Granted, we already had a pretty clear picture of what was being done to the Duchess of Sussex and all of the sh-tty, appalling, racist moves the Windsors made against her from the very start. But holy hell, just think about how much they set her up to fail, then isolated her and stayed silent as they heaped abuse on her. Think about how they removed her name from her child’s birth certificate, against her will. Think about how they refused to help her when she was clearly suicidal. Think about how they continued to heap abuse on her even knowing what they were doing to her. And then this: they refused to allow her to “escape.” THEY TOOK HER PASSPORT.
In a series of telling revelations, Meghan shared how living as part of The Firm was like being inside a gilded cage, in which she was “silenced” and felt trapped. The American actress described her disillusionment, claiming officials “lied” to protect other royals instead of Harry and her.
Having been a working self-sufficient woman for many years, Meghan, 39, was shocked when officials even took her passport from her after her marriage.
She said: ‘When I joined that family, that was the last time — until we came here [to North America] — that I saw my passport, my driver’s license, my keys. All that gets turned over. I didn’t see any of that anymore.’
NOPE! No no no no. I don’t care if it’s protocol that passports get turned over – I suspect she was issued some kind of British royal/diplomatic passport – no one is getting their f–king hands on my passport. That is cult behavior, that is abusive, and JOE BIDEN NEEDS TO GET INVOLVED. British a–holes cannot confiscate an American woman’s passport. No. NO.
In addition to that, Meghan also had an interesting subtweet of Kate, one of many. Meghan said that at no point did anyone offer, suggest or recommend any kind of crash course in princessing, etiquette lessons or even a primer in all things British. She said: “There were certain things you couldn’t do, but unlike the movies, there was no class on how to speak, how to cross your legs, how to be royal.” She suggested that perhaps other royal women did get princess lessons (God knows they tried with Kate), but that no one in any palace even thought to help her. Once again, like Diana, they wanted a woman to sink or swim and they were shocked when she swam. Meghan didn’t even know the British national anthem: “That was me Googling late at night… we were doing the training behind the scenes because I wanted to make them proud.”
THEY TOOK HER PASSPORT @joebiden
— Kaiser@Celebitchy (@KaiseratCB) March 8, 2021
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
Gee, that MO sounds familiar…where have women experienced that before?
Saudi Arabia. They confiscate immigrant workers passports when they arrive. Oh and they require you produce a passport if confronted by police on the streets You basically can’t go anywhere without your employers permission. Too bad the mainstream media will not draw the correlation.
yup exactly what I was thinking about. Your employer CANNOT confiscate your passport.
Confiscating passports is illegal under international law (that’s my understanding) but then again when has Saudi Arabia ever followed international law.
Monaco pretty recently.
AHH Charlene?
Charlene was the first person I thought of when Meg said that.
Yep.
Ding!
says in your passport that it cannot be confiscated. Lists when you have to surrender it but it cannot be confiscated. This is what authoritarian states do.
hotels in certain countries also take your passport but they hold it for you at the front desk and give it to you when you leave (then take it to hold when you return) so I wouldn’t have been surprised they took her passport had they not also taken her keys & her driver’s license
Every abusive partner/husband!
This is what is done to trafficked victims and slaves. That family is vile. They need to have a word with themselves. The generational trauma is so real.
Or a cult.
I think the goal was to either break and indoctrinate her or drive her away. Supporting her and letting her shine was never on the table.
I don’t understand, so her flying to New York for baby shower must be on that diplomatic passport?
Wasn’t that before she got married?
No. They got married then she got pregnant.
No. The trip was for the baby shower.
Wouldn’t she have also needed it for their international tours? Maybe they gave it to her for those occasions and she forgot or is just speaking generally about it being taken away from her. Or perhaps the people who handle their travel had the passport and she didn’t need to be in possession of it to get through customs
I bet she would’ve had to have gone through some sort of process where she applies for permission to take a trip, she gets permission, and some handler has her passport as she goes through the airport/travel process.
@Karolina
The baby shower was via private plane, from my understanding you don’t need passports for that?
But even if i am mistaken, she did no say they took her passport and hid it somewhere so she could never fly again. I think what she means is she didn’t have control over her own passport, her own identity, and where she went, and she probably would have to ask for permission from the “firm” to use her passport to fly anywhere.
