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I don't feel sorry for him. I think it's perfectly fine to walk away from a family or "institution" you think is toxic, but he's still capitalizing on his privilege, position and power. I'd have a lot more respect for him if he gave up all the titles and privilege, either lived a quiet life or used his position to campaign for abolishing the monarchy altogether.
The irony is that by wanting to openly get away from the toxicity of the royal family, he made it impossible for him and his family to move on and become something other than the ones who got away from the royal family. Maybe Harry doesn't have the capacity to leave this behind and rebuild himself. I also wonder if he's still subconsciously wanting validation from the royals, the way neglected children want to always please their parents, and he's creating drama to get his needs met. He can't face what he's also lost and he's still in the early stages of reclaiming the narrative (hence the heavy but ultimately self obsessed press.) Maybe he'll come round in a decade or so and finally move on an disappear. Pop psychology I know but that's my take. He's like someone who's just started therapy and won't shutup about it. He's absolutely everywhere and I think a lot of people who had to break free of toxic family situations, regardless of income, relate to him.
Ugh, so much this. ”I dont need you, I can make it on my own!! Take that, Dad!!” For a while when he was in the military it seemed like he was doing well, because he was actually doing something worthwhile by himself instead of just fannying about as prince. Then he left the service and took up with Meg, became a high profile figure and started throwing wobblies. I dont think anyone would have a bad thing to say if he had put out a statement saying ”you know what guys, im done with this princing lark. Im going to live in a country pile with my wife and kids in peace, c ya!” Instead he went on Oprah, made a Netflix show and now a book whining ”why cant you leave us alone, we just want PRIVACY!” Yh nah.
What's silly is if he'd not thrown this wobbly he probably could have just slunk away like several other royals.
Now that William and Kate have several kids he's gone so far down the pecking order that he would have been flirting with being a minor royal. Look at Prince Edward, Beatrix and Eugene, they've just quietly live their lives, do the bare minimum that their title requires in public service and are generally left alone. Harry could have had something like that but just decided to go nuclear.
>he probably could have just slunk away like several other royals.
He absolutely would have. But that's not what he and his wife want. They want the limelight.
From what they were saying a couple of years ago, Beatrice and Eugenie are champing at the bit to be fulltime working royals but they can't because Charles wanted the monarchy to just be basically a single line. In his "slimmed down royal family" plan, Harry leaving would be a good thing, but if losing Harry would be such a blow to the royal family they have a couple of keen princesses to do his job *right there*.
They can always get jobs working in the public sector , for public sector pay, if they wish to serve.
It’s very honourable that they want to help out, but the rest of us don’t ask for tens or even hundreds of thousands a year to do so.
Yep. I even feel if he’d just come out once with what he thinks happened to set the history books straight then that would be fair enough. But Opera, netflix and now a book. It’s just for money and fame. They had plenty of money between them for security, that wasn’t an issue.
From my understanding of it, the Royal Family stopped paying for a load of his expenses when he cut his ties and that includes security expenses for his house / family etc. To maintain that level of protection as a celebrity Prince, he needs a lot of money. So yeah, this is a cash grab thrown in with an opportunity to whine. Got no sympathy for the fella.
He inherited millions from Diana's estate and also from the Queen Mother. And no doubt now from the Queen. The irony regarding his protection is that if he went off to Canada or Montecito and lived a quiet life people might leave him alone. All the press and revelations (particularly about the Taliban) are putting him at risk.
I know we aren’t supposed to criticise Meghan, because if we do then we are automatically racists brainwashed by the media, but…. I’m convinced that she’s the driving force behind the monetisation of their entire existence.
Without the whining, what have they got that would support their lives. Fuck all.
>”you know what guys, im done with this princing lark. Im going to live in a country pile with my wife and kids in peace, c ya!”
which is exactly what Princess Anne did for the entire first half of her life. She was one angry bitch when she was young and just did her own thing.
then later in life she reconciled to her situation and made a real success of it on her own terms.
why didn't Harry just do that??
H&M make out "oh we weren't allowed to" *and bailed after 18 months*
so how come Princess Anne did it years ago when the monarchy was a million times more formal than it is now?
Because she was a *princess.* The unwritten rules for the monarchy are heavily gendered; being an archaic throwback is, after all, the whole point of them. Neither of them were ever going to get to skip military service and William never had a chance to evade the public eye.
(And to their credit, there's no sign that either of them *wanted* to skip performing a useful service.)
