What do you think about Harry and Meghan's decision?

[Corie]

I'm curious to know what you think about Harry and Meghan's decision to pull back from
royal duties and to work to become financially independent.

[AngB]

I'm curious to know what you think about Harry and Meghan's decision to pull back from
royal duties and to work to become financially independent.

I think good for them.
It's ridiculous the amount of press/ negative attention they are getting for something like this considering Prince Andrew has gotten for being a sex offender. Yeesh.

[Corie]

I found this article interesting regarding the matter.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/09/opini...tby/index.html

[bisous]

I think they have so much potential!! But this move seems more about being able to cash in on global celebrity than getting privacy. I hope they get what they need for their mental health and happiness, which might be more benefitted from a true withdrawal from royal life. I think they both seem like they are suffering and could benefit from drawing closer to their family rather than withdrawing from them. I wish them the best but I think their choices are really strange.

[DualvansMommy]

I’ve had access to the British media with their tabloids by way from my family & friends back home, and it’s disgusting what is being printed about Meghan for so long.

The hate and negativity heaped on them is unbelievable, when it should be directed towards Prince Andrew. Barely a peep towards him in comparison, so I don’t blame H & M at all. The new line of succession is also making Harry in maintaining a bigger role since it’s really about Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince George. The overt and subtle examples of racism isn’t being discussed, of course....and Harry would have to explain all of it to his son one day, which is why I believe he’s doing this now. So he can tell his children he chose this path so his kids won’t have to repeat what HE went through. He lost his mother to the tabloids and relentless media, people seem to forget that...


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[niccig]

I’ve had access to the British media with their tabloids by way from my family & friends back home, and it’s disgusting what is being printed about Meghan for so long.

The hate and negativity heaped on them is unbelievable, when it should be directed towards Prince Andrew. Barely a peep towards him in comparison, so I don’t blame H & M at all. The new line of succession is also making Harry in maintaining a bigger role since it’s really about Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince George. The overt and subtle examples of racism isn’t being discussed, of course....and Harry would have to explain all of it to his son one day, which is why I believe he’s doing this now. So he can tell his children he chose this path so his kids won’t have to repeat what HE went through. He lost his mother to the tabloids and relentless media, people seem to forget that...


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I agree. Many comments are saying the Megan is making him do it. He was a Captain in the British Army and has always expressed frustration with royal life and the media’s interference in his life. He wants to protect his wife and son from what happened to his mother as him. Remember he was a young child walking behind her hearse in front of millions of people!! He’s also 6th in line and will continue to be less important to the line of succession as George, Charlotte and Louis get older. Maybe he looked at Prince Andrew and what’s happened to him and wants to make a life for himself now while he’s young.


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[StantonHyde]

I see it as an abandonment of duties. Princess Anne is nowhere near the throne--she is out there working her butt off. Same with Sophie, Edward, and the Duke of Gloucester. Of course the tabloids are writing awful things about them--they have been acting like spoiled brats. They did rush into marriage. If you look at Sophie/Edward, Princess Anne's children, William/Kate---they all dated/knew each other for at least 5 years before they got married. The tabloids printed nude pix of Kate while she was sunbathing. And, for crying out loud, just don't read the press!!!!!! And, certainly, don't give an interview where you talk about how hard it is. Too bad/so sad--you got 3 million dollars in tax payer money to fix up Frogmore with Meghan's yoga studio etc.

And financially independent???? Their website says they are only giving up the 5% of their income they get from the royal grant money. The rest comes from Harry's allowance from the Duchy of Cornwall AKA his dad's money. That is NOT financially independent. They want to cash in on brands. Well, then, the Queen should strip them of their titles and cut off all money from Charles and let them at it. That is Eurotrash at it's best--cashing in on a title. And I do think Meghan feeds into this--she wants to be famous. But I don't blame her--Harry is there too. And this is not going to protect his family. If they are going to cash in and market themselves--the press are still going to be there. If he really wanted to protect his family, he could just go live at Sandringham or some other more remote place and take Charles money and live a quiet country life. But that's not what he is doing. They want to control the press they get. Fat.chance.

It didn't have to be this way. They didn't have to expect love and adoration. They should have just kept working with their charities and ignored the press. All of this would have subsided eventually--its only been a year. The more they worked with charities, the better they would have looked, etc. I do understand Harry hating the press. But part of the way to play the game is to just ignore them. Yes, Princess Diana was chased by the press. If her driver wasn't trying to speed away from them (why?-they were always there taking pix) and the car hadn't crashed--if she had just been wearing a seat belt--she would have survived. Not to mention the emergency care that she got--that has actually long been a subject in emergency medicine literature. She would might very well have survived in the US where they would have gotten her to a hospital ASAP vs the French who have doctors on the ambulances and they kept pulling over so the doctor could try to do procedures in the ambulance.

