German media: The Sussexes are very much in love & very popular in Germany

Now that the Dusseldorf Invictus Games are over, one of the few surprises (for me) is that Prince Harry didn’t give any interviews to American media. He made an appearance on a German sports show and there was American coverage of the games, but there was no sit-down with Gayle King or the Today Show or anything. Maybe Harry feels like he said his piece earlier this year, when he promoted his memoir. Or maybe he was just showing preference to the German media in attendance, because it does feel like the Games and the Sussexes got wall-to-wall positivity in the German media. According to Katie Nicholl at Vanity Fair, Harry did speak – seemingly halfway off the record? – to a German reporter for ZDF, Ulrike Grunewald. Nicholl then interviewed Grunewald about the German media’s reaction to the Sussexes:

Meghan Markle’s decision to fly to Germany and support Prince Harry at the Invictus Games has “wiped out” rumors of any marital rift and earned the Duke and Duchess of Sussex a new fan base in Germany. According to one leading royal commentator, Prince Harry, who turns 39 on Friday, has received a hero’s welcome at the multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women. Royal correspondent for German network ZDF, Ulrike Grunewald, met with Harry and said he has been in “excellent form” and is “even happier” now that his wife is by his side.

According to Grunewald, “The German tabloids have been speculating for a while about the Sussexes’s marriage, it has been all over the popular press that the marriage might be in trouble, but this visit has changed all of that. Now that Meghan is here, he is over the moon. They have been holding hands, cheering competitors on at various matches and games. They seem intimate and very close. Either that or they are very good actors. From where I’ve been watching, they seem very in love.”

The correspondent also said that Harry has won a new fan base both among the military community and the public. “For most Germans, Harry is still Prince Harry and very popular. Certainly here at the games he has been very warmly welcomed. He’s done a lot for the military community in Germany and people really respect him for that. When it comes to the Invictus community, they are cheering for him. He has the support of the Germans and the Ukrainians. They have acknowledged what he has done for them, and they are very grateful.”

She also said that Harry was relaxed and happy to be at the competition. “It felt like the old Harry was back. He talked to all of us. We had some little toys that we gave for Archie and Lilibet. He said he was enjoying Germany and has a lot of German in him, he was obviously referring to his family heritage.”

However, Harry only agreed to the interview if he was not asked about his family. “The agreement was that he wasn’t going to talk about his family,” Grunewald said. “His whole attitude was ‘this is about them, the competitors.’”

There have been reports that Harry’s fallout with his family has overshadowed the games and divided opinion within the Invictus Community. Reports in the Daily Telegraph have suggested that Harry has received a mixed response from the Invictus Community who feel a divided loyalty between Harry and the royal family. However, sources close to the prince insist he feels welcome and at home with his many friends at Invictus. “He was very relaxed when he arrived for the opening ceremony,” said one insider. “He’s pleased with the coverage and while some might think that his family affairs have overshadowed things, Harry’s focus is firmly on the games and the amazing men and women taking part.”

[From Vanity Fair]

It’s insane, to me, that there were people in the German media who believed that the Sussexes’ marriage was in trouble when there was literally no evidence to suggest that – it was all an unhinged campaign by the British media to convince a British audience of that as a distraction for what’s happening in Will and Kate’s marriage. While we joke around about the “niche” British media and their toxic bubble, the storylines they create (out of thin air) are repeated all around the world. As for “Harry has received a mixed response from the Invictus Community who feel a divided loyalty between Harry and the royal family” – the way that Telegraph article has been twisted is crazy too. Victoria Ward at the Telegraph was actually extremely shady about the Windsors and how bad it looked for the royals that they were too petty and self-centered to acknowledge Team Britain.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.

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41 Responses to “German media: The Sussexes are very much in love & very popular in Germany”

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  1. nutella toast says:

    What proof do they have? She didn’t slap his butt even once.

  2. Well I’m glad the German media has figured out the the British tabloids are liars. How they didn’t see for themselves before Harry and Meg got there to prove it is beyond me but better late then never. Let’s hope the global press will continue not to believe the British tabloids.

    • Bettyrose says:

      That’s my take. The BM can’t control the global narrative and it just makes them look bad to be revealed as deliberately printing false information.

    • Kingston says:

      Sorry, @susan collins……..the shidtmedia portion of the overall german media havent really “figured out that the british tabloids are liars.” Because they are exactly the same.