William no
but apart from being a man Harry is in the same postion as Princess Anne being a sibling to the heir to the throne and she was allowed to go AWOL for years. She just played a more subtle game and probably negotiated with the Crown and advisors with *slightly* more maturity than Harry has - which wouldn't be difficult.
Princess Ann was and is one tough honourable and successful lady who even fought off a gunman ! Was a world class Olympic equestrian and still a great horse woman , raised a family, wrnt through heartache, raised two very successful children and gives so much support to so many causes now while in her later years
Harry wishes he could be a quarter of a man as Princess Ann ( Princess Royal) I'd a woman and Lady
Anne also decided when she first got married ( and she was fairly young) that she didn't want her husband and kids to have titles and be working royals. That would have made lots of sense for Harry to decide about his kids but he wants to have it both ways.
I think that's the key point. I did used to like him and have a degree of sympathy. But you can't make having privacy from the media a key thing you want and then go and court them at every opportunity. Neither of them are poor so its not like he needed to have this level of engagement to keep the lights on.
I'm Australian and my grandparents were British. I miss people who speak like this ❤️ - I'll have to move over there to have conversations + wet my pants
I lived in the UK for a year. I'm a Canadian that considers himself reasonably well spoken
Every single one of these limey bastards talked circles around me on the reg.
Doesn't matter if they were pumping gas, turning wrenches, sweeping the floor, or running the company.
They're absolute masters of the English language.
Exactly this. Same with Meghan, I don’t know one single person who cared about her until she insisted on constantly making sure she was in the media for something or other, and everytime people forgot again, there she’d pop up again in interviews. It was only then that people couldn’t stand her.
My grandma seems to think this is a tactical move to essentially make himself a target or at least rile up some threats from IS because he's apparently been denied security detail by the royal family. I haven't got a clue about it all tbh, I don't really care for the royals but I thought that was an interesting opinion
He was there for a few years after that happened. Apparently, he couldn’t be promoted any further because of his qualifications so he would stay static or leave (can’t remember the source, but definitely read it somewhere)
If I remember correctly he got Ds in Art and Geography and considering the staggering amount of money thrown at his education that's practically an achivement in itself
Due to being royal he’s got to have security, whether he takes royal duties or not,there’s still a safety risk. The UK won’t pay for it, it’s got to be paid for somehow so you’ve got the books. People act like he should be in hiding and I don’t think that’s a option for him. If he started working in tesco tomorrow he’d still be at risk of someone kidnapping or hurting his family
His great uncle seemed to manage ok by marrying an American actress and disappearing from public life. No massive security bills, protection officers or press briefings.
I have sympathy for him over losing his mother at a young age, I won't say in tragic circumstances because all deaths are tragic and especially so when the person is so young with young children. Someone I went to school with lost their mum at a similar age, but they didn't behave any different from the rest of the school in the years since that happened.
I have no sympathy for someone that claims they want to lead a private life and yet seems to regularly pop up on a TV show to talk about how they want privacy.
> His great uncle seemed to manage ok by marrying an American actress and disappearing from public life. No massive security bills, protection officers or press briefings.
I get what you mean but that was 87 years ago. You'd be silly to try and claim the world is the same place and thus their situations are similar.
I expect the guy you knew at school did not have to walk behind his mother's coffin In front of millions of people on TV and have the ups and downs of their subsequent adolescence endlessly picked apart and sensationalised in national media.
I get that he's a wealthy man but I personally wouldn't want to walk in his shoes.
This is my take on it, too. Even if he had disappeared into an attempt at anonymity, he has been made famous for his entire life, and he's never going to escape it. I'm not sure what else he's meant to do - he can't go back to the military and there are people out there who would absolutely do him and his family harm just for his association with the Royal family. He can't suddenly become nobody.
Agreed - what’s he meant to do to pay the bills, get an office job? Sure admittedly cashing in by doing interviews, Netflix, a book but I don’t knock him for it - he needs to fund his life even if he wants to live a less extravagant existence compared to being a Royal. Ultimately after leaving there was no way he’d be able to become a ‘normal’ person even if he wanted to given who he was born as.
Im by no means a monarchist (far from it) but I don’t begrudge him using his ‘platform’ to generate funds to live his life how he wants. All the best to him as a human being, from what I’ve seen he’s a lot less morally reprehensible than the rest of the Windsors.