You need a passport to enter the country and cross most international borders. When you fly private they still have to go through immigration. Sometimes an official will enter the plane and handle it there or they might land at a more private airport.
Aa ok. That level of controling is awful
The way Kaiser has framed this is NOT AT ALL what I got from the interview.
She simply said, these items were taken, and she never saw them again, as in, she was not independently able to just book a ticket and open up her passport then enter her info. She needed to go through another party to make these kinds of plans. It makes sense for security purposes. It sucks if you want to make on-the-fly decisions to travel internationally or even to drive to the grocery store. She couldn’t do that.
She still made plans, but not on her own.
While I get the safety reason, I don’t think this is how it was handled.
@Eleonor, the problem has always been that they made decisions assuring Meghan it was for her protection, but they never really protected her. So even something that may be done with the best of intentions, doesn’t sit quite right. I remember a similar scene playing out on The Crown with Diana and thinking the same thing.
you dont have to have your driver’s licence with you when you drive in the uk. I misplaced mine for over half a year (eventually found it in bag in one of the wardrobes), but I could still drive anywhere.
Her passport was most likely controlled and handled by palace employees during her travels to controll every move and she never had it herself.
She flew privately.
Deleted.
The context of this part is important – she’s saying she didnt have access to her passport or license so she couldnt just go get help for her suicidal thoughts. It’s not about being able to travel, its specifically about how she asked for help, was told no, and there wasnt anything she could do about it because she didnt even have any identification or car keys to get herself help.
I believe when officials move like that in a capacity that involves a official affiliation with a nation state it is all handled by the offices of the state ahead of time. Passports, getting through customs, etc.
Like if this was a Presidential party visiting Britain. They don’t just enter countries the way the rest of us do and sit at customs, these are official envoys. They have special entry provisions.
That’s a good question. I understand George and his wife help her with the private jet. Maybe she was having a British ID since soon after she was probably was applying for citizenship. If someone can explain that but I think when you married in a new country you need to start using ID with your new residence address, right?
Thinking about this I have a theory. Meghan’s friends organized a baby shower for her and offered to have her fly in via private plane, so Meghan went to ask for permission and her passport. We know from what Meghan told us that they wanted her out of public view (so a private plane was perfect) and that Emily Andrews was briefed about the baby shower happening and that Meghan was going to NY via a private jet. I think that at this point they were just setting Meghan up to give the tabloids more material, but Meghan also set her little trap. She gave wrong dates and a list of guest just to see what would happen. Sure enough it got leaked and Emily Andrews was humiliated and later confirmed that she was given the wrong dates during said briefing.
No wonder they don’t mind hanging out with MBS and other Middle Eastern despots…they practice the same misogynist practices like locking away their princesses and taking away their passports and means of mobility.
They killed Diana, really. I feel so sorry for Megan, royal family is the worst!
The BRF and media most definitely drove Diana to her death. They could no longer control her and did not like the men she was dating at the time. If they’re concerned about Archies skin color today they would have been murderous if Diana had a biracial child back then.
This is kidnapping.
I bet scientology did the same to Katie Holmes.
And for Heaven sake they gave her the “Diana treatement” the one which leaded the late Princess of Wales to bulimia.
I know Diana was troubled but they brought her to the breaking point, and they did the same to Meghan. No wonder she was having suicidal thoughts.
Oh do they know how to bring depression on individuals. Diana was a prisoner, she probably felt the same as Meg, minus the racism part.
It is because the entire institution is abusive – it emotionally mutilates the people born into it and it breaks the people who marry into it.
They did actually. That’s why Katie had to quietly prepare for a long time and leave suddenly in the middle of the night.
She actually was rarely without a handler by her side. Even in her home.
Yet they say that Harry is being kept hostage. Then they say that the institution isn’t a mafia. No it’s fcking worse.
When she said they took her passport, I assumed it meant that her Royal protection officers or personal assistants now had control of it instead of her having it in her direct possession. It did not sound like she was barred from accessing it, just that she would not have it in her handbag or on her person when she travelled.
