leaked long before this, even from her Hollywood days, etc. The press has been trying for a long time to get dirt on her and the most they could get from her past -besides the shady Markles – was that one friend from elementary/high school. That doesn’t mean she’s perfect, but it does mean that I am more inclined to believe that she is NOT this heinous pushy diva who texts her staff 24/7.
I also don’t think Charles has an interest in making Meghan look bad. Meghan has been really good for Charles’s image, and while he may like looking the father who holds his sons in line or whatever, I think he is fully aware that getting along with Meghan (even if its just superficially) is good for his image. Maybe he is setting all this up just to swoop in and comfort Meghan as the bad stories continue to break about her, but he seems to be enjoying fairly positive press right now in general so the leaks don’t seem necessary. I dunno.
He’s already seen as the hero for the wedding, plus the leaks about the tungsten nickname, Meghan bringing Harry and Charles closer, Harry and Meghan taking Charles up on his offer of staying with him in Scotland. No need to overegg the pudding, so I doubt Charles is behind this drivel now.
Charles would be so manipulative if he were the one behind all this. Create a problem and then “solve” it by standing by Meghan.
Wasn’t it Charles’ new book which started all of this? The tiara tantrum, Harry being rude to staff, etc?
If any of you had read Lainey’s post last week, you would have understood what is going on. After the tiara story, Lainey said she got information that more bad stories about Meghan would be released in the coming weeks. True to her words, we have seen so much negative stories. Lainey says that most of the negative stories are from Clarence House and BP. Full stop. Its neither from Carole, Will , Kate, Fergie or Andrew. She said every single negative story that has been written since the tiaragate last week were from information that Robert, the journalist who just wrote a book on Charles, got from courtiers in Clarence House and BP. She said the senior courtiers are trying to sow division among the younger royals and are now using Meghan and Kate as pawns. She said she got authoritative information from royal reporters that the ‘Meghan made Kate cry story’ was from information Robert gathered from Clarence House, which he could not use in his book and the courtiers pushed for the story to be published. Two publications were approached but they could not pass the story through the legal department, before it finally appeared in the Daily Telegraph.
Clarence House knows nothing about what goes on with W&K. And Charles has every reason to be seen as welcoming and embracing Meghan and her work ethic.
@Mel this is an interesting take. I’ve also been saying that the release of the book made it open season for the flood of attacks that have happened in the last two weeks. The worst thing is that this was an authorized book sanctioned by clarence house that was critical of his son’s & portrayed Meghan as a diva. I’m surprised much more isn’t being made of the Clarence house connection. There was a documentary a few years ago that said Charles team would leak info to the press about his son’s to portray himself in a positive light such as the time when Charles private secretary had leaked information about Charles sending Harry to rehab after the cannabis incident which turned out to be false.
That is interesting in and of itself. It means that Valentine Low’s tiara story in the Times did pass through legal.
A little off-topic, but those pants that William and Harry are wearing in the bottom picture aren’t really complimentary in the crotch area. Am I honestly the only one who noticed that Harry is a crew-neck, not a turtle-neck?
People complained about Kate not working or doing enough, but when Meghan wants to contribute they tell her it’s Kate’s time? I can’t even.
But we’re in the golden age of Kate!
This was bound to happen:
1. Harry becoming his own man—taking confidence from his success from the Invictus games and now someone (Meghan) to believe in him, someone to prove himself to (Meghan), and being/acting like a grown man with a wife—was going to rub some people the wrong way and crack up that old alliance of funny, sh*t upon, easy going 2nd son. That would upset the dynamic that Willam is used to and what he and Harry fostered.
2. Kate HAS to step up despite being unprepared and apathetic. Charles’ hiring Catherine Quinn to help reshape Kate’s image into a serious seeming contender and not so much of a lightweight is good thing for Kate but bad extremely bad timing for the Sussexes. Kate has to launch.
3. Harry and Meghan both want to “do” something with their roles/platform, e.g., the Commonwealth, Invictus, women’s issues BUT their roles are secondary to W/K in truth. That has to hurt, especially when your ambition and willingness to be out there out-strips the person/people who should be doing the most.
As to point three, they can direct that hard work and ambition outside of royal work. Harry does it with Sentebale, technically with Invictus since that wasn’t counted as royal work until recently. They could establish an outside charity for Meghan which is hers, not tied to royal work, and where she can make a stamp.
Curious if Meghan will be allowed to do outside charity. Sounds like palace is trying to slow her down so she doesn’t outshine the do-littles.
Charles cautioned Harry but didn’t stop him. I cannot see Charles hobbling Meghan.
Did their falling out last for only 1/2 of an hour? Because they seem fine to me now?
