As someone who consumes a lot of royal media (partly for the job, partly because I like the soap opera), I have to say that People Magazine’s royal coverage has not been all that great recently. I think it’s because there are genuine “sides” and they are wary of alienating readers who want sugary coverage of Keen Kate, and likewise alienating readers who want a proper account of the Sussex saga. It wasn’t like this in the ‘80s and ‘90s: American media was automatically on Princess Diana’s side. She was their golden goose. There must be some concern at People Mag that they can’t go all-in with Meghan OR Kate, so they have opted out of a lot of the trickier discussions and stories. Like, People didn’t even put the Sussexes’ Oprah interview on their cover last week even though it was a MAJOR gossip story. And now this week’s cover is about how the palace is reacting to the interview. Hmm.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey continues to send shockwaves through the royal family. As the royals and their staffs digested the various claims and counter-claims in the wake of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s sit-down, there was “anger,” a palace source tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story: “There were genuinely mixed emotions and deep sorrow and shock there too.”
Among many stunning revelations in the interview, Meghan, 39, said she had suicidal thoughts and that there were “concerns and conversations” within the royal family about how dark her son Archie’s skin might be. Harry also said that his father and brother are “trapped” within the monarchy.
Before the interview, The Times in the U.K. reported that the Duchess of Sussex faced a bullying complaint made by one of her close advisers during her time as a working royal at Kensington Palace — allegations her office has strongly denied. “The Duchess is saddened by this latest attack on her character, particularly as someone who has been the target of bullying herself and is deeply committed to supporting those who have experienced pain and trauma,” a spokesperson added in a statement. The palace has set up an inquiry and will likely bring in an outside law firm to assist. “For [some staffers] there was real stress and real trauma,” one source tells PEOPLE of the discomfort of revisiting the painful period. “These are real people and there is a human toll.”
As the aftershocks of the interview continued to be felt, both princes — who were once so close — separately took time to honor their later mother Princess Diana on what was Mother’s Day in the U.K. on March 14. William released pictures of cards his children had made for “Granny Diana,” while Harry ensured flowers were placed on Diana’s resting place at the Spencer family home, Althorp.
“It’s a sad state of affairs, because William and Harry could have been so brilliant” as a team, a close insider tells PEOPLE. “To think of what they could have achieved together is almost heartbreaking.”
Yeah, we get it, palace peeps watched the Oprah interview and their first instinct was not “holy sh-t, we had no idea how traumatic these past years have been for Meghan and Harry.” The reaction was RAGE. Spite! Jealousy! ANGER. And there’s not even any way that the Windsors’ inappropriate reactions can be spun either. The Windsors want us to know that they’re terribly enraged. And then to end it with “William and Harry could have been so brilliant…” They’re really lamenting the fact that Harry grew up and grew tired of his brother bullying him and being a rage monster. They’re mad that Harry married Meghan. Full stop.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
People magazine is a british royal family pr arm who’s trying to make the royals happen in the US. And ofcourse the initial reaction is anger. They are angry that meghan and harry have all the freedom to pushback and people are actually going to listen. They are upset because m&h got powerful allies in the US media. The windsors could be canceled for good with exception of that island.
Yup. Anything published by People should be looked at as a paid advertorial from the RF. People just created that quarterly magazine specifically to highlight the royals, which we know the RF agreed to because they’re desperate to encroach on the American audience so as not to be completely overshadowed by the Sussexes. That’s why while People may publish tidbits here and there that seem pro-Sussex, they are never going to go all in against the RF because without their cooperation that shiny new quarterly is doomed.
Since People now has a royal edition, shouldn’t they be saving this info for that? What’s the point of buying the quarterly if all of the gossip was already in the original People? And it’s not like the royals do enough and are exciting enough to fill an entire magazine.