      One of the main reasons the Sussexes wanted to get out from under the BRF’s short-sighted and wholly self-imposed, voluntary-hostage-to-the-britshidtmedia relationship, was to snatch the stranglehold of the shidtmedia, wherein they controlled the pipeline of information on the BRF.

      In theory, and if all the players (media & brf) acted in good faith, this arrangement would be a win-win. And, especially in this age of content aggregation, its a no-brainer that the best source of info about the brf would be the british media, right?

      But noooooooo………..every decent person in the world who has been paying attention, saw the britshidtmedia bias against the Sussexes. And yet, all the shidtmedia in every country that carried news on the BRF, simply repeated the lies. Knowingly. Deliberately.

      PS:
      Folks believe that when H said in his closing speech that the uniform was irrelevant to who they are inside, they believed he was throwing shade. But for me, the shade (if one wants to call it that) was when he told the IG community:
      “….after this week, know that you are all leading the way for defining human potential and human decency…”

      Human. Decency.

      Now THAT, to me, was the shade.

  3. Sam says:

    Because there were rumors that there was booing at the closing ceremony: that’s an absolute disgusting lie!! The closing ceremony was magical and we partied so much!! The atmosphere was so AMAZING! Every 5 minutes we clapped, cheered and whistled for MINUTES!! And the whistling was cheering! That’s how we do it in Germany. I would have thought that this was the case in other countries too.
    And when Harry spoke, the stadium went crazy!! We were 20,000 people!

    By the way, the Invictus Games were present throughout Düsseldorf. Everyone here knows about it and everyone thinks it’s great!!

    To make it clear: I’ve been to many concerts, but the closing ceremony was the greatest, most beautiful, most emotional event I’ve ever been to! I can’t even put it into words

    • Sam says:

      To the German tabloits: the rumors about the marriage were only written about after the British media reported on them.
      We must not forget: the hatred towards Harry and Meghan is a multi-billion dollar business in every country. Unfortunately not only in England… the tabloits that wrote about it in Germany are trash papers like “Bunte” or disgusting right-wing tabloits like “Bild” that only right-wing and stupid people read here (unfortunately to many..).
      Unfortunately, the lies from England are spread all over the world and many people believe that. But there are so many in Germany who think like we do!

      • HerrGreter says:

        Thank you for pointing that out Sam so I don’t have too! Throw „Gala“ into the mix, they were and are still happy to just more or less parrot what the British tabloids say and always put Kheen on a sugarcoated pedestal.

      • Sam says:

        @herrgreter
        Exactly!!

      • ML says:

        Sam, It’s the same next door to you in the Netherlands. British news comes from the British media and gets translated into Dutch. So the higher end news comes from say, the BBC, and tabloids get their news from the Sun or Daily Fail. Even the Guardian is kinder to the British royals in Britain than H&M…so what happens is that the Dutch or the German or Belgians or…. actually wind up parroting RR talking points. Invictus winds up being a game changer for H&M when the games are held, because it destroys the fake talking points the RR has used against them.

    • AMTC says:

      @Sam, it sounds like a magical night!

      Unfortunately in Australia the Murdoch press dominates the royal reporting and it’s all Daniela Elser nastiness and reheats from the UK tabloids. So much so that I often hear perfectly reasonable people repeating rubbish about Meghan in particular as if it were just a known fact e.g ‘she’s a piece of work’. Quite depressing and why I relish CB and Kaiser.

  4. Sugarhere says:

    England and its lousy royals are just coming to the gut-wrenching realization that they are not the epicenter of Harry’s life, not the epicenter of the Sussexes’ philanthropy, but that it’s actually the other way round.

    Not only does it scream desperation but hopefully, the termination of that pre-medieval monarchical system.

    Prince Harry has strong blood links to Germany, so it’s ironic that Germany is the one to welcome his biracial wife wholeheartedly, instead of England. After the unjust loss of Frogmore, perhaps Meghan could go house-hunting by the beautiful German countryside? Not only would it be a great peaceful alternative to shelter their family but a wonderful middle finger at we know who.

    • Lia says:

      Yessss please!! I would love that!
      She would fit well in Düsseldorf, for example, many people there are dressed like Meghan!

