Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary

[CdnCarrie]

i really hope h&m's children aren't raised with a sense of paranoia and fear that the media is always lurking somewhere waiting to intentionally cause them harm. i look at the distaste/paranoia harry has for the media pertaining to diana's death, now he feels it's been transferred through his association to meghan, i have to wonder what kind of media mentality these kiddos will be raised with. it's odd though, on the one hand he speaks of wanting to protect his wife and kids but on the other he's featuring photos of the kids and the home they live in (vs. where it's said the documentary interviews were filmed). i think of how successfully some very high profile individuals are in keeping their children out of sight media wise, would never consider releasing photographs of their personal housing so it's not something that is unachievable.

Agreed

 

[Karin1984]

i really hope h&m's children aren't raised with a sense of paranoia and fear that the media is always lurking somewhere waiting to intentionally cause them harm. i look at the distaste/paranoia harry has for the media pertaining to diana's death, now he feels it's been transferred through his association to meghan, i have to wonder what kind of media mentality these kiddos will be raised with. it's odd though, on the one hand he speaks of wanting to protect his wife and kids but on the other he's featuring photos of the kids and the home they live in (vs. where it's said the documentary interviews were filmed). i think of how successfully some very high profile individuals are in keeping their children out of sight media wise, would never consider releasing photographs of their personal housing so it's not something that is unachievable.

I am really curious how Archie will react about 10 years from now.
He is used as much of a prop as his cousins. All kids from H&M and William & Kate look happy, but at a certain point they will realize that they are also good PR for their parents. George, Charlotte and Louis are brought up with it. I fear Archie and Lili will not, at least not in the same way.

 

[BayouQueen]

With regard to Harry, I remember reading a quote from Diana when he was still young to the effect of, "I'm really going to have to watch out for this one." So he seems to always have had a wild hair. Which leads to another point. We from the outside think of the family reacting to a stunning acute situation. They knew him well and maybe aren't all that surprised at his actions. So whatever responses from Charles, etc., that we are reading about are also responding to years of a certain kind of personality.

 

[BayouQueen]

I am really curious how Archie will react about 10 years from now.
He is used as much of a prop as his cousins. All kids from H&M and William & Kate look happy, but at a certain point they will realize that they are also good PR for their parents. George, Charlotte and Louis are brought up with it. I fear Archie and Lili will not, at least not in the same way.

They probably won't be pleased about any of it. I was thinking how it could end up that H&M are at the coronation, outside the gate, with their personal photographer, just like her sister Samantha and as her dad planned before he had his stroke.
H&M had the world in their hands. At some point their kids will have lots of questions.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

I think much like how Blake Lively released a picture of her recent pregnancy, it's one of those 'if I release it I have control and maybe they won't chase me as much' things. If they tried to keep pictures of their kids from ever being published it means the bounty on those photos goes up, which means more photographers trying to get the shot doing dangerous things, putting the kids in scary/dangerous situations, etc.

 

[Karin1984]

A UK PR-expert, Edward Coram James, has been quoted a lot currently. He said that when you hire a crisis management team then you put everything on the table, all the skeletons in the closet and let the team prepare a list of what stories you best reply to with silence and those where you have to give a response.

He said that what has been released until now is a 3 on a scale of 10, and not worth responding to.

 

[focusondisney]

And no wonder once he met someone that was outside of the dysfunctional royal bubble who was like "families don't act like this" he tried to get out as fast as possible. People who are stuck in abusive/bad relationships often can't see it because they're brought up to see it as normal. It absolutely makes sense to me that when shown what real family interactions should be he backed right out of that situation.

Meghan may be outside the royal family dysfunction, but I think someone who has no relationship with her own family (except her mother) has her own dysfunction. So he exchanges one dysfunction for another.

 

[Skywalker]

Totally disagree. "People of good intentions" shouldn't just sit around waiting for the next slight just hoping that family members will get better. Like that people are saying that Harry should have "prepared her better" is just bonkers to me. And no wonder once he met someone that was outside of the dysfunctional royal bubble who was like "families don't act like this" he tried to get out as fast as possible. People who are stuck in abusive/bad relationships often can't see it because they're brought up to see it as normal. It absolutely makes sense to me that when shown what real family interactions should be he backed right out of that situation.

Hold up, are you saying that Meghan had to shine a light on how families should act? Had to show Harry "what real family interactions should be"? Um, you don't know much about Ms. Markle do you?

 

[Karin1984]

I was just reading an article about the mysterious friend they introduced for this series.