I am a bit flummoxed about the BRF wanting in on the US market. Ultimately, what’s important is their image in the UK – and I honestly don’t think that it is THAT damaged there because the smear campaign against the Sussexes seem to have been partially successful because Meghan is black and because it has been framed as them insulting the Queen. Charles’ image isn’t great in the UK but I don’t think that William and Kate’s image has suffered much. In my experience, the people of the UK generally don’t pay that much attention to the royals beyond big events – and there’s a knee-jerk reverence when the Queen is brought up because she’s been on the throne forever.
I dunno. It seems that the BRF’s image has taken a major hit internationally but not so much in the UK and ultimately it is their image in the UK that matters for their survival. And as long as they have the press essentially acting as Palace propaganda I don’t see their reputation plummeting.
@ArtHistorian the BRF is like that spoiled bully kid with all the toys, but they see a kid with something they don’t have and they immediately want it too. So they try and snatch it away. Plus the royals, especially Charles remember Diana’s popularity in the US and they are jealous of a repeat of that.
I’m pretty sure that People mag also did not cover the controversy over the birth certificate, which many other us outlets did. I wondered why not and thought maybe that story was too obviously sympathetic to Meghan.
Also, The Atlantic mag has a writer that has really annoyed me and just wrote an article called “Meghan didn’t do the work.” People mag is one thing but I was surprised by The Atlantic and wrote my very first complaint. Grrr.
@JT, in general it whets the appetite of their audience so they want even more coverage, but it’s also sort of like separating hard-hitting news from an op-ed section. So for People, coverage in the regular publication means it’s newsworthy journalism (LOLOLOL) while coverage in the quarterly is entirely sugary fluff for PR purposes. So, they cover the scandal in the least scandalous way possible in their regular magazine, and then do a full spread on Kate’s love of the outdoors and how that makes her such an exciting future queen in the quarterly.
PEOPLE magazine’s nickname is KNEEPADS for a reason. They are not known for quality journalism, they are for PR and surface entertainment only. I stopped even glancing at it years ago. It’s a step up from US which is more tabloid driven. With KNEEPADS, it’s more of a ‘QUID PRO QUO’ between PR and Communications teams and the magazine. The first groups get their publicity with a lot of fluff and no hard questions and the magazine sells to people who like fluffy or are sitting in countless waiting rooms. It’s PR releases with lots of color pics.
What was it Jeff Goldblum’s character said in THE BIG CHILL, “No story can be longer than the average sh-t.”
The Windsors are in sheer panic mode and they think People will come to the rescue. They are flinging every emotion against the wall to see what sticks. Their reputation as an inbred, emotionally stunted family has taken another huge hit and to make things worse, the Sussexes are not only financially independent, they have powerful allies. Propping up the Maga 7 will not work as they range from boring to unappetising. The best thing for them to do is shut down the leaks, apologise and present a united front.
It all comes back to jealousy. You’re right @arthistorian, the royals should only car about their reputations in the country that they “rule.” They should only care about the people whose taxes support them, and yet they’ve been pushing hard into the American market on H&M’s back. At this point no British person should even ask why Americans talk about them; the royals want us to. And apparently they need us to care.
The emotion they are all feeling is shame. They are angry at Harry and Meghan for making them feel ashamed of their terrible behavior.
@sunday thanks for the explanation, because it wasn’t making any sense to me. Lol.
People magazine needs to read the room. Sugary profiles of a lazy mean girl and her rage-aholic husband look ridiculous at this point.
Not really. Support for the Sussex’s falls along political lines with Republicans supporting the RF and liberals supporting Harry and Meghan. People wants to keep their conservative and liberal readers.
The Windsors are analogous to Trump. They have the Magas, white supremacists, older gen, etc. But their heart pines for the cool crowd; Hollywood, young people, glamor and anything that hides what’s behind their facade. That’s located in the US market and viewed on a world wide stage.
“For [some staffers] there was real stress and real trauma…”
JFC…really?!?
I need to go punch a wall.
Everybodys feelings seem to matter except meghans
Black women, don’t feel stress or trauma.
The staff was stressed because they had to do real work for the first time in their lives. That’s not bullying.
