As we know, the British press – mainly royal reporters – tend to use Queen Elizabeth as a stand-in for their own repressed, neo-colonialist, racist urges. I’ve never seen so many grown men and grown women wail and cry about what Poor Liz feels or thinks than I have recently, with all of these Meghan & Harry stories. The sheer volume of stories and quotes from royal commentators does suggest, to me, that there are different people within Buckingham Palace saying wildly different things about “how the Queen feels” and “what the Queen thinks” about this-or-that having to do with the Sussexes. Some commentators even dared to suggest that the Queen doesn’t even care one way or the other about Harry’s interview with James Corden! That must have disappointed them, because the only way most of the royal media can experience emotion is by expressing it through the proxy of a grumpy 94-year-old woman. Anyway, here’s something: the Queen told Harry that she’s delighted he found happiness. WHAT?!
The Queen told Prince Harry she is ‘delighted he has found happiness’ with Meghan Markle after the couple emigrated to Los Angeles from London – but warned he must uphold his family’s values as he begins life outside the Firm. The ‘harmonious conversation’ between the Queen and her grandson happened over the phone before the Sussexes’ planned incendiary interview with Oprah Winfrey was publicly announced last week, The Mirror reported.
It also came ahead of Prince Harry’s appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, in which the Duke insisted the couple’s shock move to California last year was about ‘stepping back rather than stepping down’ as royals.
Their definitive split from life as working royals followed a telephone conversation between Harry and his grandmother – which saw the 94-year-old monarch tell her grandson she ‘was delighted he has found happiness’ and ‘only wants the best for him and his family’. But Harry stressed he is aware of his ‘duty to the family’ – and has promised ‘never do anything to embarrass them’.
Palace insiders earlier revealed that it was Harry who pushed to restart talks over his and Meghan’s position early this year. They claimed there was a ‘puzzling sense of urgency’ to his requests that perplexed palace officials – but it ‘all became clear’ when news of Meghan’s deal for a ‘tell all’ interview with Oprah broke. And Prince Harry’s ‘unhelpful’ appearance on the Late Late Show today is said to have caused ‘disquiet’ – following an already-tense seven days in Sussex-palace relations.
A source told The Mirror: ‘Harry has spoken to the Queen, and she told him she was delighted he has found happiness. She only wants the best for him and his family. He described it as being free, but he knows he has a duty to the family and he reiterated his promise to never do anything to embarrass them. This is all about moving on, it was a very harmonious conversation between a caring grandmother and her grandson.’
I’ve absolutely lost track of how many different versions we’ve gotten of this series of events. What we know, for sure, is this: Harry and Liz were in communication via phone and Zoom; Harry sought to get the Sussexit terms locked down; the Queen and her people rushed to strip Harry and Meghan of their royal patronages literally as soon as Meghan’s pregnancy was announced and the news of the Oprah interview came out. The stories, details and motives around those events are what changes day by day. I still say the Queen rushed because she wanted to send a clear, vindictive and punitive signal to the Sussexes and to the press. The royal reporters are clearly still processing their loss of control over Harry and Meghan. There’s really no further moves left for the Queen but to wish Harry and Meghan well. There’s nothing else she (or the press) can hold over their heads, honestly.
Meanwhile, it is still so f–king weird to me that Prince Charles has managed to escape saying one word on or off the record about the formalization of the Sussexit. That’s HIS son. His daughter-in-law. His grandchild.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
They are just trying to paint H as the bad guy once again. Granny is sooooo understanding and sooooo delighted and look at what they did to her in response!!! Oh and the whole promising not to embarrass the family??? Um, if Andrew hasn’t embarrassed them yet then nothing Harry can do will because he is a respectable and decent person. And the only people who thought his Corden interview was terrible are the RR and the haters.
Also, I loath the way the Royals use the term “delighted” for everything, ugh.
I don’t believe it for a minute, especially coming from The Mirror.
All of this! They are playing the “poor granny” card again.
It’s a card that will be played until the day she leaves this earth. The same granny who he was told to make an appointment before he could see her? They will continue to spin so many plates of lies and half truths in the air until the interview.
If she was “delighted,” I think it was when he told her that Meghan was pregnant and now the reporters are just extrapolating that out to other things and making up a whole conversation: she’s delighted for their freedom, for his happiness away from them, for his relationship with Meghan, etc. There were mixed reports about if the “palace” knew of Meghan was pregnant, and I think BP and the Queen knew, but not KP and Will and Kate, and all the “no one knew!” quotes were from KP, while all the “of course we knew!” quotes were from BP.