Shouldnt the people of Hollywood know about 'show, don't tell'?
Wouldnt it be better to show that they are great people instead if talking about it? "I am a great person, here are some people who like me to tell you I am right."

 

[barkley]

Totally disagree. "People of good intentions" shouldn't just sit around waiting for the next slight just hoping that family members will get better. Like that people are saying that Harry should have "prepared her better" is just bonkers to me. And no wonder once he met someone that was outside of the dysfunctional royal bubble who was like "families don't act like this" he tried to get out as fast as possible. People who are stuck in abusive/bad relationships often can't see it because they're brought up to see it as normal. It absolutely makes sense to me that when shown what real family interactions should be he backed right out of that situation.

harry dated extensively outside the 'royal bubble'. in some cases it was his choice to end the relationships in others it was the women he dated. most of the women who ended the relationships sighted the media scrutiny as the primary factor so harry was not unaware. he could have prepared anyone he was dating for that aspect.

to say that harry's first opportunity was with meghan to be shown what real family interactions should be is an insult to every friend and relationship harry has had over the course of his life. it's also an insult to some of the women he previously dated indicating they chose to ignore what they may have observed harry struggling with. this could not be further than the case with cressida bonas who he credits and thanks as the person who helped him accept he had mental health issues and encouraged him with seeking out a psychoanalyst.

i would be interested to know what 'real family interactions' harry might have been shown by meghan. proven revisionist history about one's upbringing, conveniently forgetting about years-long interactions and/or estrangements with family members doesn't speak high functioning. harry himself said during their engagement that based on what meghan had told him the royals were 'the family i suppose she's ever had'.

 

[barkley]

I think much like how Blake Lively released a picture of her recent pregnancy, it's one of those 'if I release it I have control and maybe they won't chase me as much' things. If they tried to keep pictures of their kids from ever being published it means the bounty on those photos goes up, which means more photographers trying to get the shot doing dangerous things, putting the kids in scary/dangerous situations, etc.

i think back on how jackie kennedy found somewhat of a balance with the media and the frenzy over her children. she released photos and arranged for some private photo opportunities in exchange for some privacy. she recognized that at public events and ceremonies that she and her children were going to be photographed so she minimized their inclusion. once the children became adults it was interesting to see how with one (john jr.) there was an active animosity with the media that seemed to feed into the media's desire to stay on his heels while his sister caroline seemingly accepted that there was an interest in her on the media's part but largely ignored it in what seemed to result in waning interest/a much more successful ability to attain a private family life.

 

[Karin1984]

The safety of the children would have been one reason to stay in the UK. In the UK (and in many other monarchies) there is a code of honour between press and the family. Especially where it comes to the children. In the US they are much more sitting ducks. There is no codes of honour between celebrities and the press on that side of the pond.
Meghan says she would never be able to bring Archie to school, while in reality Kate and William drop off the kids plenty of times. There is only a scheduled press moment at the beginning of the new school year.

Here in the Netherlands it's even less, the royal family has the agreement for the first day of their level of school (no idea how you say this in English), when they start the lowest grade, then high school and when they start university. Besides that there are two portrait moments a year, and the rest of the year they are only pictured when they are at engagements. Seeing a picture of our queen shopping or whatever is extremely rare.

Yes, the British media has a different relationship with the royal family, but there is still some sort of respect. Let's remember, the sitcom The Prince was an American invention, not British.

 

[RoseGold]

I can't get over how she was recording everything all along. She's probably still recording everything.

I don't know if I could live like that at all. I'm just a normal human, and I'd be mortified if tapes of me fighting with my husband were published. Maybe he's stuck.

 

[Marrila]

I can't get over how she was recording everything all along. She's probably still recording everything.

I don't know if I could live like that at all. I'm just a normal human, and I'd be mortified if tapes of me fighting with my husband were published. Maybe he's stuck.

She seems to spend most of her waking hours in negative efforts that don't seem to yield much in terms of a steady income. It might be time for her to look for a job she'd enjoy.
With 24-7 child care covered already, she's way ahead of the usual challenges most women face.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

They probably won't be pleased about any of it. I was thinking how it could end up that H&M are at the coronation, outside the gate, with their personal photographer, just like her sister Samantha and as her dad planned before he had his stroke.
H&M had the world in their hands. At some point their kids will have lots of questions.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if, when their children grow up, they have issues of their own with the way they’ve lost their families and decide they want to restore those relationships?