Seeing your boss pop by the office several times a day instead of once a month is really PTSD-triggering. One time she asked a staffer for coffee *shudders* She also brought in ice-cream for everyone. The cruelty of this woman is endless.
Don’t forget the 5 am emails and her forgetting to pick up the phone once
They really expected Harry and Meghan to take that abuse and racism and being constantly thrown under the bus to protect other members because they couldn’t handle backlash. They know Meghan didn’t do anything wrong. It was what she represented that has them angry. They only want Harry back because they know William, Kate, Charles and Camilla and the others arent enough. He was the one, along with the Queen to keep that monarchy afloat but they let jealously, pettiness and racism get in the way. These are the consequences.
What are you saying, the magnificent 7 is not enough?
No one told Cain he had the Charisma of a dead fish. His wife speeches need close caption, the English can’t understand her English.
Lol! They’re angry because they know this to be true.
Harry is the one with the star power and very high emotional intelligence. He makes people pay attention. The others are emotionally stunted, look very ill at ease at engagements and you just know they really do not want to be there. Well Maga 7, the stage and spotlight you all wanted is all yours.
Their obsession with Harry and with the idea that William and Harry should be a “team” doing everything together, even into their 40s, is so weird to me. Was there ever this sort of hand wringing obsession with Andrew and Charles needing to do everything together including living and working and having a joint foundation and joint patronages with each other? Did anyone ever think that the success and future of the monarchy hung on making sure Andrew was out there working for them and smiling in pictures with his brother? Did the entire monarchy ever hinge on Margaret and her work and her relationship with the Queen? Did the Queen and Margaret do joint engagements and have joint patronages and causes ever? This seems to be a burden that they’re placing only on Harry because they know that Will is so inept and unlikeable.
Honestly, I feel like they always knew that Charles, despite his flaws, was capable of being a solid Prince of Wales on his own, without any support from his brother or anyone else. William, on the other hand, is completely worthless. He’s lazy, has zero charisma, and doesn’t connect with people the way Harry does. I think the palace knows that in order for William to be an even half-way decent Prince of Wales he has to have his harder-working, more charismatic brother by his side to help prop him up.
@Kristin: and Harry is (quite literally) not there for it!
Cain and Harry could’ve been brilliant as a team, yeah right, Harry doing all the heavy lifting and Cain getting all the credit.
The Palace mistake was thinking that Harry was going to be the court jester for Cain, the BM really did a job on making Harry out to be dim, when you put the brothers work efforts side by side, Cain pales in comparison.
Could not even finish his Air Ambulance training, missed worked often, someone else had to pick up the slack.
I think Harry and Meghan have had enough and will respond to any lies the palaces put out about them swiftly. The palaces leaked that Harry spoke to Charles and Cain, when Harry replied that it was unproductive, they got pissy.
The comments about Harry and William being brilliant together, the face of the monarchy, etc – it reminds me of when Republicans here screech about bipartisanship now (when they havent cared about that in years), but what they really mean is “do what we want.” They’re not willing to be bipartisan. They just want the Dems to give in to their demands. The same thing here – its not about Harry and William working TOGETHER, its about Harry being the spare for all eternity, with everything that means in Windsor dynamics.
So nobody over there doesn’t think that it is a problem that the future king can’t stand on his own? Nobody is questioning why William needs to shoulder the burden of being king at 40? Why is it that the “irrelevant 6th in line” was the face of the monarchy and not the future monarch? Even Charles, the direct heir, is not considered the face or all that relevant when it comes to the press.
I would have more respect for them over there if they just come right out and say that no, Harry isn’t actually irrelevant. Yes, he was the face of the firm instead of the FK and FFK. And yes, Harry was shouldering the monarchy along with the queen.
Becks1, v good analogy, and finally I think good people who’ve wanted to believe, or naive people who did believe, are recognizing the sham of it all. The bullying has been so full on, so unmasked and out in the open, from so many directions for the past few years, once you see it, you can’t unsee it… And there’s a clear white supremacy and patriarchy revealed in so much of it. I think H&M are really leading the way in fighting this. Same w Angelina. And their allies in the media, politics, entertainment, etc.