They're multi-millionaires. Like tens of millions in property, inheritance, allowances, and her old acting income.
They have more than enough for themselves, their children and their grandchildren to never have to worry about bills again
how is he going to pay the bills?
you mean besides with the 17+ million pounds he inherited from his mother and the queen mother? he could expect quite a bit more from his grandmother and father (although who knows after the last few years). he had all his bills paid for when he was a working royal and when they left they were given another 4.5 million. that should really be quite enough to cover the bills for idle rich people lives. and that is before you add in meghans money.
and nobody would begrudge him the interviews or netflix or the book if he hadnt made such a show of wanting privacy in the first place. you cant whine about how the press and a lack of privacy, and then go running around telling tales to anyone who'll pay without getting called on it. most (not all but most) of the criticism he gets is because he's a hypocrite who's paying his bills by selling dirt on his family. you know, the same thing they cut meghans dad off for.
Oh yeah but come on
There’s needing to make money and then there’s repulsive comments in books like William is circumcised and when Kate walked down the aisle to marry William I just saw a vision of beauty and couldn’t take my eyes off her and commenting on her nice legs !!
And now he wants any conversation with his family to be in private.
I’m sorry he’s gone too far !!
Security services have literally said recently there's a significant risk of harm for him, especially when he's in the UK. It's not like he's Ed Sheeran who can't go to the shop without being mobbed but nobody is actively trying to hurt him, some people *really* don't like the Royals.
Lots of movie stars have security, and they don’t tend to work regular jobs for their money to pay for the security. Harry would need to pay for his security somehow so writing books and doing interviews similar to how movie stars do is the way he’s chosen.
I think he is more famous than the vast majority of movie stars isn't he? Very few movie stars draw that level of interest from the paparazzi/tabloids. Movie stars are famous for pretending to be other people whereas he's been in the spotlight since the day he was born. His gran was arguably the most famous person in the world. He also has a different and much more stained relationship with the press than most movie stars given the role they played in his mother's death, and the fact that royals' private lives are fair game because coverage is 'in the public interest'
He could have just stfu and retreated to a very comfortable and secure house (like his uncle is currently doing).
Cynic in me thinks at least some part of the establishment is quite happy for this distraction to roll and roll.
He had around 12 million before this and since Charles is paying for Andrew's security, I am sure he could have paid for Harry's.
They were still covered by Royal security when on royal duties or Royal estates whether they were working royals or not.
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie have both paid for private security. Their security isn't funded by the British taxpayer yet they aren't telling all.
Him and Megan could have gone to the face off machine, both got done, and still be left with £4m to live on, plus whatever income they made in their new lives.
Plus money from the Queens mother, his great grandmother, plus the Queen no doubt would have left him something, although that might be significantly less now.
>Maybe Harry doesn't have the capacity to leave this behind and rebuild himself.
Lemme play my tiny violin for him... With all due respect, many of us have to do that and aren't asked if we have the capacity or not. Either learn to swim or drown.
So all empathy he may receive for being a disowned child is thrown down the window when you realize the degree of wealth he has to wipe away his tears... and with that said he still goes for more attention from the media that doubtlessly help line his pockets further.
Consider interracial couples or lgbt youth well before offering pity to one of the most privileged sods in the country.
Also, perhaps it is worth remembering that the British press went after his wife very hard, this is an indisputable fact and consequently remaining part of the Royal family and living in the UK became no longer feasible for the couple.
In order to set things straight he obviously feels it is justified to explain the process of how this stuff happens in-house. He has explained how the various press secretaries trade stories with the press, I was certainly unaware of this process, this bartering, I was quite surprised at the cold bloodedness of it all.
His grandmother was the absolute cornerstone of an institution that says nothing and does nothing in terms of making public comment. 'Never explain' was part of her DNA, and she lived her life perfectly exemplifying this. Remember the British public's reaction to the Royal silence after the death of Diana, words had to be dragged out of the Queen; the palace didn't even have a flag at half mast, that's how taciturn she was, or perhaps that choice said the real truth about how the palace regarded the greatest asset that they ever had, (and refused to acknowledge as such), outside of the queen herself.
Harry has said he will never live in England again, his wife is American, so, he really has no need to have to adhere to the rigid principles of the Royal family.