 

[CdnCarrie]

The safety of the children would have been one reason to stay in the UK. In the UK (and in many other monarchies) there is a code of honour between press and the family. Especially where it comes to the children. In the US they are much more sitting ducks. There is no codes of honour between celebrities and the press on that side of the pond.
Meghan says she would never be able to bring Archie to school, while in reality Kate and William drop off the kids plenty of times. There is only a scheduled press moment at the beginning of the new school year.

Here in the Netherlands it's even less, the royal family has the agreement for the first day of their level of school (no idea how you say this in English), when they start the lowest grade, then high school and when they start university. Besides that there are two portrait moments a year, and the rest of the year they are only pictured when they are at engagements. Seeing a picture of our queen shopping or whatever is extremely rare.

Yes, the British media has a different relationship with the royal family, but there is still some sort of respect. Let's remember, the sitcom The Prince was an American invention, not British.

Sounds like the UK press is worse than the US from what I have heard.

 

[HopperFan]

Thought for this morning as there are new "truths"...

The timing of all this stuff just can't even make sense. These guys were planning their exit so very early on that there wasn't even time to have all the accumulation of misdeeds against them.
Most of us have experienced family ups and downs. People of good intentions wait a long time to pull the plug. You give family members lots of opportunities to make amends. Megs had to be looking for slights to pounce on, just to justify the exit they made.

With regard to Harry, I remember reading a quote from Diana when he was still young to the effect of, "I'm really going to have to watch out for this one." So he seems to always have had a wild hair. Which leads to another point. We from the outside think of the family reacting to a stunning acute situation. They knew him well and maybe aren't all that surprised at his actions. So whatever responses from Charles, etc., that we are reading about are also responding to years of a certain kind of personality.

Harry has shown his disdain for the monarchy and their "standards" for most his life. He's been planning his exit for most his life. He just had to find the right partner to do it with. NO ONE in that family is the least bit surprised. No surprise so many warned him about marrying too fast, they knew what was next especially since M was likely the perfect catalyst for the plan. I'm sure they hoped he would settle and find someone wanting royal duties. But no doubt in my mind they've always had the plans of what ifs he does what he is doing.

 

[Tink-osophy]

The safety of the children would have been one reason to stay in the UK. In the UK (and in many other monarchies) there is a code of honour between press and the family. Especially where it comes to the children. In the US they are much more sitting ducks. There is no codes of honour between celebrities and the press on that side of the pond.
Meghan says she would never be able to bring Archie to school, while in reality Kate and William drop off the kids plenty of times. There is only a scheduled press moment at the beginning of the new school year.

Here in the Netherlands it's even less, the royal family has the agreement for the first day of their level of school (no idea how you say this in English), when they start the lowest grade, then high school and when they start university. Besides that there are two portrait moments a year, and the rest of the year they are only pictured when they are at engagements. Seeing a picture of our queen shopping or whatever is extremely rare.

Yes, the British media has a different relationship with the royal family, but there is still some sort of respect. Let's remember, the sitcom The Prince was an American invention, not British.

Sounds like the UK press is worse than the US from what I have heard.

I think they're pretty equal in their own ways.

Karin is right in what she said (above) about the code of honour.

 

[barkley]

Wouldn’t it be interesting if, when their children grow up, they have issues of their own with the way they’ve lost their families and decide they want to restore those relationships?

they are young enough that they will have no real memories of their previous lives so it could go either way-they could be so implanted with suspicion, fear and resentment towards both the royal family AND the bulk of meghan's that they adopt a very nuclear family 'us against the world' mentality that will not even allow for them to consider reconciliation (seen this personally with estrangements due to faith based differences), OR they may over time come to question how absolutely everyone that both their father AND mother are related to are such spectacularly horrific people yet their own parents present THEMSELVES as being so good/enlightened/having so much to offer the world...a kind of 'were they self raised?' questioning which could set them off in search of getting to know family and making decisions for themselves (though with meghan i wouldn't be surprised if she was the 'me or them' threatening type with everyone in her life).

 

[VandVsmama]

In 2020 he speeched at JP Morgan, saying he had been in therapy for 7 years already. Not sure if the EDMR therapy he talked about in his Apple TV documentary was part of this.

I know you cannot put a time on how long you need to recover, especially given the circumstances in his case, but at a certain point... you can't live in the past forever.

Harry should watch the new Jonah Hill documentary on Netflix called "Stutz." He could actually learn something useful from that therapy-wise.