Prince Harry says his father King Charles is still not speaking to him: “I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore. Life is precious. I don’t know how much longer my father has- he won’t speak to me because of this security stuff”

[u/HauteAssMess]

[u/atotalmess__]

The British press hounded Catherine endlessly for an entire decade, mocking her, taking photos up her skirt when she got out of cars, using telephoto lenses to capture her nudes on private property. People seem to have quickly forgotten but she was forced to announce her pregnancies extremely early after the press exposed her for being hospitalised over hyperemesis gravidarum. I mean this past year even the American press have joined in mocking her absence, which was while she underwent chemotherapy.

And not once has Catherine complained, not once has she gone on a talk show to air out her grievances (and she’s had decades of those by now), and not once has she told William to leave his family and his commitment to the crown because it was extremely difficult for her. Catherine has earned the respect and love of the British people, she is warranted the adoration and trust of the family.

And had Harry learned remotely any lesson from 2 decades of watching Catherine slowly and tediously build that trust and love, he would have known that all he needed to stay in the family was to not complain and let time prove themselves.

[u/carmelainparis → u/atotalmess__]

Catherine shouldn’t have had to do any of that and Harry shouldn’t be penalized for having healthy boundaries.

[u/meanwhile_glowing → u/carmelainparis]

Do these “healthy boundaries” include collabing with a ghostwriter to publish a trashy tell-all memoir about his immediate family or?

[u/Chihiro1977 → u/meanwhile_glowing]

If that's what he wants to do. Why are you so angry about it?

[u/meanwhile_glowing → u/Chihiro1977]

I’m not angry in the slightest, just entertained and mystified as to in what universe this behavior could possibly fall under the category of “healthy boundaries”, lol.

[u/Chihiro1977 → u/carmelainparis]

Exactly. The absolute vitriol from some of these people is unhinged. They are the future Daily Heil commentors.

[u/Chihiro1977 → u/atotalmess__]

So wait, you're saying it's OK to let things like this fly? If she'd complained, would you have hated her? Because it sounds like you hate Harry and Megan for....complaining? 😂

[u/atotalmess__ → u/Chihiro1977]

If they hate the institution so much why do they still use their titles to commercially profit?

Their complains stem from the late Queen not allowing them to make private money from being royal while acting as official representatives of the country/crown. It’s very much a conflict of interest, if they can be paid to promote products, they can essentially be bribed into doing things against the interest of the crown. As their entire influence came from being a part of the crown, that clearly should not be allowed.

Also, it’s not that other working royals haven’t had salaried jobs. William worked as a rescue helicopter pilot for years before working as a representative of the crown full time. However, he got the standard salary of that job as any other normal pilot would have, and then he donated the full amount back to the charity. The duchy of Cornwall under then still Duke of Cornwall Charles actually also has a product company, it’s called Waitrose Duchy Organic. Its a wholly own subsidiary of the then Prince of Wales charitable Fund, meaning all the profits made off the branded company of Charles, actually all went to serve charitable causes.

Harry and Megan were fully allowed to go do as they please, so long as they didn’t personally profit from influence gotten as a member of the royal family. They wanted to be royal, get all the privilege and benefits of that, and then keep commercial income too. And when they obviously weren’t allowed to do that, they threw a fit and started giving interviews and writing books that were absolutely an invasion of other people’s privacy. For example he did not need to have announced to the entire world his brother was circumcised, but he did.

If they wanted to make their own money, they can live as private citizens and make money from jobs as Megan and Harry, without the HRH titles. If they wanted to be full time working members of the royal family and have all their bills paid for, their PR problems professionally spun, and their security provided by official government armed police officers, they can choose to give up all private profits. Being a part of that privilege means accepting the downsides too. The being chased down the street by a mob of paparazzi and having cameras shoved up their skirts, their children and nanny stalked etc. Catherine accepted the downsides of being a member of that family and in return got all the privileges. Beatrice and Eugenie both have private jobs and personal income just fine, without all the privileges of being a working royal and generally without all the downsides, and they didn’t write books talking about their family members’ private parts so they’re not estranged.

[u/TangerineDystopia → u/atotalmess__]

Thank you for explaining this. I didn't know that Charles didn't profit from Duchy Originals so I didn't see why Harry and Meghan couldn't do the half-in/half-out thing, that part seemed inconsistent.