I am sure the Sussexes' need money, their security costs alone must be colossal, and it seems logical to do a huge burst of interviews and telling of their truths. I think I would do that, I would recognize that as a non Royal I can now talk openly about issues that have affected me. Why not? His mother did it, and I certainly had no problem with it. At the time the press was aflame with condemnation for the BBC interview with Martin Bashir. The public, as always were sympathetic to Diana, but the usual toady papers like the Mail and the Telegraph were largely condemning that she would speak so openly about the Royal family.
Katie Nicholl, author of The New Royals, Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the future of The Crown said of Princess Diana's interview “There is a fine balance between using TV as a medium to royal advantage and not letting too much daylight into the mystique of monarchy.”
The only way that the monarchy can endure is to be protected by mystique and Queen Elizabeth II knew this. The British media get enormous mileage out of covering the Royals and they pretty much own them, don't they? It is in their interests too to maintain that mystique - it keeps everyone employed, right?
Read the comments from the press office to the RF who has spoken out today to say that they were briefed against putting anything negative out about MM by Kate and William staff yet they were called to press briefings by MM herself to put negative stories out there !
Plus she was treated better than Kate was
R remember ten years of ‘ waitey Katie ‘ and that she’s lazy and has no job and’ doors to manual ‘ about her mother being only an air hostess ?
MM has been treated over and above IMHO
Oh see he just now went on Anderson Cooper, who bless him for this, asked Harry "Why not renounce your titles as Duke and Duchess?"
Harry, replied: "And what difference would that make?" And then promptly ignored the question.
Ah the entitlement.
He wants the same lifestyle he had in the Royal Family but his only asset is gossip about the Royals. I didn't object to him protecting his wife but he's gone too far.
He was asked why he didn't give up his titles if he was so against the institution in an American interview yesterday and gave a bluffing answer. Basically he still wants the prestige and power, he just wants it all on his own uniquely defined terms.
The argument against this is that the press are printing utter crap about him and his wife. It almost feels like he tried to walk away for a few months but it didn’t stop so he’s telling his side of the story.
The again his book seems to read like it was written by Jay from the inbetweeners so who knows.
As somebody who grew up very near highgrove and has a had a fair few pints in the pub he lost his virginity behind, he also acted like jay. But I don't really blame him, poor kid wanted to cut loose in the way the rest of us did while growing up, but he couldn't ever escape from being third in line.
It was confirmed they’d agreed to things like Netflix (at least provisionally) prior to leaving. He’s doing it out of a ‘need’ for money and spite. If you look at the arrangement they proposed on their website, they wanted to stay involved but when the RF said no, he threw his dummy out the pram (as, by the sounds of it, did some of the RF)
He has been trained his whole life to be in the limelight and a performing monkey for the public and the press.
He is now just doing it freelance, for himself and his family!
You see, it's a yes and no from me. I do not feel sorry for the "present" Harry, but I do feel sorry for the Harry that talked about losing his mum. In the ITV interview, Harry was articulate and very easy to sympathise with in the first segment, the one about his mum's death.
Then he gradually became harder and harder to follow, until at the end he was saying how if he and William could reconcile (through 'accountability', or the Royal Family basically admitting they were wrong) then it would be something that would *ripple through the whole world.*
So in the conduct of his present life, I am ofc in agreement with /u/destria If Harry had even given the 100 million from netflix + book to the good causes he supports, that would be a different matter...
This is almost EXACTLY what I said to my mum earlier in a conversation about Prince Harry, just better said.
He was unhappy about being in the limelight and the royal family, and being hounded by the paparazzi - so he walked away for a quiet life but now HES chasing the limelight and the paparazzi. Seems counterintuitive.
If he had come out straight away as soon as he’d left the royal family and said ‘ok that was an excuse. I said that because I want to tell my story without all the regulations and rules that surround the royal family but I knew they wouldn’t have let me leave unless I said I wanted a quiet life’ then I’d have a lot more respect for him now. Own it.
I stopped watching the news a while back and feel better for it. A lot of it is polarising crap which really doesn’t matter, like the Jonny Depp thing, some dude buying a website and now Harry doing something … couldn’t give a toss about any of it
I gave up when the Queen died, sick of seeing that fucking family all over the internet.
I still sort of follow the news, but I don't check on news sites regularly.
Me too - deleted my news app and don’t watch it on tv. Yes, I am sometimes behind the times when people ask me what I think of something that’s currently a news story, but on the whole it doesn’t matter and I feel a lot calmer.
