'..performative pain for the gawping woke media"

[Belle]

Poor Prince Harry; little boy lost in Woke-ville.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/05/1 ... nce-harry/

[barney]

By and large I agree with this analysis - but with the usual caveat. Brendan can't help himself from slamming the "woke" media. In fact it's all media, not least Brendan himself (who certainly doesn't consider himself woke), or indeed you, Belle, in posting it, thereby confirming your obsession with "wokeness".

[jserraglio]

[diegobueno]

I think Prince Harry is writing the script for future seasons of The Crown, and is deeply concerned that it not be dull. I don't pay much attention to the doings of the British royalty, because I don't want to see spoilers.

[barney]

I think Prince Harry is writing the script for future seasons of The Crown, and is deeply concerned that it not be dull. I don't pay much attention to the doings of the British royalty, because I don't want to see spoilers.

I've never watched the Crown; no interest. My wife gave it 15 minutes and cried "enough!"

[maestrob]

I think Prince Harry is writing the script for future seasons of The Crown, and is deeply concerned that it not be dull. I don't pay much attention to the doings of the British royalty, because I don't want to see spoilers.

Good one, Mark!

I did watch the famous Oprah interview and read about Prince Phillip's recent funeral in the NY Times, but I'm not a "follower." Their lives are intensely scrutinized by the press, and I'm really uncomfortable with the incredible lack of privacy that results.

I really wouldn't want to be them, and don't blame Harry and Meaghan for bolting. Not at all. What an unendurable torture it is to be in their shoes. Social position has a terrible price attached to the glory that comes with it, and that's a price I learned long ago that I was not willing to pay. Seen too many lives wrecked.

[barney]

I think Prince Harry is writing the script for future seasons of The Crown, and is deeply concerned that it not be dull. I don't pay much attention to the doings of the British royalty, because I don't want to see spoilers.

Good one, Mark!

I did watch the famous Oprah interview and read about Prince Phillip's recent funeral in the NY Times, but I'm not a "follower." Their lives are intensely scrutinized by the press, and I'm really uncomfortable with the incredible lack of privacy that results.

I really wouldn't want to be them, and don't blame Harry and Meaghan for bolting. Not at all. What an unendurable torture it is to be in their shoes. Social position has a terrible price attached to the glory that comes with it, and that's a price I learned long ago that I was not willing to pay. Seen too many lives wrecked.

Well, Meaghan's policy of appealing to Americans is working. (Her popularity in Britain plummeted after the Oprah interview because the British recognised what she was doing.)
Personally, I'm of the opposite opinion to yours, Brian - entering the Royal Family, then betraying it; complaining about intrusive media and life in the goldfish bowl, then retiring to California and embracing intrusive media and life in the goldfish bowl, and capitalising on her connection to the Windsors to make lots of money - all this bothers me. And I thought it was cheap and trite to claim to be the victim of racism, knowing that would play well in the US. The continual narrative of Meaghan as helpless, well-meaning victim irks me. She's a minor actress who has parlayed her position into global fame. I think she's a piece of work, and Harry is a shallow, not very bright camp follower.

I think we'll just have to agree to read the matter differently.

[barney]

Update: just watched a documentary on Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor, and Wallis Simpson. It's very apparent that here, too, the woman rather than the man had the energy, the drive and the vaulting ambition. I knew they hoped Hitler would win and put the Duke back on the throne, and even advocated that Germany bomb England - a quite extraordinary bit of treason - but I didn't know she was writing love letters to her ex-husband even while on honeymoon with the former king.

[Rach3]

The continual narrative of Meaghan as helpless, well-meaning victim irks me.

I have some agreement with you here, but what concerned me was the alleged comment / inquiry by a "senior Royal " as to what color their child would be.

[barney]

The continual narrative of Meaghan as helpless, well-meaning victim irks me.

I have some agreement with you here, but what concerned me was the alleged comment / inquiry by a "senior Royal " as to what color their child would be.

That may be correct. When I first heard that remark I thought it was just an innocent question of curiosity, not racially loaded - if he's too dark we'll have to hide him, or whatever the implication might be. It was never spelled out. And so I thought it was more unpleasant virtue signalling designed for a US audience. I COULD be right, or I might be way off the mark.

We don't know who was alleged to hve said it, do we? Unless it was the notoriously incorrect Prince Philip, I can't imagine anyone else would have meant it in the unpleasant sense.

Meaghan would also have had to be monstrously uninterested in how the royals work not to know why Archie is not now titled Prince, but will be after Charles ascends the throne.

Let people who are really disadvantaged cry "poor me, poor me". Not minor celebrities with every advantage, whose race (rightly) did not prevent her joining the royal family, and who used it to turn herself into a multi-millionaire.

[Rach3]

When I first heard that remark I thought it was just an innocent question of curiosity, not racially loaded - if he's too dark we'll have to hide him, or whatever the implication might be. It was never spelled out. And so I thought it was more unpleasant virtue signalling designed for a US audience. I COULD be right, or I might be way off the mark.

We don't know who was alleged to hve said it, do we? Unless it was the notoriously incorrect Prince Philip, I can't imagine anyone else would have meant it in the unpleasant sense.

Meaghan would also have had to be monstrously uninterested in how the royals work not to know why Archie is not now titled Prince, but will be after Charles ascends the throne.