Is it not typically the spouse that is there to “shoulder the burden”?
The editor of People is British who probably wants to side with the Windsors but knows his American audience cares more about Meghan and Harry. As for the family they only saw Harry as a tool to gain popularity and to throw under the bus when they want to hide dirt.
Yeah but William was the one who got jealous of the Sussexes. Sure the spotlight (barely since even the UK can’t stop talking about the Sussexes) is on him and Kate, but in 10-15 years time when his kids are all adults/teenagers, the attention will be on them rather than their parents because the press will be screaming “royal wedding!” if the kids step out with someone not related to them and just general young adult/teenager gossip and drama that will surround them.
What will William do then? Go into an incandescent rage over his own kids?
Well judging by how Charles often used Harry as a distraction when he was much younger, the answer is yes. I can easily see Wilma the Incandescent doing the same. He is all about saving face and saving his own skin.
People magazine isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Sanitized racism.
Why do they think it’s a good look to be continuously angry? I don’t get their media strategy. Doy they think people will empathize with them being angry at hearing the interview, when in fact, a real caring family’s reaction would be horror/concern, that Meghan and Harry went through all that and they either didn’t know or didn’t care.
ITA, @MyTwoCents! This willingness to embrace the “angry” image is baffling. Do they think it makes them look like strong leaders-don’t cross them lest you incur their wrath?
Get some therapy for these anger issues. Get angry about real problems in your life, not about drama you manufactured and manipulated,.
Pre social media, the threat of not crossing the RF and press used to work a treat as people did not know any better. We used to believe everything in the press as there was no way pf verifying anything. Nowadays with their very diminished popularity and with everyone having a platform, small as some might be, those threats no longer work. Also Millennials and GenZs are much more emotionally, socially and politically aware and have higher expectations beyond waving and cutting ribbons.
We really didn’t believe everything in the press. People have been complaining about the press since there’s been a press. Social media just makes the disagreement more visible.
I think they think if they keep saying they’re SO ANGRY, people will start to assume that there must be something to be angry about. If people didn’t watch the interview, or if they watched it but are susceptible to propaganda that makes them forget/doubt what they actually saw and heard with their own eyes and ears, they’re going to keep seeing “incandescent with rage,” cited as the family’s response and think that Harry and Meghan must have made some really horrific, mean, below the belt comments about the royal family and they will then believe that the Sussexes are petty, angry, vindictive, and malicious—like that one RR article we covered recently that started with “Harry and Meghan, their voices dripping with anger, petulance, vindictiveness, and malice….”—and that the royal family is right to be offended and upset about the supposed explosively mean interview the Sussexes gave in which they attacked all members of the royal family personally. If they keep repeating that the Sussexes interview was a shocking attack on the BRF that left the BRF blindsided, offended, and angry, then people will start to believe it. It’s working already. People really think the BRF deserves to be raging because the Sussexes lied and smeared and name-called the Queen out of nowhere, for no reason.
Exactly! I’ve tried to post something like this while commenting on other article yesterday. Though much less articulate, I’m afraid.
“These are real people”. Is Meghan not a real person? Harry can’t be brilliant without Will or vice-versa? Where is the “we are happy for Harry that he has found a way to support himself”? There haven’t even been announcements or congratulations on H&M having a baby. So much for being doting grandparents who miss Archie.
There was a statement from BP shortly after the Sussex announcement about the pregnancy, the usual “delighted” and “wish them well”.
One person and one person only is responsible for this ‘disaster’: William, King of the Gammons. He is his father on steroids. Narcissistic, arrogant, entitled, and jealous. Everyone and everything is supposed to play a supporting role to his ego.
It is going to suck for him when Covid starts to fade and Harry and Meghan are back out in full force with things like the Invictus Games. Or if Meghan releases another SmartWorx line. Or any of the MANY things they have on the go globally.