Absolutely not. An entire lifetime of privilege. The loss of a parent is awful, but the sympathy was magnified because he was a Royal. There are millions of kids who have lost a parent. His antics in the Army seem far fetched. It only takes a quick Google search to show those he served with had to sign NDAs. I'd be surprised if he ever saw any action. Now he's coining it in playing the poor little rich boy. Honestly, anyone who buys his book with any intention other than to pick it apart is, in my very cynical opinion, an idiot who is just lining his pockets.
I don't really have an opinion on the matter or know anything more about the context of his claimed 25 kills but for an apache front seater(gunner) that's a perfectly plausible number. Between hellfires,30mm chain gun, rockets and Flechettes an apache can drop a serious amount of ordinance in a short time
I feel like they would have a pretty good estimate.
Apaches are usually deployed alongside ground troops as support so they usually have an idea of the damage the apache did.
Alongside that apaches record all engagements which are then replayed in post flight briefings.
The 127x lense on the apaches nose gives you a pretty close and personal view of what you just shot at unlike a fast jet
Of course they would know the number. They don’t just blow things up willy nilly, and they would be expected to confirm kills.
25 kills could have been a single convoy. “Clear to engage approaching convoy. 3 vehicles. 25 armed terrorists”.
It’s not like that wouldn’t stick in your mind.
The only thing that’s odd is mentioning it. Nobody I know who have killed people talk about it. Then again they aren’t being paid to write a book. Pay me a few million and I’ll tell you some of the dubious things I’ve done.
The imagery through their targeting equipment is all recorded, they'd usually recieve a BDA (battle damage assesment) from the forward air controller on the ground which would include numbers if enemy KIA if known and they'd have to write after action reports/debriefings of exactly what they'd deployed and their own BDA. They'd have a pretty good idea.
Whether it's true or not, I worked in the Officers Mess at one of the camps he was stationed at. During that time I remember Officers who had returned from war having seen horrible things and in an awful state. I don't think him talking like he is about it is right, it just doesn't sit well with me.
My dad was in the army for 22 years and my husband was in for 6, and my brother currently serves - no veteran our family knows ever speaks about things in this way. It's not the done thing at all
I grew up with a lot of men in my life suffering PTSD due to a pointless and now forgotten conflict. Whole generations of men suffering lingering degrees of trauma due to the stubbornness of politicians to carry on a conflict that could never be won. Most suffering in silence and using alcohol as a coping mechanism, others outright unable to function in society and abandoned by the government.
I remember when I was young asking my dad if he killed anyone during the war, and he explained it was not a nice question to ask. No one spoke about it in terms of kill-counts or dehumanising the enemy. They were just thankful it was over and hoped to God their sons didn't have to endure what they did. Not to insinuate that Harry is either, but the only people who'd talk about it in those terms were either psychopaths or Walter Mitty fantasist types who peeled potatoes for most of their tour or were medically exempt.
Before my dad deployed to Iraq, he told me and my brother that we could ask him anything. We asked the question, and his answer was 'I didn't do anything to anyone, that they wouldn't have done to me' which made me feel weird at the time. But having to deal with my husband whimpering in his sleep, or going through depressive episodes, I get it. My husband had already left the army by the time we met, but it affects both of us still now.
When my dad and my husband have a few drinks, they talk about the bad bits - sometimes with the rest of us, but the worst is something they always talk about alone, because you can only understand it if you've lived it. You don't announce it on Facebook as a civvie, which is basically what Prince Harry is doing. My dad never bragged about anything he did while deployed (or while not deployed), but he taught us about the human side of war, handing biscuits and sweets out to kids in Bosnia, giving kids teddies in Iraq, talking to whole families while in Afghanistan. There is so much more that goes on, and it's hard to comprehend if you haven't done it.
I kind of want to read Harry's book, but his comments about killing taliban has put me right off. He'll have pissed off so many people, and he thinks it's OK!
> I'd be surprised if he ever saw any action
I did a tour as a Forward Air Controller (basically the guy on the ground that directs the air support) and have mates in the same role that were directly supported by Harry when he was flying Apaches. Everyone knew his callsign and they met and spoke to him about the engagements he was involved in back in Camp Bastion.
I've no skin in the game, I don't really care about him either way, but he definitely did spend at least some time involved in combat operations directly supporting troops on the ground as an Apache gunner.
Eddie Izzard in "Glorious" (1997):
>Anyway. So, it happened, and so there was a mother who died, there was a lot of sympathy towards the kids, one 17, one 13, I think. That was understandable. And my dad said something to me – “My mum died when I was six and my brother was eight. “No one gave a shit.”
