The way the Duke and Duchess of Sussex exposed – nay, ethered – the Windsor klan will be studied for years. Much like Princess Diana’s famous Martin Bashir interview exposed the facade of the fairytale royal marriage, the Sussexes have exposed (in their own way) so much of the incompetence, racism and clownery of ALL of the palaces, all of the royal courts. I’m also curious about the fact that it feels like Harry insinuated that the Queen is no longer in charge, that Charles is the de facto regent, that his relationship with his grandmother is fine and it’s only the people around her who do the real damage. With that in mind, Us Weekly has a story about how the Queen has been working nonstop to repair the damage in the wake of the Oprah interview.
A royal mess. Queen Elizabeth II has not stopped working to repair her family’s name after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s explosive tell-all interview. “She has barely had any time to herself since the interview and has been in constant crisis meetings,” a source exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.
While the monarch, 94, has not watched the March 7 special, according to the source, Buckingham Palace aides “thoroughly briefed” her on the claims that Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, made about the royal family.
“The queen has always had a soft spot for Harry and looked out for him, so [she] is incredibly hurt and shocked that it has come to this,” the source tells Us. “She’s trying to be understanding and see things from Harry’s perspective, but the allegations he and Meghan have made are hard for her to digest. The interview has wreaked havoc on the royal family.”
“The allegations he and Meghan have made are hard for her to digest…” Eh. Again, I have my doubts about how much awareness Liz had pre-interview, and she doesn’t seem particularly broken up about it post-interview. There were claims that she would assume the role of Sherlock Petty and speak to William and Charles about racism, but I actually think the story about hiring an outside law firm is the biggest signal that Liz wants all of this off her plate. She wants Charles and William to clean up their own mess and she actually does NOT want her grandson Harry to be smeared to kingdom come. But we’ll see if she actually follows through on any of that.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and WENN.
Some CEO she is…in constant crisis meetings for an interview she…hasn’t even watched?
What normal person running a normal company could get away with NOT WATCHING THE THING CAUSING THE CRISIS OMG.
Do these weirdos really think they’re doing her a favour and making her look good?
Exactly. How do you try to claim someone is in charge who doesn’t have first-hand knowledge of what is going on. You also can’t paint her as loving grandmother who cares about Harry if she is unwilling to see for herself what he has to say.
right?? It doesn’t make any sort of sense. If she’s that involved to be in constant crisis meetings, then surely she would want to watch the interview for herself to ascertain tone, expression, context, etc. So, either they’re lying about her not watching it or they’re lying about her being in all these crisis meetings but either way the narrative makes no sense.
With everything else being speculated about re: her control (or lack thereof) over the palace and her courtiers, I would believe that they didn’t let her watch the interview for herself and then completely misconstrued/exaggerated what was really discussed and how it was said to suit their own agendas. By “in constant crisis meetings” they mean the courtiers have been briefing her constantly, putting their own spin on all of it. It’s not like she’s gathered them all into Buckingham Palace Conference Room 1 to strategize a comms response plan.
Chile, if this was anyone else she would be fired for her incompetency. Her best virtue is that sh3 is a dutiful servant to the crown and takes it seriously. That’s also her worst trait. She can’t see beyond that.
If only she would understand that the healthier and happier her family are, the more unified the BRF is and everything else will fall into place. She is awful. Charles and William may have started this mess but she created the circumstances in which this mess was even allowed to begin.
This is just my little old opinion but if the Queen really wanted to fix things with the Sussexes, she should have sent out a statement from the family condemning the way Meghan and her friends and family were spied on by the Sun. I think that would have went a long way towards dispelling the notion that the family was in bed with the press to smear Meghan. Instead it was *crickets*. So they can bumble around all they want but until they do some serious outreach to the Sussexes nothing will change and they’ll still look out of touch.
Why should she fix things with the Sussexes though? She DOESN’T have a problem with them and they don’t with her!! They’ve said this multiple times. Do you mean she should do something to fix Charles and William’s relationship with the Sussexes? Why? They are toxic. H and M are FINE in CA now. The last thing that would be good for them is a rapprochement with these nasty people. Cycles of abuse is all that is. I’m glad that she is not going out of her way to push a reconciliation on Harry with his family and is just maintaining her own personal relationship with them.