Also it was undoubtedly a US passport. She never became a British citizen so she was never entitled to a British passport.
That part really irked me. I bristled and imagined myself saying, in her situation, “NO! You are not getting my passport and keys and licence. No way! Back off, buster!” But I didn’t take it as just meaning her CPO would have temporary custody of these things when they were out and about, I took it as meaning she lost control of them for good and had to ask for them to be returned if she wanted to travel.
I would have handed mine over. I would have assumed I was safe in a very visible role worldwide and with friends and family on the outside that could get the word out of I went missing. And I would be with my husband that I trusted. In that context I would have handed it over like you do at a bank for a safety deposit box.
I bet she handed her over when was told it is for her own safety and this is what all of them do. I know I would, for the reasons you mentioned. The intention is good but when you take away someone’s “tools of freedom” you go out of your way to make them feel secure that said freedom is intact. I guess that wasn’t the case here.
Yes, absolutely never do something like this. It puts you at so much risk. Insist people find a work-around and that they must keep you with your passport & license if they need it, especially as that’s the way most of those documents are intended to be kept and state as much on them or their applications. You’re never supposed to let them out of your possession for a reason.
And make sure you at least have a copy of your keys.
No matter who it is who’s asking and how much you trust them, for your safety that’s just a non-starter. If they care about you they’ll understand.
Be the “difficult” person if need be. As long as it keeps you protected that’s all that matters.
This is sounding more and more like an abusive marriage (not Harry, the royal family and their hangers-on).
It definitely feels like an abusive marriage. I see some people say, she should have known. I don’t think anyone of us knew it was to that extent. It also reminds us of victim shaming done to abused victims – she should have left.
*People shouldn’t make excuses for such behaviours. They should demand better of the BRF
Not to hijack the thread but I just CACKLED at the new clip on cbs where Meg referenced WAITY KATY!!!
I cannot imagine not having immediate access to such important documents. Especially in the hell she was in? That sounds terrifying.
They are millionaires whilst we starve and ensure workplace abuse every day. Why does no one allow a regular person on Oprah?
This wasn’t a segment on workplace abuse. It’s about leaving the BRF and fleeing all the toxicity.
Big interviewers have done regular people and big shows have done exposés on workplace abuse. It happens quite a lot.
John Oliver just did one about the meat industry.
Oprah has interviewed lots of regular people over decades.
Oprah made her bread and butter interviewing “regular” people. Its what made her so successful. Once her talk show ended she focused on celebrities.
Oprah made her bread and butter interviewing “regular” people. Its what made her so successful. Once her talk show ended she focused on celebrities.
Julie, girl, head over to Reddit if you want to discuss workplace abuse today. We’re talking about this interview at Celebitchy.
Wait, what? Have you never seen Oprah’s talk show?
oh hello British troll, as indicated by use of the word “whilst”.
For me, it was her saying that she left the house twice in four months because palace officials scolded her for being “everywhere” in the media so she couldn’t be seen out having lunch with friends. They incited media mania against her and then used that as a weapon to keep her as isolated as possible. Just disgusting. I’m so glad she and Harry are happily on the other side now.
I really hated them at that moment because it was obvious she couldn’t win.
She hasn’t been seen in public, but she needs to “lay low” because she is oversaturated in the media because…she exists.
Either her advisors were idiots or were dangerous and abusive.
When she said someone from the family came and told her to lie low because she was everywhere, I think it was Camilla. I think Camilla came to try because Charles was upset that she was getting all of the (negative) attention.
In this case it wasn’t anyone in the family, it was the courtiers. Meghan wouldn’t ask permission from Camilla to go to lunch, she would ask a higher-up at the palace and that’s when she was denied.
Sunday, I understood it as two separate incidents. One where she wanted to just go out to lunch and was told no by staff. Then at another time a member of the family came and advised her to lay low. I think Jenns is onto something with the Camilla guess.
I can see that being Camilla too, and honestly, maybe she meant well*, because that’s what Camilla did – hid out in her house for a year to ride out the negative press attention and now 20 years later it’s sort of paid off in that people at least accept her, if not outright like her.
*as soon as I typed that I’m reminded of the line from the Crown – “my family means well.” “No they dont.”