Most adult siblings don’t live in each other’s pockets, but that doesn’t sell tabloids.
omg. people, seriously. all this conversation about who works more is ridiculous. those people don’t work. they parade. they show up and smile and shake hands with people. I’m not saying anything bad about them, but I can’t believe how serious everybody here is about their work ethic. as if they were real working people. which they are not. meghan included. she used to work as an actress, okay, but now she’s doing the same thing the rest of them are. she’s more active than kate, but that’s still not worthy of being taken so seriously.
If royal work is so simple and easy, why is it that William and Kate still don’t do as much of it as the royals in their 70s 80s and 90s? Because they’re lazy and don’t care perhaps?
you might be right. william should do better for sure. he’ll be king. kate can do nothing as far as I’m concerned.
@Horseandhound, I’ll use your language. W/K can’t afford to look out-paraded in terms of PR if nothing else.
The new girl, who really is a working class girl at heart, is making things uncomfortable and rocking the boat. How? Well, she’s convinced her (probably) go-along-to-get-along husband that they can increase the number of parades they attend, the quality of floats in the parade, could vary the size of the floats as well as the sophistication of the floats. She probably even suggested throwing a few Mardi Grae bends out to people or launching a few balloons as an example (see Hubb Kitchen & the Community cookbook). The husband said “wow, I’ve kind of struck out on my own to do that. Let’s do it.” His brother and his wife probably said “who in the f*ck is she to change parades as we know it; hell, I’ve worked hard to get people to not expect me to show up at all to the parades. She must be stopped.”
People who have in the past outright refused to attend some of the neighborhood parades, but will attend parades in India, Sweden, Australia or Canada, are being shown up for what they are: work shy parade avoiders.
This is one truism that I’ve learned in life—be it work related or a parade—underachievers do not like overachiever. It makes them look bad.😊😉
she sure is more into it and is more active, I’m not denying that. I just can’t understand why everybody’s discussing this topic as if it was something that it’s not. we can disagree. there is no need to be sarcastic. ps. I’m sure she’s going to do great in all aspects of her royal life. she’s really ambitious and street smart. she’ll always get the praise. I hope she’s as warm as she seems and it’s not all a part of her act. I don’t know yet. maybe we’ll never know.
Horsehound. No. Just no, no, no. Do not read my reply as being sarcastic. That was not my mindset when I wrote it or how I even intended it as coming off. So, no, I’m not going to let you walk away thinking that. Usually, I premise my responses on this subject with the line “what passes for work for them”, so I’m not tripping about what you said. So, please, don’t think I meant any ill will because I didn’t.🤗
It’s always sad when people get mad at you only for holding a different viewpoint. I’m glad that you said that wasn’t your intention. good talking to you.
Would you like to spend your holidays showing up and smiling and shaking hands with people? If you wouldn’t do it for pleasure, it’s work. It’s not working down a coal mine, but it’s work.
I don’t know about your definition of work. there are people who work very hard, but adore that job. so, I’m not sure that definition is accurate. I can see they have a role to play and responsibilities. it’s just that I don’t think their work is hard enough for us to talk about it the way we are here. I don’t think they’re as important as people tend to see them.
To be fair, they don’t work through their holidays. They have plenty of time off during the summer. They go on multiple holidays a year, where they can rest, chill and enjoy their downtime. I don’t consider Royal Tours as holidays. They are there to represent our nation and the Queen. There are workers who do work very hard throughout their holidays to pay the bills, unfortunately.
I love my job, but I wouldn’t do it if they didn’t pay me. I agree that their work is not particularly difficult, but it is tedious and can be time-consuming (if you do it the way Charles and Anne do it). Royal patronage keeps hundreds of tiny charities in the UK afloat. The Queen, Charles and Anne understand the value of royal work. I’m not convinced that the younger generation do.
I think most of the people here discuss work ethic in the context of royal work, which is not as ornerous as what regular people have to do. Which means that when we discuss William and Kate not pulling their weight when it comes to royal work, it makes them look that much lazier. Meghan has come from the real world and no one can seriously suggest that she does not have a work ethic in the regular person sense. She had to hustle to get jobs and even on Suits she had 12 hour days and yet still managed to do some charity work on top of that. There probably is a clash with the courtiers who aren’t used to someone with a real work ethic and I think Lainey’s theory that it’s courtiers from Charles’s court talking makes sense.
Harry just wants to move and set up his own life! Seriously, there should not be so many think pieces on why a 34 year old man wants to move into a comfortable home with his expectant wife. Imo, this is a great move for him. It’s time the focus be solely on William.
They’ll be lucky if theres a monarchy left in 20 years if they’re all acting like petulant attention seekers now….just get out there and work for the UK. God knows we’ve got enough to worry about what direction the country is going in after the disaster that is Brexit and the pigs-ear the government have made of it. There are PLENTY of good causes that need the money now NO MATTER what else is going on.