The reason why the statement should come from the queen Lady E is because all of the main statements have come from the queen. You know the ones that say Harry and Meghan are much loved family members, blah, blah, blah? If the queen really means that, it would have been a much better show of support to condemn the spying against Meghan than worry about hiring a diversity “czar”. And I’m not saying it falls solely on the queen to ” fix” everything with this family, I’m saying this would be a good first step. What is keeping her from issuing a statement like that?
@MsIam- maybe because Harry and Meghan don’t want or need her to do that? I take THEIR statements about the Queen way more seriously than anything issued by the Palace on the Queen’s behalf. The situation has been “fixed” already by them leaving a toxic, abusive situation. The ONLY thing that the Queen issuing a statement does is provide cover and rehab the reputations of Charles and William. That’s it. Everyone “get over it”. Charles and William should denounce the spying and smears because THEY are responsible for it. And, if they won’t, then sorry but hell no the Queen shouldn’t do it so that they can get the credit.
@MsIam- just to add that while all the “main statements” have come from the Queen, ALL of the smears, lies and racist aggressions have come from Charles and William. ALL OF THEM. Not the Queen. If the Queen issues this statement (what “on behalf of the family”?) and Harry and Meghan feel that this statement should come from Charles and William (which it should), then what? H and M will be accused of not getting over it and being dramatic, the QUEEN already apologized, blah blah blah. To me, that’s a big nope.
LadyE If what you say is true, then all of the Queen’s statements about the Sussexes being much loved family members are bald face lies. Family doesn’t mean just the queen does it? All I’m saying is this is an opportunity for the Queen to put some weight behind her words and condemning the spying would go a long way towards that. And Harry himself said that he loves his brother and fatherbut he’s keeping his distance for now. Its not our place to presume he never wants to see them again or to assume we know how he and Meghan feel. Just because he’s pissed now doesn’t mean he wants to stay that way forever. Maybe he still wants a relationship with his nephews and niece which would be hard if he’s beefing with his brother.
I absolutely believe all these statements are bold faced lies! I don’t trust a word coming out of the Palace and absolutely don’t believe anything said on behalf of the Queen. I think that Charles and William need to step up and condemn the spying. I think that is much more important for healing, if that is possible, than the Queen doing it. You are right that we don’t know if Harry never wants to see the rest of his family again, but we do know who he and Meghan blame for not protecting them and it is not the Queen. And, we’ve heard that directly from them. So, I respect that and think the firings, apologies, and press condemnation needs to be done in Charles and William’s name, by them, for it to have any meaning. They need to own this and not hide behind the Queen.
The Queen is done with all the bullshit. She’s 94 years old and clearly just wants to zoom, hang out with her Corgi’s, and play cards. When Charles replaced her private secretary I think she peace’d out.
It doesn’t take a PR genius to resolve this mess. I could tell the Palace what to do. But the simple solution needs egos to be put down and people to be fired. So they won’t fix this.
Lol…what did she think was gonna happen when she kicked out her grandon and his family? Naturally, that was gonna lead to a crisis. Ffs, you can’t force select family members to move to a whole other country and not end up with a family crisis!!
This was entirely of TQ’s own making because she didn’t have ability to see the long term impact her behavior would have. Congratulations Queenie, you played yourself.
The only crisis meetings she’s attending are with her daily cocktails. No way she is even involved in this.
Lmao I keep thinking of the way Olivia Coleman said the word crisis in The Crown. Me thinks it is only a crisis to Betty if it involves the corgis or the horses.
She’s also busy playing cards with her lady in waiting while having chrisis meeting with her G&T. The woman is a multi-tasker.
Maybe she could WATCH this all important interview, since it is about the bad behavoiur of the Men In Grey, rather than relying on the “breifings” of the Men In Grey???
Love how it says she has a soft spot for Harry and “looked out for him” as if that is a point in her favor when really it’s just what grandmothers are supposed to do and shouldn’t get applause for doing!
Also, I will never, ever forgive her or the rest of the adults that made William and Harry walk behind their mom’s casket for the world to watch. The one time those boys needed someone to look out for them, the RF spectacularly failed. Based on comments in recent years, I hope whatever therapist Harry sees is helping him realize that.
I have on good authority (aka I happen to know for a fact) that Us Weekly claims to have a direct line the palace and it’s just a palace PR person.
I fully support the Queen leaving Charles and William to (not) clean up their own mess, I don’t want her providing them with cover and rehabbing the monarchy’s reputation. Queenie- keep on zooming with H and M, sending waffles to Archie, and DO NOT abdicate (the only thing she can do to signal her disapproval of Charles and old girl is doing it). Harry and Meghan are fine now, they don’t need to patch anything up with their toxic, abusive family. That’s unhealthy.