  5. MsIam says:

    Its crazy how the British media is so determined to ruin Harry and Meghan, ruin their marriage. Like Harry said, the trashloids don’t report the news, they create the news. Apparently out of thin air and the minds of William, Charles and Camilla.

    • MinorityReport says:

      Right? How is trying to destroy a family with two small kids a flex for the BM? They’re insane.

  6. Naomi says:

    A huge reason for spreading discord about the Sussexes is their very success undermines the foundations of royalty. People are beginning to question why do we need a royal family that costs so much (much of the true costs significantly under reported) when the Sussexes show you don’t need public purse string to make an impact.

  7. Becks1 says:

    Those two are so obviously in love with each other that any story to the contrary has always been BS, but especially after the last week. Harry was in great form before Meghan arrived. He was happy, having a good time, etc. Once she arrived he just went to a different level in terms of happiness and comfort, it was really obvious in my opinion. having her by his side elevates him (and vice versa), which is really the best thing you can say about a couple.

    The british media’s talking points DO get picked up around the world, but they also get shot down really fast as well, as we see here. “oh we thought they were on the verge of divorce but obviously not, and we loved Invictus, and we love them.”

    honestly Invictus just shattered so many of the BM’s talking points that I expect some outrage and bitterness from them for a while (what else is new, right?)

  8. Sugarhere says:

    As utter pragmatists, the German media are extremely grateful to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for glamming up their country which has been battling a baneful historical reputation and for bolstering their economy.

    The displacement of royal court to Germany sounds like both a slap on William’ s hypertrophic ego and on Chuck’s hypertrophic fingers 😁, and an encouragement for the Commonwealth nations to flee the sinking ship.

  9. Vanessa says:

    The British tabloids and the Royal family have been trying to break up Meghan and Harry Relationship since the moment they were announced as a couple . I truly believe that it’s the Wales marriage that is failing and they are separated and the British media knows it but don’t report about it so instead they decided to create lies and Speculation about Meghan and Harry when they have been proven wrong time and time again they doubt down . The British tabloids have been prove wrong and wrong time and time again yet it’s so disheartening to see people in the media actually believe the false narrative and lies . Meghan and Harry marriage is not the one in trouble it’s wales .

  10. equality says:

    It’s funny when you claim to be an expert on someone’s life but you have to interview another interviewer to get the true story. The IG competitors didn’t seem “divided” when they were bragging about PH and complaining about lack of support from any other royals in the UK. Why would any of the countries outside the commonwealth feel any division? And most within it probably feel no great loyalty to the royals.

  11. Scooby Gang says:

    What drives me absolutely insane is when people say that the “family rift” overshadowed this or that. It’s the RF and BM who make all the noise, publish article after article and shove their lies and negativity down everybody’s throats. THEY intentionally do the overshadowing (or at least make the attempt)… and then complain and publicize that Harry’s personal stuff is taking attention away from the IG competitors.

    How do people fall for this obvious nonsense?!

  12. Jk says:

    Yes. Here in Spain, they simply translate the British tabloid talking points with a heaping dose of exaggerations and salaciousness. But there’s no loyalty. They’ve also printed stories of Will and Rose quite openly. This week, they’ve been obsessing over Meghan’s clothes mostly.

    • Lau says:

      French tabloids just spew the same terrible things as the british ones. They looooove the Sussex divorce storyline.

  13. Plums says:

    “it has been reported that” and “there is speculation that” and all those variations are just code for “whatever follows this line is the talking point we want to get across for the bullshit narrative we made up and want to promote, but we need to make sure we’re crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s and stating it as a rumor and not a fact so we’re not liable for defamation”

  14. Lau says:

    They got a better a better reception than charles and camilla did, this is so funny. The palace has to be fuming about that.

  15. QuiteContrary says:

    Harry and Meghan let their actions tell the true story. They do excellent, hugely impactful work. They are clearly loving partners. They never look happier than when they’re lifting others up. I think Harry’s determination to keep the media’s focus on the competitors reveals who he truly is.

    The BM can, and will, try to counter reality, but the images from the IG convey the truth. H&M are loving and powerful forces for good.

  16. Amy Bee says:

    Katie Nicholl just proved that she doesn’t know anything that’s going on with Harry and Meghan and should probably just focus on the Wales. For her to not acknowledge that the rumours of Harry and Meghan breaking up were made up by her colleagues in the British press is irresponsible journalism.