Completely true about People. They’re straddling the fence until they see which way the wind blows. When they start to see a clear winner they’re going to ditch the other side. Also true about the palace anger over Meghan. They think she messed everything up but the military changed him because he took it seriously. I remember an interview he did when he first left and he said he was struggling to find his place within the royal family and I remember thinking he might end up miserable because he was so happy being a leader and to have to take mainly 3rd place behind the mediocre Cambridges was going to be torture. He was also notorious for being a hard worker and pushing the people working for him. Meghan gave him the confidence to get away. All those years of manipulation went out the window, but they can’t blame it all on her, if he’d just put on a show like most of the royals are notorious for doing he would have split with Meghan and dealt with the life of drinking and freakery
Oh, they knew for a long time Harry had been talking about wanting out. He said it in interviews for God’s sakes! It took finding the right woman, one who gave him the confidence to take his stand, to draw his line in the sand and say “No more!” to the same crap they did to his mother. In one interview, Meg said that she and Harry talked about him/them leaving “The Firm” before they were even married; it was always on his mind to get out from under them.
He finally had something he could loose by staying.. I agree that he wanted to leave years earlier the military was an acceptable step out of the palace gates.. I truly believe he was behind the step back and the move, Meghan left her old life for a new life with him, how could he not do the same for her when his way of life was attacking her relentlessly, it is what a healthy married couple should do.
He finally had something he could loose by staying.. I agree that he wanted to leave years earlier the military was an acceptable step out of the palace gates.. I truly believe he was behind the step back and the move, Meghan left her old life for a new life with him, how could he not do the same for her when his way of life was attacking her relentlessly, it is what a healthy married couple should do.
Of course they were mad. They pulled back the curtain on the royals/press relationship, and spilled just enough tea that people knew there are much worse things to be shared.
but oh well, maybe they should be such racist a-holes then.
Why are they trying to happen in the US?
Branding, tourism and foreign investment I think, esp post Brexit. They’re also opening up visas for Americans to go work there apparently.
OMG why would any American want to go work in the UK after hearing about how Meghan was treated by her Firm? She was denied HR protection, all of her staff were lazy and mean to her, everyone was ready to hate her before she even started because she was American, and they constantly leaked about how her specifically American work ethic of… you know, working…. was offensive and soul crushing to them. If anything, this has turned me off to ever wanting to live or work in the UK, and I’m a white woman.
Yeah, exactly. Between the xenophobia and racism that’s been exposed and on blatant display at the moment, what American in their right mind would want to set foot on that island?
It’s the funniest thing, I had a white British client that moved to the US with his family and he used to, without thinking twice, make the most xenophobic comments in front of anyone who would listen to his BS about Americans. He would talk down to people and act as if he was the smartest person in the room. He wasn’t. He made a big stink when I was made head of the team working on his project. I’m Asian. He was arrogant and dismissive until he realized he couldn’t get rid of me because all the ideas he liked were mine. Another client heard him going off on one of his xenophobic rants and asked him, “ If you Brits are so much smarter and Britain is so great, why are you living here? Why did you move your whole family here?” It effectively shut him up for the rest of the day.
Those people have a lot of anger issues. I’d suggest therapy but we all know how THAT will end.
So riddle me this: Is Harry irrelevant? That’s been the party line for months now. And if so, why is he now viewed as “the future of the monarchy”? How can someone who can slide into irrelevance so easily ever have been that important, particularly when they were 6th in line to the throne?
So Palace Comms Team continues to suck at their job.
I think what they were always trying to say is that Harry is good and necessary for the monarchy but Meghan is irrelevant. The fact that they suddenly, upon meeting her, decided that Harry’s wife actually probably shouldn’t be a working royal with staff and security protection, while her husband would continue to be a working royal is pretty illustrative of that idea.
How do they get to keep pushing this Will & Harry were the future stuff when they didn’t even want to fund the lifestyle/duties of Harry’s wife? How did they want him to maintain his profile as a senior royal, but didn’t think his children deserved security protection?