And, yes, the tabloids are disgusting. They should be raking Andrew over the coals. Fergie is really something else--she posted about what an amazing man he is. Right...... But then he has always been a bit suspect in his relationships with women--remember him having a thing with the porn star? ugh.

[gatorsmom]

I agree with everything everyone here has posted. What’s being said about Meghan is atrocious and scary. I can’t imagine the pressure both of them are under to keep their family safe and avoid the negative media. What’s being said about them is way worse than anything said about Kate or even Camilla. I really feel for both of them.

That said, I can’t see how this is going to work. Having private jobs and trying to carry out duties for the Queen has been tried before by Prince Edward and Sofia, Countess of Wessex who was a partner in a PR firm she started and it didn’t work. It got too complicated and ultimately they both quit their private sector jobs and went to work for the Queen full time. Sofie is now one of the hardest working royals out there. There has also been complaints about how much it will cost for the Sussexes to have state-funded security provided for them overseas. Other royals who have private jobs are provided with some state-controlled security but they live/rent in properties that have security already set up. For example, Zara and Mike Tindall, the queen’s granddaughter and her husband, live in a house on Princess Anne’s property. They have private jobs but it’s much easier to keep them safe. Security is VERY expensive. Will Harry and Meghan be willing to foot the bill for their own security detail? If they scale back their activities for the Queen, is it fair to expect the same level of security as before (and actually, it would cost much more since they’d be part-time overseas).

Whether they like it or not, working for the Queen is like working for a company. It’s clear from the BUckingham Palace follow up response that BP was not fully on board with the Sussex’s decision. I can’t imagine dictating to the Queen how this would all work, how much money would be expected while they move toward “financial independence,” and that they were going to relate to the media differently (they are no longer working with the royal rota ). All of this drama weakens the perception of the monarchy which weakens the monarchy. For all the members of the family who have made sacrifices for and devoted their lives to supporting this institution- the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince Philip, and many others- I can’t imagine how much this stings. They made the sacrifices to keep the monarchy going, why can’t he? Doesn’t he see how selfish it is to endanger the family business with his decisions? Can a family bounce back from having this kind of pain inflicted on them?

But do I blame Harry and Meghan for trying to find a way to be happy? Not at all. History has shown that the life of the “spare” generally sucks. Princess Margaret was miserable, Prince Andrew has clearly not been making healthy life decisions, and now Harry is expected to toe the line and be happy being told what to do.

The 2 articles I read recently that I thought were well thought out were these (actually The Atlantic has had several good articles lately): https://www.theatlantic.com/internat...royals/604714/ and this blog: http://fromberkshiretobuckingham.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-sussexes-have-not-stepped-down-from.html?m=1 How H&M & the monarchy deal with not fitting into the traditional role of the spare and spouse will be a fascinating bit of history to watch.

[sariana]

I’ve had access to the British media with their tabloids by way from my family & friends back home, and it’s disgusting what is being printed about Meghan for so long.

The hate and negativity heaped on them is unbelievable, when it should be directed towards Prince Andrew. Barely a peep towards him in comparison, so I don’t blame H & M at all. The new line of succession is also making Harry in maintaining a bigger role since it’s really about Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince George. The overt and subtle examples of racism isn’t being discussed, of course....and Harry would have to explain all of it to his son one day, which is why I believe he’s doing this now. So he can tell his children he chose this path so his kids won’t have to repeat what HE went through. He lost his mother to the tabloids and relentless media, people seem to forget that...


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Yes to this. The issue of racism has been present since the beginning, and some people have been horrible. They think they're being subtle, but their meaning is clear.

Harry is taking a page from his great uncle's playbook. Remember that Elizabeth became queen because her uncle abdicated the throne; he didn't want to be tied down by the monarchy's archaic rules, either. Harry's situation is different, of course, because he's just "the spare." Really, people called him that when he was born!

On the other hand, I've never really liked Harry since he dressed as a Nazi for a costume party. He was young, yes, but old enough to know better. Even so, I don't blame him for doing what he's doing now.

[fauve01]

I'm curious to know what you think about Harry and Meghan's decision to pull back from
royal duties and to work to become financially independent.

Mostly what I think is WHO CARES???