Part 8 of a series of posts on Harry and Meghan. (tag: Royal Mess) Here’s Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4 and Part 5 and Part 6 and Part 7 .
Sometimes silence is a legal strategy. Sometimes it’s a true break. Sometimes it’s a sign of a crisis.
The Cambridge’s social media has been very quiet since mid-July. There are no publicity photographs or press releases for the media. Is there some trouble in their marriage? No, their side explains that the royals aren’t in the public, because they are taking a two month vacation. (Another royal perk!) Apparently, Will and Kate and kids vacationed on some islands off England in July and were up at Gram’s place in Scotland in August. They were probably trying to avoid “Uncle Pervy” at the breakfast buffet. Awkward!
Andrew has been hiding out at Balmoral, too, along with Fergie. (Fergie and Andrew have been divorced for thirty years, but Fergie is still sleeping on the royal sofa. Not weird at all.) Andrew and Fergie are trying avoid US lawyers who want to serve him with papers in the civil case abuse/rape cases by Virginia Guiffre. Royal security has stopped “multiple attempts” of paper serving lawyers. Rumor is that Charles and William want to kick him to the curb, but the Queen isn’t ready for that yet. There’s another story that Andrew had to call off a trip to Italy, because the Italians were going to grab him and extradite him to France, where he would be shipped off to the US.
Lawyers have until December 8th to give Andrew the papers. After that date, a judge will decide whether to dismiss the case or go forward without him. Andrew thinks that if he hides and keeps quiet until December, this will go away and that he’ll be able to return to public life, according to the Daily Mail. There’s really not enough evidence to go ahead with the case, so he might be right that he won’t be convicted, but I do think he’s wrong that this will all go away. His name is dirt forever. Even if other “People of Interest” (Bill Clinton, Bill Gates) get the Epstein attention, Andrew will always be “Uncle Pervy”.
Meghan and Harry, too, have had a hard few weeks. First, they lost a media/free speech battle against Piers Morgan. Morgan has been doing victory laps all week and calling Meghan, Princess Pinocchio. Classy!
Second, a bunch of articles came out talking about their bad polling numbers in UK. Meghan and Harry are more unpopular than Prince Charles after the divorce.
Third, the Queen is ghosting them. Since it’s really hard to develop the royal brand without doing any royal things and just writing anti-royal memoirs, Meghan and Harry want to fly back to London to hang out with the Queen and get their daughter christened.
From the palace: *crickets* I’m sure the Royal Family and crew would like to avoid being extras in Meghan and Harry’s media show. They probably fear being secretly recorded and being fodder for future chapters in their tell-all memoirs. If I was the Queen, I would suddenly have a very booked schedule for the next few months.
The staff at the palace is publicly scorning their “offer” to meet and give “an olive branch.” There are 10K comments on the Daily Mail version of this story. Harry and Meghan will face unhappy crowds in London, if they choose to go back.
Meanwhile Meghan thinks that the bully investigation has gone away, but the blind gossip websites say that the report is ready to go if Harry’s memoir, which is coming out this fall, is too bitchy.
My take on the bullying? My guess is that MM was over eager, trying to be the Kris Jenner of the royal family. I heard that she was shooting off emails at 5am. She was also probably being a diva, but in a typical Hollywood way. No brown mnm’s kind of stuff. She didn’t understand the royal way of dealing with the thousands of workers who do everything for them, from social media to the flowers. Staff is treated like family. Yelling, just isn’t done. Also, MM didn’t like that the staff treated them as secondary to Kate n’ Will. No one gave Meghan the “no one cares about the spare” memo. My guess it was a culture clash, rather than pointless bullying, but we’ll see it in the report.
Since the news dropped that the Sussexes desperately want to return to England to see the Queen and the family that they have stabbed repeatedly for two years, there has been no PR coming out from the Sussex side. Why the silence? Are they about to drop some good news? Is there a crisis happening behind the scenes? We’re all waiting to find out.
Apt. 11d 
I get the impression that H&M’s status is starting to drop in the US.
The tell-all has been told (and, pretty publicly, proven to be …. untruthful … at best). What more can come out in H’s memoir? Only his personal failings as a young man (which were hushed up by the RF & not reported) – damaging for him, but not so much for the RF.
Any further lies are likely to be met with documentary evidence against MM and possibly H. As you said, the bullying investigation is ready to be published.
My take on the bullying, is that she was desperately insecure – with no experience of being even celebrity royalty – let alone the real thing. She had no idea how to treat servants (in Britain). And erred on the side of authoritarianism, narcissism, and (as time went on) paranoia. And was incapable of taking advice (she believed she knew everything about publicity – not understanding that the US/Canada & the UK are *very* different audiences). If you didn’t agree with her, you were a traitor; and deserved everything you got.
She was completely unwilling to learn ‘how’ to be a successful member of ‘The Firm’ – which, given she’s an intelligent woman – pretty much indicates that she had no intention of remaining in the UK.
It appears that they are no longer (if they ever were) flavour of the month (no Obama invitation); and the Netflix and other deals will dry up if they have no royal connections or positive publicity to bring to the table.
I’d be surprised if a vist to the UK is on the cards at all. It would be a publicity nightmare. She and H are *deeply* unpopular; and would be eviscerated by the press. The Queen may wish to see H, but is very unlikely to want to meet with M; and frankly, probably doesn’t care a lot about the kids. A one-off publicity visit has little to offer for even the most doting of great grandmothers (which I don’t think QE2 is), and nothing to offer to the Queen of England.
H&M will want to spin it – but zero benefit for the RF.
Still think that burning their bridges with Charles was a profoundly stupid thing to do. Realistically, QE2 will be around for another 5 years or so. Charles will then be King, and I’d not be surprised if they lost their titles at that point – particularly if they continue along the current pathway.
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Sometimes I feel sorry for MM for misjudging the situation, other times not so much. I think if she had played the game for another few years, she would be in a better spot. They are going to be in financial straights soon, and allies are running for the hills.
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She has been staggeringly good looking for her age, and that has leveraged her grasp for fame and control. In ‘another few years – probably not so much. I think this was her best chance, and she has blown it – but waiting to drop her bombs would have rendered them duds. Waiting them out and ignoring them is the royal family’s best strategy, and they are smart enough to do that.
Meanwhile, Uncle Pervy needs a life in a monastery, and that’s what they are trying to provide for him. If he thinks he can get back to anything like before, he is delusional. ‘Never good when the little head is thinking for the big head’, and it wasn’t.
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Apparently British tabloids are speculating that Kate might be expecting. She’s reportedly had miscarriages in the past. She is known to have had particularly bad morning sickness.
If she were expecting, that would push Harry further down the line of succession, which would not be unwelcome, after Harry & MM’s bad behavior.
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