So maybe it was Camilla trying to be “helpful” or maybe it was Camilla acting out on Charles’ behalf bc Meghan was getting too much attention, but I could see it being Camilla either way.
My guess is that the passport was kept in a safe somewhere and, as someone said upthread, kept by their protection officers when they traveled. There are real reasons for doing this sort of thing, but not explaining to Meghan exactly what was going on and why shows you exactly how much of a shitshow the BP operations are.
I’ve been an executive secretary/PA and there are things you do to make things run smoothly that aren’t the recommended way. But you always explain to your principal why you, for example, need their passport, and work around or find other solutions if they refuse. Of course, sometimes the answer is Fuck around and find out.
I’m sure she understood why it was done, and that it isn’t unusual in her position. She was just emphasizing how isolated she felt, especially living in another country. And for someone under such emotional distress, it must have been frightening to feel you had no control over something as basic and critical as your passport.
yes, exactly. Sometimes you leave your passport with the hotel front desk when you’re travelling. Its stupid and technically you don’t have to, but you do because it makes it easier when the govt comes knocking to check the passports of all registered guests. Sometimes the hotel presents this as required and whenever I push back, they explain.
The royal family is abhorrent!!!!!! Such awful, abusive monsters!!!
To Julie ‘they are millionaires…why doesn’t Oprah have regular people’ blah blah:
This is an interview with royal family members criticising the highest institution of colonisation & class system. This is historic and revealing from an intellectual position and quite heartbreaking from a primary source personal perspective.
Hello all! Can anyone tell me an estimate of the amount of “people in the firm?” Over and over the little grey men are referenced (Fergie, Diana, Meghan). These grey men or whatever you call them seem to have incredible power.
I am horrified. After what they did to Diana, they doubled down on Meghan. They did it again but worse, way worse because she is biracial.
After all they went through not even the family… Charles we knew he was a pos but even to his own blood? And William .. like, how much have they been brainwashed to not see how wrong it all was?
I just can’t get over how happy the British public are to hand over their tax money to this family. Guess they really love being serfs.
LOL Shadylady. This seems to be the case.
There are powerful forces at work (the Tory government, the Murdoch media empire) to keep the people complacent and misinformed and to play on their lowest impulses (such as racism and sexism — misogynoir). But I agree. I hope the monarchy falls soon.
Of course she had access to it. She travelled to NYC for the Baby Shower and again to watch the US Open, she visited the Clooneys in Italy and stayed in Elton John‘s house in France for vacation. I don’t think that is what she meant at all, so Kaiser no need to get Biden worried about this one. What she probably meant, as others said here already, is that before her marriage she was completely independent, booked her own travel etc. Now she had to make such arrangements through her staff, take security into account etc. Which I imagine, feels quite suffocating
Also, if they took her passport for whatever protection reasons, you’d think they wouldn’t be leaking her whereabouts every time she traveled and then drag them about private jets. It seems the British press was so angry both times she went to New York by herself to visit friends, for baby shower and US open. Wonder why they really made such a big deal about that.
100%. I think calling it a “confiscation” is one step too far. It’s absolutely suffocating and isolating and annoying as hell but let’s not compare it to the millions of average women/foreign workers in Saudi Arabia (like some commenters above are doing) who have no voice or privilege or means of escaping from their oppression. It does everyone a disservice, especially on IWD. Meghan has been through enough without us having to contort ourselves to stretch a narrative over what is essentially bureaucracy at it’s worst. M isn’t doing this btw, I think her words have been very clear, but everyone else is taking this a bit too far.
Speaking of passports. Epstein( got suicided in 2019) owned a Saudi Passport. Huh. Interesting tidbit Dodi Fayed (died in that tunnel in France with Diana) and Jamal Khashoggi (slain Washington Post Reporter) were first cousins. Why were they talking about earrings? So many questions.
This is chilling! When I heard this my first thought was could she have contacted the American embassy for help? What the hell. Taking your ID away is so abusive.
