Last Friday was the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s fifth anniversary. A lot of their earliest critics have egg on their faces about it. Those critics swore up and down that Meghan was a “degree wife,” that Meghan wouldn’t stick around, that Harry would get tired of Meghan because she was just so American. What happened is that Harry left his country and his toxic family behind so he could start a new life with Meghan and their children. That was not “the plan.” Still, to this day, the Windsors and the British media would do anything to drive a wedge between H&M, to somehow harass and abuse them into getting a divorce, to convince Harry to dump Meghan and return to the UK. LOL – it’s not happening, peeps. But please allow Camilla Tominey to have her delusions. Tominey wrote an especially unhinged piece about how Meghan and Harry are growing apart and how Harry often stays in hotels to get away from his wife and children. I strongly suspect that Tominey’s sources are “Twitter derangers,” but what do I know.

H&M’s wedding: At the time, household staff weren’t entirely confident the relationship would go the distance – “no one could see it lasting longer than three years”, according to one insider. Yet as the couple celebrate their “wood” anniversary, Harry and Meghan have proved their doubters wrong. While their relationships with their own families might not be what they once were, the marriage appears to be going strong, despite the couple’s outwardly diverging priorities. The Duchess once described them as moving together “like salt and pepper” but they seem to be heading in opposite directions – Meghan looking forward while Harry dwells on the past.

Meghan’s desire for fame, and Harry’s quest for privacy. The events of this week raise questions over whether the couple will extend their campaign for privacy to the US. They may wish to team up with other high-profile figures such as the Clooneys, who attended their London wedding five years ago. George Clooney, whose wife Amal is a human rights lawyer, has spoken about the issue before, writing an open letter after photos of their daughter were published online. However, questions have been raised over how such a campaign sits with the Duchess’s plans to build her “global enterprise”. Meghan signed with leading global talent agency WME in April, amid talk of more “content creation”, a Dior clothing deal and the revamp of her defunct lifestyle blog The Tig.

Harry’s hotel rooms: Such is their independence from each other that the owner of a leading hotel chain in Montecito recently told The Daily Telegraph they have a room set aside for Harry where he occasionally stays on his own. The Duke has also been known to stay at the uber-exclusive San Vincente Bungalows when visiting LA, which is a two-hour drive from the couple’s £11 million mansion. “That seems to be his escape place,” said a source of the super secretive and selective members’ club in West Hollywood, which – unlike the Soho House chain also frequented by the Sussexes – bans journalists from joining. A refuge from the rigours of parenting two children under four, Harry has apparently stayed there after attending Barry’s Bootcamp, a high-octane cardio fitness class, at the nearby Beverly Center.

A “friend” spoke to Camilla Tominey?? One friend described the couple as “like any parents of such young kids: frazzled. They are really happy together and live this idyllic life in Montecito, which is essentially a giant gated community of multimillionaires. But at the end of the day, they’ve been through a lot and I think they’ve both felt quite ground down by it all. They’re like any married couple, five years in.”

Harry barely speaks to his old friends? As one insider explained: “Nobody really speaks to him any more and even the people who have remained by his side have lately begun to fall away because he is so consistently negative. He’s often complaining and rarely asks after others. People had stuck with him because they blamed Meghan for isolating him and cutting him off from his friends and family. But he hasn’t done anything to help himself. Now they just see him as completely lost.” Harry himself referred to the fact that William regards him as “deluded” – but that sentiment also seems to be shared by those in what he once referred to as his “circle of trust”. The word “narcissistic” also creeps into a lot of conversations about the couple.

Too angry for romance: If her relaunch doesn’t go to plan, however, a blame game is likely to follow – and as someone who once worked for the couple noted: “When you’re that angry with the world, it leaves little time for romance.”

[From The Telegraph]

It’s clear that Tominey and all of the other royal reporters were really looking forward to using paparazzi photos from NYC of Meghan crying in a car next to stern-faced Harry to illustrate their narrative that “Harry and Meghan are on the rocks.” I keep hearing anecdotal stories that the British editors sent their photographers out with the explicit task of getting photos of Harry looking furious. So, that’s the narrative which the British media wants desperately. It’s weird how selectively Tominey will quote from Spare too, and how she never quotes all of the parts of the book where Harry speaks about how his home is now California, with Meghan and their children, or how miserable he felt in the UK, etc. They’ve convinced themselves that Homesick Harry is desperate to rid himself of Meghan and come running back to be abused.

As for the hotel room stuff… it’s very curious how this story started in the British media and how they claim to have insider sources. The Sussexes’ rep denied the hotel story though, with Page Six reporting: “A rep for the Duke of Sussex debunked the rumor on Sunday, telling Page Six, ‘This is not true.'”

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