Exactly. My toxic parents do the same—spout off about how they love me and wish me well while at the same time behaving in a completely unloving and unsupportive manner. As my husband points out to me every time they pull this shit, “love” is a verb…and their actions aren’t it!
@cate, I’m so sorry to hear that. I have the same issue with mine but much more with my in-laws. My FIL is an unhinged magat who has the same awful personality disorders as dump himself and my MIL is so passive aggressive I can’t stand it. They are “Christian” and always say the right things to other people but never to us and they sure as hell don’t show it. I haven’t gotten a text or a call from my MIL in months and they have only seen our youngest, who is one, once and don’t even ask to see pics of them or any of our kids for that matter. I’m always the one to send pics if I’m feeling charitable that day. They never check in. This has always been what’s it’s like since we are not the favorite couple of the family but it’s gotten worse since the pandemic and the more they realized we aren’t rabid dump sycophants. Their love sure is conditional.
I agree with you. The haters will criticize anything that they do. I get tired of it, and I hope this period where people are nasty to them ends. Can’t they see that they are victims of a racist press?
“The Crown” may be fictional, but I believe it does give some insight to QEII via her management style. I don’t think she watches a lot of TV, and she has probably never used social media. She has advisors for that, which is why I believe the message is muddled and mixed. Different reports elicit different responses, which are then filtered via the person giving the message.
I think there are two competing factions amongst the grey suits….not good.
Liz has had this job for 68 years. You’d think she would be better at it by now.
To be fair, her position is a difficult one. Her typical advisers counsel would have worked 30 years ago when it was a different time. But post Diana, they have failed to keep up with the changing social and technological landscape and values and are going the way of the dinosaurs. They still think it’s survival of the fittest. It is survival of the most adaptable.
@Elizabeth Regina, you are spot on, “survival of the most adaptable.”
Harry himself said that they get the broad strokes correct.
I don’t believe Queen B😒
Maybe the RRs should wait for the interview to come out before calling it incendiary. H+M have a lot of projects in the works. I assume a good deal of the interview will be dedicated to their charitable goals and priorities.
Right?? It hasnt aired yet, maybe it will just be a two hour nothing burger. (I doubt it, but maybe lol).
Also, the James Corden interview was delightful and the tidbits about the queen and Phillip using Zoom and getting a waffle maker for Archie that they use every morning – that was also delightful. That was a cute story that didnt feel forced and that SHOULD have silenced all the cries about how displeased the Queen is with Harry .
Of course not. They have to pick on them and have no knowledge of how the Queen operates. If she can handle Andrew’s transgressions, she can handle H and M leaving. The JC interview was adorable.
Hmmmph. I don’t know what to believe anymore. I’ll just go with Harry and believe he is still in communication with her and things are civil.
I PERSONALLY feel that she never thought Harry and Meghan would last. That almost everyone in the family believed that Meghan only had the worst of intentions marrying because she’s an outsider. That everyone was convinced that Harry would fall flat on his face outside the system and come running back.
I doubt that the Queen actually trusts Meghan but maybe she can see now that Harry is and will continue to do just fine outside the monarchy.
They obviously never liked Meghan but they didn’t realise how resourceful she and Harry could be as a team. They didn’t expect them to land any decent deals, being used to other royals who tried to get away flopping spectacularly. Harry leaving also made people realise how spectacularly boring, uninspiring and unfit for purpose that family is.
i am utterly aghast by all the different directions the RF is taking – this is like a chicken running without a head, just improvisation every day. Their teams are completely nauseating and a bunch of amateurs. I need another incendiary Oprah interview where I want to have the Queen explain herself, then William could come out taking about why he’s completely incinerated after being incendescent with rage for over a year, and then we could get Kate for a cameo and see if she needs cards to respond candidly on important subjects to her like the big 5 questions and taking notes on the 2 part tart chart. I’m off work today – so I’m commenting.
Thank you @Bibi for that comment!! You are absolutely right!! It is a headless chicken running around spewing different messages because all of the RR’s can’t seem to discuss anything in advance and come up with one clear statement!
Completely incenerated lol 😀😀😀
“Meanwhile, it is still so f–king weird to me that Prince Charles has managed to escape saying one word on or off the record about the formalization of the Sussexit. That’s HIS son. His daughter-in-law. His grandchild.”
I’ve seen it said here and elsewhere that perhaps things will ease when Charles ascends the throne and that he may even try to “fix” the punitive actions the RF took with Sussexit. But I actually think the distance will widen and the Sussexes (Harry in particular) will feel more inclined to have a strict “no contact” policy after Elizabeth is gone. It’s just the vibe he’s given in his appearance on the Corden show and the Oprah promo where he was speaking about Diana. The problem is not just that Charles has remained silent, it’s the PR moves HE and his team made to distance himself from his own son and granddaughter-in-law.
