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Alison Jenkins's avatar

When Meghan & Harry got engaged I was happy for them. When they married & Charles walked her down the aisle because of arsehole father. I cheered (internally). Good in Harry for not conforming & doing things his way. Meghan was so pretty & Harry was glowing with pride in his bride.

When they left the Royal corral, my thoughts were “good on ‘em”. Less royals to support.

But dear god, since then? One shit show after another!

To me, Harry has no skills outside being Royal or a soldier. Why should he? That’s all he’s been trained & socialised for.

Meghan was earning her own money, acting, influencing, whatever. Good that she’s resumed some of what was taken from her when she got engaged to Harry.

The worm in the apple seems to be wanting a Royal fortune without Royal duties. Harry claiming he has nothing to support them on. Erm? What happened to his inheritance from his mother?

If they’d gone to wherever & lived less ostentatiously, invested carefully in producing film or whatever rather than exploiting their connections & situation I would still be cheering. Badly advised they may have been but their lack of being able to “read the room” has left both Meghan & Harry looking shockingly similar to the Duke & Duchess of Windsor.

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Polly Vernon's avatar

OMG SAME! I cried when Charles walked her done the aisle!

Yeah, they really do seem a bit lost, don’t they?

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Alison Jenkins's avatar

Who can blame Meghan for wanting all the lifestyle £££ can buy once she had tasted it. Same about the adulation the Royals receive without having to try. It must be so seductive.

Understanding the manners & etiquette that underpin it are a different matter. Even more so was understanding how to change & modernise a thousand year old institution from within & learning to adjust.

In retrospect, whilst Harry has written of his dislike of Camilla, she would have been an excellent role model for Meghan as would Princess Anne. But softly, softly doesn’t seem to be in Meghan’s character.

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Polly Vernon's avatar

I think you’re very right. Big fan of Camilla’s, especially since interviewing her son, who is adorable.

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Alison Jenkins's avatar

I met Camilla when she opened the Research Facility I was Matron of. She is sexy AF, has the most beautiful skin & had a full grasp of the issues we were researching. She brought her own lunch as she didn’t want the NHS to pay for her to eat.

Her security adored her.

Meghan should have listened & learned

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Polly Vernon's avatar

Oh this is all so telling. The lunch. The security. And I love that she’s sexy!

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Moira's avatar

I think I’m over the pair of them. They wanted to leave, they did, and I find them totally irrelevant now. Meghan married into a thousand year old institution and Harry was born in to it. Why did they think they could change it and didn’t consider that the British didn’t want it to change. A tweaking round the edges is fine but one of the benefits of the RF, whatever your view of them, is that in that 1000 years there is a massive comfort in something that doesn’t change. It’s kind of the point of them? Slebs come and go, the RF is immovable.

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Polly Vernon's avatar

True and extremely eloquently expressed (as ever).

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Moira's avatar

I consider that the highest praise 🤗

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Polly Vernon's avatar

It is.

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Moira's avatar

🤩

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Caroline's avatar

What I find so distasteful about the descent into naked money-making is the way it started with such grandiose philanthropic claims. Remember ‘Service is universal’? More and more I suspect that they left the RF primarily because she wasn’t able to live the lifestyle that in her head went with being a princess. (‘I can’t believe we’re not getting paid for this’; ‘work[ing] to become financially independent’. Remember too the outcry over the private-jet-enabled, Beyoncé-thrown baby shower?) Clearly the optics of this wouldn’t have been great, hence the throwing under the bus of family, press, and public.

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Polly Vernon's avatar

Oh god, absolutely! But I’m not keen on anyone who goes

Around saying what a good person they are and how they’re want to make the world a better place. As a mate says: yeah that’s kind of the deal on being alive. No need to put it in your Twitter bio.

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Caroline's avatar

So true

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Lesley O’Mara's avatar

This is like you went in my brain and dug out all my thoughts from this week and put them down for me, so cheers! It was when The Sun stuck it on the front page about her affiliate stuff (which every person I subscribe to here does and that’s totally fine and normal) that I was like WHAT is going on?

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Polly Vernon's avatar

I did actually go into your brain for a dig. Hope that’s ok?

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Lesley O’Mara's avatar

Yeah totally 👍

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Alexandra Lyons's avatar

I think people hate Megan Markle specifially because she married one of the Royal Family but doesn't want to fall in with their way of doing things.

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Polly Vernon's avatar

Quite true… it’s funny though, I’d never have thought I cared that much about the royals… and yet. Might be they we think they’re ‘ours’ to criticize, love, whatever.

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Emma Gunavardhana's avatar

I'd also like to add that the brand 'as ever' is actually 'a sever' and is another reference to the split from The Family.

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Toya Rico's avatar

There are SO SO MANY others in your profession that you let live and in some cases extort their followers/subscribers without comment or criticism. Why can’t we just let Meghan live her life? Don’t buy her recommendations. Don’t watch her Netflix shows. You have the ability to look the other way. Please.

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Blath from Dublin's avatar

Great read Polly. I couldn't watch that netflix show OMG making your own bath salts and doing up the guest bedroom with popcorn like wtaf... It seems a shame she would have been so good at the royal thing... H comes across as a bit of an arse though - just my opinion obvs

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