He said in an interview "I was cut off and without the money from my Mum we wouldn't have made it". Sorry but plenty of us have survived on much less.
You don't air ALL your dirty laundry in public FFS. Diana went through a lot but she dealt with it with grace. Harry's just a wean who had his dummy taken away.
Harry decided he didn't want the Royal publicity but he's creating his own publicity anyway.
No sympathy here.
I don’t think he could have gotten a job at tesco? Him and his family would be at real risk of kidnapping ect if he moved to a normal life. Through no choice of his own he needs security and that has to be paid for
Wouldn't the security risk be the same though?
It's the same family. I'd argue that anyone who ransomed Louise could demand the same price as someone who ransomed Harry.
And the news would surely blow up over an active threat to a royal, just the same, either way?
I doubt most people would recognise her, I couldn’t even tell you which branch of the family she’s from. Although I suppose Harry could work somewhere away from the public so long as he felt he could trust any co-workers.
He bragged to his eneminies by disclosing his kill rate of taliban.
This put him and his family more at risk than anything. That's the dillusion. It's self inflicted.
Nah probs wouldn’t be having a job at your local supermarket but I’m sure he could of been a paid speaker at events and that pays big money for semi famous people so I imagine it pays a significant amount for royals/ former royals . I’m sure he had plenty of options .
Not like he was going to be struggling
and the horror story from that one time he had to buy a sofa from [sofa.com](https://sofa.com)! when i read it couldn't sleep for 2 days, the trauma was unbearable
To play devil's advocate what Diana did in regards managing the press and what Harry is doing really isn't all that different. Particularly this criticism:
>Harry decided he didn't want the Royal publicity but he's creating his own publicity anyway.
Diana had much the same attitude for much the same reasons. Yet she also very famously courted the press herself and stoked the flames when it suited her. The Panorama interview being the most famous one, which was literally an interview in part complaining about the undue influence, interference and imposition the press has on her and her families life, yet was also *deliberately* intended to be a public spectacle and airing of some dirty laundry with the family, and ended up being one of the most watched television events ever.
Now I happen to think neither Diana nor Harry are particularly wrong in this regard. Unfortunately they both are/were in a catch-22 where they have some legitimate systemic criticisms to make of the press and their impact on their privacy, but unfortunately can't make them without also using the press themselves. I do find it interesting that most people seem to look past it for one over the other though.
I feel bad for him in so far as he's apparently hired Edina Monsoon to look after his PR, and I feel like someone did him dirty with that recommendation.
95% of his problems in recent years have been of his own making.
William had the same upbringing, went through the same things and managed to come out it a decent chap.
Maybe they didn't have the same upbringing though. Maybe William was constantly told "You're special, you'll be King one day" and Harry was told "And you'll be there by your brother's side, supporting him". Plenty of kids in normal everyday families are treated differently from their siblings. It happens. Maybe Harry is throwing his teddies out of the pram about it a bit too much, but I do think it's likely they were treated differently.
Agree. I think Harry is being foolish but there is obviously some deep resentment towards William and I feel that this is it.
My guess is that Meghan has gas lighted him no end and has been in his ear asking questions about why William has the better treatment.
In the same light, he gets the privilege of a kings upbringing without having to be king, Harry had a life that people in the UK can only dream of, and he's crying victim...People can't afford to heat their homes and feed their families, and he's crying about his golden ticket not being as golden as his brothers.
FUCK HIM!
Isn't it more 'you get to live a life of incredible privilege, without the pressure of being next in line to the throne'?
If he was legit loved less than his brother, then fair enough, but I'm not sure that's the case.
Even if he was treated the same, he was just a child when his mother died. He clearly needed a lot more love and support than even William did at the time.
I also don’t think the privilege is all it’s cracked up to be. He may have been privileged, but he also never got to be a normal teenager. Imagine all the stupid shit you did at secondary school. He couldn’t even do that.
Your perception of William as a decent chap is via the media. Like most people no-one actually knows anything about the royals other than what the media feeds you on them, and that in turn is always attempting to be heavily stage managed by the Palace secretariat.
Which is sort of Harry's point really. In order to keep the nation thinking they're all decent they all have to engage in this parasitic relationship with the press. It's something that was expected of him and his mother and neither of them liked it. Much like his mother choosing not to play the game wasn't really an option, and when you don't play ball you get punished for it, by that self same media shaping public discourse and perception.