Let people who are really disadvantaged cry "poor me, poor me". Not minor celebrities with every advantage, whose race (rightly) did not prevent her joining the royal family, and who used it to turn herself into a multi-millionaire.

If I recall, Meaghan and Harry at the time said the comment did not come from the Queen or Prince Philip.But, they did not specifically eliminate anyone else, such as Prince Charles or Prince William.

Indeed,little sympathy from me here, see https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainm ... net-worth/ , but I do admire Harry's service in Afghanistan.

[barney]

Yes, that's a good point. I do too. I don't think it took much intelligence or imagination, but it certainly took courage and commitment.

[maestrob]

Barney, the only thing I'll add to this discussion now is that I really don't think that Meaghan is/was quite as evil-minded as you seem to perceive her. As for Harry, well, everyone in their twenties, especially coming from such a sheltered background, is entitled to be a twit. I certainly was at that age. But I grew up, and so will he.

Life is a process of awakening awareness that we all go through. Let's let it go at that.

[maestrob]

Prince Harry Says Trauma of Diana’s Death Led Him to Drink and Drugs

“I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs,” Harry said in a documentary series focused on mental health. His comments were the latest in a series of frank discussions he has had about his personal life.


By Anna Schaverien
May 21, 2021
Updated 9:34 a.m. ET

LONDON — Prince Harry spoke candidly about his struggles with his mental health as a senior member of the royal family in a newly released interview, admitting that he used alcohol and drugs to try to cope with personal trauma.

“I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling,” he said, referring to efforts to address his grief years after the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
Harry’s comments were made in episodes of the documentary series “The Me You Can’t See” that he co-produced with Oprah Winfrey, the latest in a series of frank discussions he has had about mental health. Since stepping back from their royal duties last year, Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, have spoken openly about their strained relationship with the rest of Britain’s royal family, most notably in an explosive televised interview with Ms. Winfrey earlier this year.

In interviews for the AppleTV+ series released on Friday, the prince said he had been “all over the place, mentally” in addressing the death of his mother, who was killed in a car crash in 1997.

“I would probably drink a week’s worth in one day on a Friday or a Saturday night and I would find myself drinking not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something,” Harry, now 36, said as he described the period of his late 20s and early 30s as a “nightmare.” He did not specify which drugs he had taken.

He said he had experienced panic attacks and severe anxiety during his time as a working member of the royal family and told Ms. Winfrey that he had begun therapy four years ago when he realized he could lose his relationship with Meghan if he did not “fix” himself.

Harry also spoke of the moment his wife told him she was experiencing suicidal thoughts — something she revealed during the couple’s interview with Ms. Winfrey earlier this year.

“I was ashamed to go to my family because, to be honest with you, like a lot of other people my age probably relate to, I know that I’m not going to get from my family what I need,” he said.


Speaking of the intense scrutiny that his wife had faced in years of being hounded by Britain’s tabloid press, Prince Harry said he had felt “completely helpless.”

“I thought my family would help but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, just got met with total silence or total neglect,” he said. “We spent four years trying to make it work. We did everything we possibly could to stay there.”

The prince also described feeling helpless before his mother’s death, and recalled sitting in a car with her as a child and being chased by the paparazzi. He said Diana was almost unable to drive because of the tears in her eyes.

He also reflected on her funeral procession. “It was like I was outside of my body and just walking along, doing what was expected of me,” he said. Harry said he had avoided thinking and talking about his mother’s death until it started to take a toll on him mentally in his late 20s.

Harry and his brother, Prince William, and his sister-in-law, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, in 2016 launched a campaign called Heads Together to encourage people to talk with friends and family about their mental well-being.


In the interview with Ms. Winfrey in March, Harry touched on the rift that his acrimonious split with the royal family had opened up between him and his relatives. “There’s a lot to work through there,” he said of his relationship with his father.

Last week, Harry alluded again to the difficulties he faced as a member of the royal family, saying it was “a mix between ‘The Truman Show’ and being in a zoo” in a podcast interview.

“It’s incredibly sad,” Harry said in the documentary released Friday, referring to the decision by him and his wife to leave Britain and their work in the royal family behind them. “But I have no regrets at all.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/21/worl ... ime-weight

[barney]

Barney, the only thing I'll add to this discussion now is that I really don't think that Meaghan is/was quite as evil-minded as you seem to perceive her. As for Harry, well, everyone in their twenties, especially coming from such a sheltered background, is entitled to be a twit. I certainly was at that age. But I grew up, and so will he.

Life is a process of awakening awareness that we all go through. Let's let it go at that.

Fair enough Brian. If I have made her evil-minded I have spoken too strongly. I would rather say "opportunist" - no better or worse than vast numbers of people, but not equipped for the royal family with its blend of privilege and sacrifice.

[maestrob]

Barney, the only thing I'll add to this discussion now is that I really don't think that Meaghan is/was quite as evil-minded as you seem to perceive her. As for Harry, well, everyone in their twenties, especially coming from such a sheltered background, is entitled to be a twit. I certainly was at that age. But I grew up, and so will he.

Life is a process of awakening awareness that we all go through. Let's let it go at that.

Fair enough Brian. If I have made her evil-minded I have spoken too strongly. I would rather say "opportunist" - no better or worse than vast numbers of people, but not equipped for the royal family with its blend of privilege and sacrifice.

I'll buy that.

For that matter, with even her privileged background, Lady Di had her troubles as well, didn't she?