Yup, Charles is a coward and doesn’t want the press to turn on him and risk his chance at the crown. Pathetic.
I get the silence from Charles. He doesn’t want the press to turn on him so he has chosen to remain silent. Clarence House did try to imply that Charles was still paying for Meghan and Harry when they left the UK and that he was helping them to pay for their house. Harry and Meghan had put out statements to deny those claims. But those briefings were done to play into the press’ agenda that Harry and Meghan were struggling financially and would have difficulty in becoming financially independent. As for the Queen, I think someone in the Palace wanted to capitalise on Harry’s nice story about the Queen on James Corden’s show. Increasingly, I’m getting the impression that Queen is not in control and does what the courtiers tell her to do.
Yeah, Charles knows Willnot is behind this, and he’ll turn the RR against Charles in a heartbeat. He’s covardly staying liw. As for the queen, I don’t think she’s ever been in total control. Now, at the age she is, I’m pretty sure the courtiers stears her every direction, and, as others have suggested, there seems to be a “tug of war” between at least two fractions amongst the staff.
I think she is old and doesn’t want to be bothered with details anymore so she lets the courtiers have more power than they deserve. They are a bunch of vindictive jerks who act like their feelings were hurt when Harry married Meghan.
Yeah. “So delighted” that the palaces never said ONE WORD on her behalf when Meghan was receiving death threats, anthrax letters, or her great-grandson was called a chimpanzee by the press. Not a SINGLE thing done to protect her GDIL, who endured stress enough to cause a miscarriage. And let’s be frank: the press, and probably the palaces too, wanted her to miscarry. They wanted Harry to be able to return “unencumbered” to resume the position of The Firm’s scapegoat and whipping boy.
And not one word from Charles about any of this either. It was very telling that Harry has not mentioned his father, or any gestures of support from that quarter: because there haven’t been any.
I really, really hope Hazza drops some truth about his father on March 7.
The current heads of the Royal Family are both racist, toxic, and irredeemable.
The style of royal reporting is so strange to me. Why do they always repeat the exact same sentence over and over? They will have two paragraphs that are virtually identical.
Uneducated is the word you’re looking for, smegmoria. I think they repeat constantly also because they have a message to deliver and their audience are neanderthals.
Please, don’t insult the neanderthals!
Abject apologies, Couch potato.
Although one of them will often be in bold.
I think it’s filler they need to fill the holes around the ads.
And pad out the ‘stories’ which are more opinion pieces than anything.
Good reporting takes resources and skills.
All I can see is on her desk there is a picture of William with his kids. Where are the others? She has other grandchildren and great-grandchildren too. Not even a pic of Andrew, her fave. Just the heirs.
To quote another clever CB commenter, those are the pictures she played games with last year that ended up costing her a grandson.
Charles is keeping silent because he’s still dealing with the fallout from the Crown. Plus he has the added knowledge of what happens when you go against the more popular royal and history finds out how dirty you played.
He is just bidding his time till mummy croaks then he will have free reign over everyone who needs to secure the bag with the royal in charge. Until then, he’s laying low.
Him remaining silent makes things worse. The best PR he had for years is when he showed affection to Meghan
The one thing I believe is that Harry truly loves his gran. While her management style was never exemplary of anything except what not to do, I really think the incongruous pr statements, fumbles and general confusion of the past few years indicate quite clearly that the queen is, at this point, just an old lady being led around by whichever courtiers have weaseled their way to her side. She’s not exactly scrolling twitter for nuanced takes or reading independent media; if anything she’s received highly skewed briefs full of tabloid clippings that paint the picture the courtiers want her to see, and making (poor) judgements based on that. That’s why Harry is always so adamant about trying to speak to her directly, because he knows that any message that arrives at her through her offices or courtiers will be completely twisted until it is unrecognizable from reality or what he wanted to convey.
If that is the case then she is no longer fit to govern and must step down. But she won’t, ever, as we know.
Personally I don’t think it is the case. I think she really does believe there can be a double standard where she cherishes him in private and rebukes him in public. But that stance is still abusive.
Maria, the Queen doesn’t govern. Parliament does. We had a civil war in the sixteen hundreds to take power from the monarchy and let the people rule themselves! The Queen is just a figure-head.