@lunasf17, the American embassy can only do so much. I had my passport confiscated in Russia in the late-90’s once (hotels would take your passport while you were a guest and return it when you left, but in this case, they gave it to the police on some made up charge of not “registering” in a city I visited), and when I called a contact at the embassy, they said it was a personal matter and I would have to figure it out. It ended up being extortion (I just had to pay enough to have it returned) but it was terrifying to think I wouldn’t be able to catch my flight out of the country. And I had a personal contact at the embassy; above all else, they wanted to stay out of my little situation. I seriously doubt a US Embassy in the UK would take action on Meghan’s behalf in this situation.
“Meghan didn’t even know the British national anthem: “That was me Googling late at night… we were doing the training behind the scenes because I wanted to make them proud.””
The Firm is obviously (and unsurprisingly) full of monsters, but why is she having to Google the anthem when Harry presumably knows it? HE couldn’t teach her the damn song?
Maybe she was trying to impress him too? It must have been hard always having to ask other people “Do I do this now? Or is it this way?”.
yeah, I bet you’re right. But you know, you do actually get used to this when you’ve moved societies/cultures a lot.
I definitely think the institution of the BRF showed zero empathy regarding her position. It’s almost as though empathizing with her was perceived as lowering themselves or something ridiculous. All effort must go from below-up, and not the other way around.
At the same time, she does seem really…naive. I’m not sure how you can be SO naive. I mean, I guess. Americans. Idk.
also…it’s really not that hard to learn? Like it’s very repetitive. God save…God save…to the tune of My Country ‘Tis of Thee. Do people ever sing more than one verse?
She said he was still having to travel for work and would be gone and returning back home.
In light of this information, that weird leak from earlier this year about Archie’s birth certificate being changed without his parents consent gets more context, and also looks more sinister.
At the time, I couldn’t imagine how staff members would have submitted new paperwork or made changes to a legal document, as normally that would all be done by a parent. But, if they had all of Meghan’s documents, it’s possible.
How powerless she must have felt, and how doubly chilling, knowing what we know now about the suicidal thoughts she had struggled with, that someone wanted to erase her name from her only child’s legal records.
It’s all a bit odd because remember she travelled back to the US for a hen party? I wish it had been clarified better.
I honestly don’t know where I stand in this mess as I read blogs on different teams, but this freaked me out for sure. Very uncomfortable to have those freedoms taken away from you.
It actually is protocol to take the diplomatic passport from the person. I’m currently on a diplomatic overseas appointment for the New Zealand government and I had to turn over my diplomatic passport (and my families) when we arrived to the government office for safe keeping in the safe there. It has to do with safety. Also as a diplomat, I do have to clear any overseas travel with my office (even personal travel to see my family), and they give me the passport back to travel, but once I return, it must go back to the office. I personally don’t feel like it’s taking my identify and abusive, it’s about safety protocol for diplomats. I’m assuming it’s the same for the royal family. She did get her passport back because she travelled internationally multiple times while still a working member of the royal family. As a person who is in this position, I don’t think it’s that big a deal, it’s what you sign up for when you are a diplomat.
well, the diplomatic passport is not your only one. Or maybe it is yours, but a person can actually have a diplomatic passport and an ordinary passport (at least if you get the diplomatic one first). You’re supposed to use the diplomatic passport for official travel, and your personal one for non-official travel. So you could make the argument that she only needed to surrender the diplomatic passport.
Military members are issued diplomatic passports when deployed overseas (if they don’t already have personal passports), and they don’t have to surrender them.
I guess the more concerning part is how nobody explained any of this to her. Like I said somewhere else, my sense is that the palace courtiers totally Mean Girl’d her and thought they’d get away with it.
You are right, I do have both and so does my family. True you could make that argument that she should have only had to surrender the diplomatic one, but clearly she did do both personal and official travel. I think a little more context is needed on what passport was taken. But given my experience, I don’t think it’s a dire as she makes it sound. On a side note, with personal travel on my other passport, I do have to clear it with my office. I even have to let them know if I leave the city I live in and travel in the country I currently reside. When I think about it, it’s almost like I have to check with my parents before going anywhere, but it’s part of what I signed up for with this job. We also don’t know for sure that it wasn’t explained to her, none of us will never know the true conversations that happened as we weren’t there.
I have saw it stated when one or more of the royals are going through an airport-the airport is contacted ahead of time to let them know who will be taking a flight-I do not know if this is true.