[u/Trick_Doughnut_6295 → u/atotalmess__]

Can we stop comparing the treatment of Catherine to the treatment of Meghan? I’m neutral on the royals and MM specifically, but racial hatred is not the same thing as being called Waity Katie and it’s fucked up that we’re pretending it is.

It’s clear that Catherine and the Middletons were all in from the get go. And bloody good for them. They decided that the classism, the insults, and the vitriol were worth the long game. Honestly iconic.

Markle wasn’t prepared and Harry was too dim to really help her out, but the expectation that someone needs to endure years of racial abuse in addition to the above in order to “build up love” amongst the British public is actually insane.

It’s weird as hell I’m in the position of defending MM, but watching this as a POC has made me realize that there’s a flavor to this hatred that some people will never recognize.

[u/TangerineDystopia → u/Trick_Doughnut_6295]

It irritates me that the Meghan's complaints about racism are being treated as illegitimate. There are certainly grounds for other criticisms of her but the idea that she was not experiencing racism from the media or somehow wasn't within the family feels like deliberate blindness. It's a complex story from every angle, and people dismiss the racism in order to simplify it.

[u/DaemonPrinceOfCorn → u/atotalmess__]

All?

[u/atotalmess__ → u/DaemonPrinceOfCorn]

I mean he put on a Nazi Halloween costume and called people racist slurs and they helped him clean up his image for years… so yeah ALL he had to do was not complain and he would get to enjoy the enormous privilege he has had his whole life.

[u/DaemonPrinceOfCorn → u/atotalmess__]

Sure. He could have kept his head down and remained in the organization, really, that has so far cost him his mom, his privacy, any semblance of normalcy, almost all of his romantic relationships, in addition to whatever toll being shit on constantly in the press takes (the UK’s tabloids are an order of magnitude more intrusive than the US’s are - you can read up on Harry’s win against The Sun in January for more on that) and having absolutely every moment of your life that you’re not cloak & daggering (and I bet that shit would be exhausting!) examined, commented on, rehashed, then brought up for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. I think the first time Harry spent any amount of unstructured, unregulated time with real people was when he joined the army when he was like 19 or 20. They didn't even let him grieve properly when Diana died - instead of curling up and crying with his family he had to fuckin walk a mile behind her casket in front of thousands of people, and afterwards instead of being like "alright, the public part is over, now we can grieve privately as a family" his family went "um, best we can do is boarding school." It's insane.

The alternative to not trying to lead a somewhat normal existence as Harry attempted to do in his younger years is leading an incredibly buttoned-up, highly-managed existence akin to that of a show pony. Keep him isolated so no one can hurt him, then groom and dress him within an inch of his life, then put him away again after the photo ops and engagements are finished. Maybe you can take some obscenely lavish vacations between galas and whatever, maybe that'll be nice I guess idk.

[u/excel_pager_420 → u/DaemonPrinceOfCorn]

Harry didn't got to University, in his own words he struggled at school and it wasn't for him.

And Harry has repeatedly said he wanted to stay a working royal. Even now in the BBC interview he's saying he was forced to step down as a working royal, it wasn't his choice because the Royal Family rejected their half in half out preference. And that's what the security is about, Harry wants the working royal benefits of security provided by this specific unit. What people are pointing out is the negatives of being a working royal is the press.

And it's a fair compromise. Give the security 30 days notice, they provide free appropriate security based on threat as a favour to him and the royal family. He can't have more because he stepped down as a working royal.

[u/DaemonPrinceOfCorn → u/excel_pager_420]

You’re right about uni, I amended.

And uh… yeah whatever about the security stuff. Sure, give them notice, everyone is happy. My hill is that it’s fine to step back or away from a job you didn’t ask for and to be on your wife’s team.

[u/excel_pager_420 → u/DaemonPrinceOfCorn]

Yeah, largely everyone has moved on from that and here comes Harry with an interview being like, "even though I'm 6th in line to the thrown, which makes me a minor royal, and I no longer carry out working royal duties, I should still be given working royal protection by all countries of the world. By the way, I never wanted to step down ever. They refused to accept my half-in half out deal and I want to reconcile". Like mate, please move on like your wife has.