Killfanora – yes, it’s quite understandable how you would think that. Given that the Queen absolutely DOES NOT govern because of the smokescreen of “constitutional crisis” her PR people like to give. In fact, there are several instances of her getting involved in Parliament and even helping select MP’s – you know why she doesn’t intervene when Boris Johnson wants to involve himself in the meeting of Parliament? It’ll get MPs who want to question exactly why they fund her started again.
She has no interest in anything but preservation of her privilege at this point. Witness the Freedom of Information Act delineating that the Royals need not be subject to public inquiry about their finances – and the approximately 1,000 Parliamentary bills that the Queen and Charles have helped kill recently that were financially contradictory to their interests. They’re quite active there. But with protecting Meghan? Nothing.
Also – the English Civil War was much more about the conflicts of major nobility and issues of religion leftover from the Reformation than some quasi-democratic struggle.
Thanks Maria. I’m aware of all the economic reasons that Parliament and Charles 1’s relationship broke down, (including Parliament holding money that Charles wanted for his war with Scotland and Ship Money) as well as troubles with religion in Scotland and Charles’s Catholic wife, all leading to the Long Parliament etc etc. I was just trying to be brief in saying that the Civil War removed the monarch as the ruler and put Parliament in its place.
I’m interested in your assertion that the Queen and Charles have helped kill 1,000 Parliamentary Bills. It’s my understanding that the last time a British Monarch refused to sign a law passed by Parliament (Royal Assent) was 1707. Can you clarify?
The issue about the Queen and Charles helping to kill different Parliamentary bills in private was discussed in a Guardian article in the middle of February.
PS sorry about my tartness – there have been a lot of clueless angry anti-Meghan Brits (not you obviously) baiting me on various harmless social media posts this week so I got sensitive lol.
Maria…thank you. I’ll research the Guardian article. Am a staunch Harry/Meghan defender myself too, and frequently go head to head on social media with ignorant idiots attacking them. So up and at it fellow soldier! 😉
I think you’re right about this.
@Sunday You are absolutely correct!!!!
100%
@Maria, that Guardian article pointed out that the Queen was consulted on over a thousand bills and that some MPs felt that the necessity for that consent incumbers the parlimentary process. They didnt however provide any examples of her witholding her consent in order to influence the passing of the bill.
Isn’t this all courtiers and behind-the-scenes staff and like competing households trying to “sway influence” via press announcements? I just imagine courtiers doing and undoing and they come to her and at this point I just imagine she’s like okay whatever. Like there’s is still a pandemic, she’s been out of her usual routine and shut in for months, Philip is seriously ill, and she still has to do her day-to-day work. No one except someone with a power hungry personal vendetta could be this relentless, and at this point I just think that sounds like courtiers and William, not her or even Charles. Its like when grandma is just frail and tired and only the devious kids or grandkids pretending to be caretakers are left slap fighting over the will.
I agree. I think that we overestimate how in touch with reality the queen and charles are – for *decades* their relationship to every aspect of the outside world has been carefully managed and curated by their employees. That would warp even the strongest mind; when literally every bit of media, every access to technology, every interaction is meticulously planned and produced and managed, how do you continue to discern fact from fiction? We see how easily less digitally-savvy people are influenced and manipulated by misinformation, and how that problem is exacerbated by age – the queen is 94 and Charles is in his 70s! Now multiple those factors by the scores of courtiers who have their own agendas to promote, their own axes to grind. Throw in even just one royal participant “will”-ing to bend them to his own aims and it’s a virtually insurmountable mountain for anyone to fight, let alone an aging monarch in a gilded tower.
I think that in private prince charles is kicking himself over the fact that he didn’t do more to keep harry. Then again, he could still speak out about it if he wanted to but clearly he is afraid. It’s just funny to me because when he eventually does ascend the throne, he’s going to need harry in his corner.
I don’t believe there will be any shocking bits to the Oprah interview, I absolutely don’t believe H&M will air any dirty laundry. They are too smart to fall for that. I think the previews show us all the ‘dirt’ there is. I believe H&M will discuss their charities and their most recent victories against the British Press.
I agree. I don’t see any reason for them to go back and bring up the past. They may speak in general terms, but no pointing fingers as they are much too classy for that.
I don’t think they’ll say anything about the RF, but I do think they’ll say a few words about the RR. I also think Oprah will clip in the headlines to really show the watchers what M’s talking about. If people around the world see it lined up, one horrible headline after another, they’ll realise what H&M are talking about when they say harassment. if the clapback on the press gets to hard. The press might start telling who’s been feeding them the stories, and THAT’s what the RF really have to fear!
Just another preemptive article because the palaces know they have much to fear if truths come out.