If you ask me, People has clearly picked a side. That their first reaction to the interview is to highlight the royals’ side, despite it completing undermining and invalidating M&H’’s experiences, says enough.
You can register a complaint through the Meredith Corporation, which owns People Magazine.
I read the headline and I snorted. “These are real people and there is a human toll.» yeah you don’t say.
I think Meghan said something very similar to this and she said it first
He finally had something he could loose by staying.. I agree that he wanted to leave years earlier the military was an acceptable step out of the palace gates.. I truly believe he was behind the step back and the move, Meghan left her old life for a new life with him, how could he not do the same for her when his way of life was attacking her relentlessly, it is what a healthy married couple should do.
People is officially on the “No fly list” now. The way they are propping up the other royals is shameful.
What makes me angry is the top photo of their breath being caught in cold weather. If ever there was a reason to wear a mask, there it is. And yet they choose to wear them whenever it suits, or not at all if cameras are nearby and ready to catch your one dash for out and out notoriety.
Of course they’re angry. They’ve been exposed as the lying hypocrites they are. So of course. As if People would tell us “what’s really going on.” Sure.
Seriously, these two (W&K) are going to bring down a 1000+ year old institution in their lifetime.
It is pretty remarkable.
The whole thing about a 1200-year-old institution is PR. The Windsors are newcomers, German distant relatives. Not to mention the crown had passed through multiple different houses in history as well.
Why isn’t the perfect person to back up the future King his future Queen Consort? The Queen’s father leaned on his wife not his brother so why doesn’t William look to Kate as his partner? I find it so odd that this narrative leaves the future queen completely out of the picture.
Because Kate has neither the inclination to work nor the ability to speak publicly .
I don’t know if it’s how it was edited or if it was intentionally carefully worded from the original source, but “For [some staffers] there was real stress and real trauma” does not actually assign blame to anyone for causing the stress and trauma. It just leaves it for people to assume it was Meghan.
I had a job right out of college that I was completely unqualified for and you can bet it caused me stress every day and that cumulative effect of that stress was a bit traumatic. I still get a little tense thinking back to how scared I was every day that my boss would ask me to do something I wouldn’t be able to do. So if Meghan was asking staffers to do their job, and that was new for them, that could be stressful and traumatic. This statement seems to want to imply (from the context of the investigation), but avoids saying, that Meghan caused the stress, when there could have been “real stress and real trauma” caused by the staff’s ineptness.
US puff press is not going to help the Windsors. US serious press is mostly Team Sussex. It doesn’t help that the BRF ha the ringing endorsement of Donald Trump, the Insurrectionist in Chief, right after he slagged Meghan.
King William the Angry
Always with the anger.
Agreeing that the brothers could have been ‘so brilliant’ together, another palace insider added, “The Duke of Cambridge has been playing ‘Rolling in the Deep’ on repeat, and his aides have reached out to [singer] Adele to ask if she could record a custom ringtone of ‘We could have had it aaaallll’ for the lonely elder prince.’”
I agree with Aquarius. The Windsors getting support from People and tabloids isn’t going to help their image here. Legitimate news sources are picking up on what was done to Meghan. They are doing their own investigations. The NY Times had the story about the Sun paying for dirt on Meghan. They are seeing how the Windsors are behaving and calling foul.
Wait…they’re angry?!?!?!
I.Am.Shocked.
Shocked I say.
I’ve had “You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton going through my head whenever I think about this for a couple days. “When you’re gone, I’ll go mad.” Hmm.
The royal family will never NOT be the royal family. No one can “undo” them. Ever. A hundred years from now, the royal family will still exist, no matter who marries who, or who gives an interview to who. All the current royals need to do is sit back and be quiet. Nothing can touch them. No person or embarrassing event ever has or ever will.
I disagree. It’s a process, but other long lasting dynasties of royal families got their heads cut. The British royal family is the next, few people trust them, other than supremacist white people. It won’t stand for so long, those are not values of the 21th
Just an aside – what is going on with Prince Charles?
He looks like he was over-inflated by a bicycle pump…