  17. Mary Pester says:

    Are any of you old enough to remember the song “Who’s sorry now”? Guess the answer is Nicholl, the rest of the British press and the left behind Royals! Nicholl, and the British press have been proved to print lies, lies and damned lies to the rest of the world’s media, so from now on hopefully they will be ignored.
    And the “left behind Royals”, yeah, they are really sorry, because NONE of them, (especially YOU bullyam and your idle wife) will ever be the world statesman that Harry is, and Charlie, yeah you, wrong son kept happy Charlie wrong son

  18. Athena says:

    Can’t quite put my finger on why, but Harry and Meghan remind me of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. Those two always seem in sinc with each other. Hope H&M live as long and as contented as the Carters.

  19. Renstewart says:

    @Mary Pester, well said as usual.

  20. aquarius64 says:

    Nicholl had to beg for sloppy seconds from the reporter about the Sussexes. Proof the BM has zero sources about them.

  21. Lala11_7 says:

    To me…THIS is the THING that TERRORIZES the British Royal Family & Media…the TRUTH that Harry & Meghan DOES NOT NEED the Royal Family to SHINE⭐️❤️⭐️. And because they don’t need the Royal Family…they CANNOT BE CONTROLLED OR USED OR ABUSED!!!

    I ❤️ how things have played out❣️

  22. Just Chelle says:

    If the IG taught us anything, it’s that the constant bullying and lying by the BM about H&M has completely backfired. The world witnessed a couple whom are totally in love with each other and committed to being of service to others. Harry looked almost embarrassed when the spotlight shifted to him for his birthday celebration – his mission was all about giving the real heroes their much-deserved recognition and support.

    There’s a video of Harry’s closing ceremony speech. The videographer flashed to Megan and her eyes were glistening with tears. I wonder if she and/or Harry knew how beloved and appreciated they are. If not, they surely do now.

  23. Chelsea says:

    Victoria Ward’s Telegraph article was an annoying concern troll job but nowhere in it did it say the Invictus community was divided in how they felt about Harry. This is jusf a straight up lie thaf I’m actually a little shocked Katie would say in print like this when as terrible as the royal rota is none of those who were in Germany said anything resembling this-probably because it’s a lie that can be easily disproved with the many videos, photos, and interviews from Invictus competitors showinf Harry love. Hell even the UK’s minister for Veteran Affairs was singing Harry’s praises this past weekend.

    As for the comment from the German royal correspondent look at his title lol. Of course they were pushing rota bs in the paper before but when faced with the truth he told it instead of sticking his head in the sand and trying to create his own alternative universe like a deranger. At the end of the day fake royalist storylines cant erase the truth of Harry’s steadfast commitment to veterans and their love for him or the magic that happens when he is around Meghan and that’s why the derangers are so mad and desperate today.

    • May says:

      I side-eye, as well, any talk of division amongst the Invictus Games competitors. There was a lovely quote last week in the online Jewish Chronicle from an Israeli competitor:

      “A former IDF soldier has hailed Prince Harry as “our king” after meeting the Duke of Sussex at the Invictus Games, the international sports competition for veterans that kicked off last weekend in Germany. Kobi Garshony said he was “in awe” of Harry’s openness following their meeting after the first day of the games, in which disabled IDF veterans are competing for the first time. ‘He’s not just a prince, he’s part of our community. He’s a helicopter pilot that’s in post trauma, and he founded something that never existed before,’ he told Israel’s Channel 12 news. ‘He gives strength to the people that have not yet started their [military] service. We know that there will always be someone to take care of us, even if not from their own country. There is one international ‘country’ that was founded by the prince, who for us veterans, is a king.'”

      • Saucy&Sassy says:

        May, ‘He gives strength to the people that have not yet started their [military] service. We know that there will always be someone to take care of us, even if not from their own country. There is one international ‘country’ that was founded by the prince, who for us veterans, is a king.’”

        I wonder if Harry ever considered this aspect of the Invictus Games when he created it? This is phenomenal, IMO.

  24. bisynaptic says:

    Nice to see that the German press is as gullible/idiotic as the rest of the world’s press. On what planet did Harry and Meghan look like they were on the rocks? And why in the world would anyone in the Invictus Games community feel divided loyalties between Harry and the BRF? One side has created a global platform for them to heal and flourish—and the other: crickets.
    —FFS.