I’m starting to wonder if the queen is fully aware of all the unbiased facts or just getting shot told to her by self serving royals and courtiers. I’m sure Harry knows the truth And still speaks to his grandparents because there is still affection.
I’m willing to bet Harry told the queen privately about the interview and once the courtiers found out the leaks and agendas came out.
Of course the Queen isn’t aware of all the details. Of course courtiers are tailoring information to steer toward a particular outcome. She’s been taking their ruthless advice and direction ever since she refused to allow Princess Margaret to marry Peter Townsend in the 1950s.
To this day I still don’t understand the strategy of the RF regarding H&M. Standing with them could have been their way to get rid of the royal rota and regain control over the narrative.
If I were William I would just leaked the story about Rose and control the narrative. People love when celebrities makes mistakes, it would have been a redemption story for him, how it made him a better man. Kate would have the image of the wife who stayed to fight for the marriage. Everyone loves those type of stories.
The Rose story would not have worked in his favor ; he would have been seen like his father cheating on his dutiful wife and children.
The public would have slammed him and he does not want to have any type of comparison to his father. The media’s interpretation of Will and Kate is that their love story is possible because the royal family learned a lesson by keeping Charles and Camilla apart for so many years. If William cheated, it would have been seen as a slap in the face and an indication that if the royals are just like us then why are they needed. I’m also sure that his grandfather
has told him over the years, keep your ish to yourself and don’t let it get out and if it does deny deny denyyyyyyyy.
I’m not sure about this take. The public loved Diana. I don’t think they love Kate. Diana was so much younger than Charles, completely inexperienced, and she was all alone. Kate is older, a university graduate, and has the Middletons on her side.
I don’t think the public wouldn’t take William’s “betrayal”* of Kate as personally as they did Charles’ “betrayal”* of Diana. Kate’s not sympathetic enough.
*I’m putting “betrayal” in quotes because I don’t know what sorts of marital arrangements these aristos have. As much as Will plays at being middle class, I suspect he has very upperclass notions about the acceptability of marital infidelity.
The royal rota has been keeping the royals’ secrets for YEARS in exchange for access. So the RF can’t just cut them off without tons of secrets coming out. I think this is why they maintain the relationship. Plus they are too stupid to try to get ahead of whatever secrets might come out. I also think they all – William, especially, as we saw with Harry and Meghan – enjoy having “reporters” they can leak to to get their “side” out.
This tells me that they don’t have anything on Harry or Meghan because at this point they would have exposed any remaining secrets. But they always hint so massively there is a lot on William that hasn’t been revealed.
“…and has promised ‘never do anything to embarrass them’.”
Of course not, the BRF has Andrew for that and he is outstandingly good at it.
+1!
What about Kate’s Flying Hems ™?
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this actually IS Charles’s PR in action. Very “nothing to see here” and finally making a move after allowing Little Willy to have his tantrums all over the press for months. Refuse to acknowledge the problem, revise, and reframe. Remember, Charles was more than happy to publicly welcome and use the Duchess of Sussex to improve his own image.
Hmmm. Never have I seen so much angst over what the truth may reveal. Guilty consciences abound.
Lizzie’s full of it. She’s so happy that she does everything to do the opposite. Ugh. She’s the reigning definition of how not to be a mother/grandmother.
Lizzie is the Queen and working for the monarchy.
Exactly–she IS the monarchy, and she’s working for HERSELF while living off the taxpayers’ money. Time to get rid of this archaic structure that does nothing for the people.
This feels like a complete left turn and probably decided after Harry made her look like a loving grandmother again and not a cold hearted b*tch.
Happy positive people don’t give complain-about-everything interviews. But instead they do something positive and rather talk about that. But I just hear that they talk about stuff they allegedly overcame and allegedly left behind. And they are still talking about that. And they are still using their royal office titles although they no longer do the office work.
Your comment is absurd. Of course “happy positive people” can discuss the things that have happened in their lives, both good and bad.
Kirsty, since the interview hasn’t happened, it’s interesting that you’ve decided it will be a “complain-about-everything” interview. Aren’t there other Dukes and Duchesses who use their titles, but are not working members of the royal family–or of the royal family?
Happy positive people are honest about what they are going through and they shouldn’t be shamed into pretending everything is ok when its not. The royal family needs to stop this pattern of trashing the married-in ones and the spares and using them as scandal cover. And trying to crush them when they complain. Its sick and people should be demanding better.
The brf trying to save face. They know it is only a matter of time now before they become totally irrelevant. People are waking up to their bs. Burn it all down and drown the ashes.