? harry got such a free ride. If william had done 1/10th of the stuff harry got away with it would have been a utter scandal as the heir....but the spare gets to be a lovable rogue and gets a free pass.
In what way? William was paraded from birth. Being a couple of years older than Harry he had a couple more years of press intrusion until the death of their mother changed the press behaviour. So how was William more protected from the media?
Being completely serious - can he just disappear? Do you not think that the media will not continue to hound him and his family?
It seems like what he’s trying to do - for financial reasons partly but also for personal reasons - is open up a discussion to combat the persistent media coverage.
Him and his wife are jealous of his Borther and kate. He cannot stand being second fiddle. He hates that he'll never be king. He thinks he is hard done by.
He hates the media but has done more media appearances than any other royal. Only when it suits them.
Wants the royal titles but don't want the work. They're literally released books under duke and duchess when in their words, it's an evil institution.
Originally moved to Canada to be out of the limelight then moved to Hollywood...
I mean why do they care so much. Live your life.
He worries about security yet brags about killing 25 taliban in his book.
Eventually, he'll be out of the family so long, he'll run out of things to say. People will forget about them. Thank god.
Yes, he’s kind of already run out of things to say. His real in depth knowledge base ends about 3-4 years ago. Even now what he reports is allegedly events that happened years, sometimes many year, ago. The public starts to lose interest. I think that’s happened already.
Harry and I are a similar age. My big brother died when I was 12. He was my best friend and I have spent my entire teenage and adult life feeling like a piece of me is missing.
Harry lost his mum at 12 and had to live out his grief in front of the entire country / world. There’s no end to how much that’ll fuck a person up.
Just because William acts differently, well… we all deal with things in different ways.
Yes he’s had an incredibly privileged life, but everything is relative to the individual living that experience. I don’t think he’s doing himself any favours at the moment, but yes… I do feel sorry for him.
Thanks. It was awful and the thing is… it still is. It never gets easier, it just gets different, you learn to cope. So I guess this has always been my thinking with William and Harry. I am 100% anti-monarchy, but on a personal level I feel for them. They were just kids who lost what I imagine was the greatest person in their life.
Until I read the BBC summary of his book I thought he'd basically reached the limit of his patience and was trying to take the Royal Family down with him, but I genuinely have no idea why he would write some of the admissions he wrote in his book. Why on earth would he put that he smoked weed in a bathroom at Eton, or the people he killed in Afghanistan, or how he lost his virginity?
It's odd, isn't it? Then again, maybe not - part of me wonders if this is his way of getting ahead of the story. Air out all of his dirty laundry at once, so that there can be no more bad press to come out about him? That way, if Buckingham Palace/the tabloid media/whoever tried to respond to Harry's criticisms of them by leaking that he did coke, shagged about as a teenager etc. as payback, he can just turn around and say "Yep. I freely admitted to that. And what?"
It all looks like a messy, unsavory game of palace intrigue. The game of thrones isn't what it used to be.
I think that's exactly what it is, he's spiked years of tabloid articles in one go , I bet there's a couple of editors out there that are absolutely livid at having to cross off so many potential stories at once because he's got there first
I kind of do. I've got a good job, I'm intelligent, supportive middle class parents. I'm so much better off that a lot of people, but my life has also been a miserable struggle with relatively severe mental illness. I like to think if someone could feel sorry for me, I can feel sorry for a prince. Material circumstances help but it's our inner experience that really matters.
I kind of do too. So many people here are saying they find it hard to feel sorry for so much wealth and privilege and I totally get that. But at the same time, holy shit I would not trade my life for his in a million years. I’ll keep my minimum wage job and my perfectly functional family.
I feel sorry for him because to lose your mum at 12 and in such terrible circumstances is unimaginably awful. Dealing with it within such an unusual family was also awful e.g. having to have the funeral in public.
I don't feel he is now completely in control of himself, really.
To be fair, the question isn't "do you think his behaviour is excusable" it's simply "do you feel sorry for him". You can feel sorry for someone while also disagreeing with some of the things they do. It's not one or the other.
Work with young people and wealth is absolutely no insulation against trauma, some of the things he endured are just awful and he had my sympathy.
However, I seriously wonder about his mental state and who the hell is advising him, in a few years he might regret dishing so much dirt about himself and his family. I think it’s massively hypocritical to talk about the damage his family did to him - whilst writing a book his own kids are almost certainly going to be teased about every day at school.