I want to say that she only has herself to blame, but she is 94. Plus she also has Charles and William to blame.
They dont want her to watch the interview because Harry and Meghan are very nice about the Queen and Prince Philip.
I think the line about how the Queen is controlled by her staff really set something off at the palace.
Agreed, and it would only cause the visible panic and scrambling pr plays it has if it was at least partially true.
Do y’all think literally no response would have been better than the clown show they’ve put on so far? I’m really starting to wonder.
No response before AND after the interview would’ve at least given these people the illusion of dignity and garnered praise for a “keep calm and carry on” mindset. They already made a giant mistake with the blatant PR hit job the week before the interview. If they’d been as quiet and “focused on Prince Philip” as they proclaimed they would be when the interview was first announced, they would’ve been in a much better position than they are now, even with the damning revelations of the interview.
I think that was the plan but William decided to pop off and now they have to clean up his mess on top of the fallout.
Post-interview, whoever was in charge did, for the most part, make the right decisions – issue a fairly soft statement (the “recollections may vary” part was BS but considering Charles and William apparently wanted to go more scorched earth, that statement was a lot better), and we had at least two people say that at that time, briefings from the palace re:Meghan had stopped at the Queen’s orders (which is telling bc it indicates she could have stopped it at any point.) But regardless – had it just been left at that, I think things would have died down. Instead we had Piers Morgan going BSC, the rota cant keep Meghan’s name out of their mouths, and William the PR genius decided to come out swinging. It’s turned into a PR disaster and had they just actually done what they said they were going to do (keep their mouths shut and their heads down), I think two weeks out, the fallout would look very different.
“…working nonstop to repair the damage”
They are never going to accept that THIS damage cannot be repaired! There is definitely no one in that family (except the ones they, y’know, drove out) that is capable of that level of magic, and none of their courtiers/toadies/advisors want to.
This family is FUBAR.
If I’m on the PR team in BP I’d be cussing William’s team out six ways to Sunday. So many unforced errors that created more mess to clean up.
She has always seemed more fond of Harry than William. But she values the crown more than anything so she won’t throw Charles and William to the wolves because it would be bad for the future of the monarchy. It’s not like she can really boot them from the line of succession. She might be hoping to outlive Charles though lol.
The Royal Bozos probably lied to the queen and said “Don’t watch; it’ll be too upsetting. We’ll brief you,” and then went on to spin the interview in a horrible way, thus eliminating the very sympathetic response that Meghan and Harry elicited in so many people. So these crisis talks are probably all centered on how to calm down Prince Incandescent who wants to go nuclear on top of already having created this dumpster fire.
“The race card”?
You know, the only people I know who use that phrase are racists who are upset when racist behavior is exposed.
Also, everyone who needs mental health help has to seek help from others. As a working member of the RF at the time, Meghan was living in specific system managed by courtiers. She went to them first to see about getting help, specifically in-patient help. And they said no (something they have barely addressed and have not denied). Instead, we see deflections, like yours. “But she could have gotten help elsewhere!” How about admitting it’s crappy to tell someone who asks for mental health assistance ‘no’???
Also, I can only imagine the pearl clutching from them if she’d gone outside of the system to ask! Imagine the headlines: Meghan Breaks Protocol Yet Again By Seeking Mental Health Assistance Without KP’s Knowledge! Deliberately Tries To Make the Palace Look Bad Knowing Mental Health is the Cambridge’s Focal Point!!!
GMAFB
They have two modes for Betty. She is either decisive, rational monarch ruling to preserve order when they want to justify horrible decisions like taking Harry’s military honors while Andrew still has is or she is poor sad Granny Betty. This version is usually trotted out when there is fallout from bad decisions or PR fails by the BRF. It is the ultimate version of the weaponization of a white woman’s tears.
So the same crappy advisors are the ones giving her a filtered version of the interview. And her first reaction is to repair the name and not the relationship. Tells me everything I need to know.
My father is 80 years old , and whenever we have family conflicts he seems to take the side of the person that last spoke to him and not who is right or who is wrong , he was never like this but I think it is due to his age . These stories of Elizabeth Windsor are is taking meetings and working out complex issues is not believable to me . She is 15 years older than my dad who has been very healthy and very smart person and he seems not to cope well with the issues that require nuance but Elizabeth is making decisions at 95 ? Please! I think the poor woman is being manipulated by Charles , William and palace handlers .