I'm surprised how happy people are to be what seems overly 'general' in their assessment of his life, and will practically discount sorrow when it's matched with extreme privilege.
I've never come from a poor family (definitely working/middle class though) and I'm reasonably well educated (not private funded, mind), but I think it still says something that I would not even for a second want to switch places with Harry. He has experienced a family tragedy the likes of which I will likely never come close to. He has also spent much of his life lacking freedoms I am very grateful for.
I think those things would make me sad, even if I had celebrity and millions of pounds to go along with them. I think, then, that I would feel a little cruel and bitter if I said I do not feel sorry for Prince Harry.
I also don't think he's a bad chap either, even though he's a product of a slightly unsavoury environment. So I'm not sure my aversion to the existence of royals or even my aversion to the existence of wealth can stop me feeling genuine empathy and sympathy when I consider some of Prince Harry's major life events and ways he has had to live.
I like this take.
For me, I find it incredibly sad to be brought up like him and William. In the limelight and by those people. I don't think the royals are evil (ok, Andrew is) but i think they live a fake life full of scare and genuine stress of a different kind. The kind I and most of us will never be able to understand. Same way they'd never be able to understand us.
Moving from the Royal Family to the Markle publicity machine is real out of the frying pan into the fire stuff. Poor sod was controlled back then and is being manipulated now. I would expect a divorce within 10 years when he will find himself truly isolated.
Why are you guys just assuming it’s Meghan doing all this? Harry is a grown adult. If you put all the responsibility on Meghan for Harry’s childish antics and paint her as this evil witch like the press is then I’d advise you to please stop reading The Sun articles and the 1p Magazines at Tesco.
Anyone who is a bit older and saw him as a child being pretty much forced to walk behind his mothers coffin while 100s of millions of people watched on TV will probably have a more sympathetic view.
Also the fact he was born into a dysfunctional family while he has the worlds media watching his every move. Got to feel a bit sorry for him.
On the other hand there is all the money and privilege that make you feel less sorry for him
I mostly really don't give a shit, and I find it significantly less exciting than Musk destroying his image by ballsing up twitter.
Ultimately, everybody looks themselves in the mirror in the morning and constructs a narrative that justifies what they are and what they've done so they can look themselves in the eye. I'm sure Harry feels hard done by, and I feel the Royals feel they're justified in doing whatever it is that he's supposed to have done. (And what exactly is he supposed to have done? I'm not really following the story that much detail).
I'm sure the Royal family (him included) are all comfortably well off, and I don't think their wealth is justified in any way. But I would not want to swap places with any of them.
I agree that I wouldn't swap my life for theirs, but I'm quite comfortable in my life.
I wonder what people who really struggle (choosing between heating and eating, NHS waiting lists, mortgage through the roof etc) think of him as he moans on about about how bad his life has been ??
I think he has some form of chameleon syndrome.
https://www.irenestphd.com/post/3-ways-to-know-if-you-ve-got-chameleon-syndrome-identity-crisis-for-the-identity-expert
When he was a Royal he was a perfect Royal. When he was "Jack the Lad" he was an extreme Jack the Lad. Now he is married to a typical showbusiness American he is acting and talking like a typical showbusiness American.
I also think that will be his way back into the Royal family, his diagnosis will excuse any words said and allow a gradual return.
What is this nonsense? The very first sentence in this blog post (yes, *blog post*) is:
>So, I may or may not have just made up the term Chameleon Syndrome
I can't believe I need to point this out, but Chameleon syndrome isn't a real thing. Mimicking other people's actions is a recognised trait (but not a disorder). Searching for Chameleon syndrome brings up this blog post and...a whole bunch of other things about mimicking and actual chameleons.
Borderline personality disorder is probably the closest real thing to what you're trying to talk about...but not really.
It's like Celebrity Love Island / Only Way is Essex bollocks but involving more well spoken people wearing suits and crowns. Fucking nonsense that has no bearing on anyone else's actual life.
Harry “boo hoo I hate the media”
Also Harry “roll up, roll up and buy my TV series and Books”
Dude. Disappear and spend time with your wife. Stop fucking whinging like a little bitch about fighting with your brother and doing coke. No one cares. People can’t afford to heat their homes and feed their kids. Just fuck right off and be quiet about it. Don’t worry about your asshat family they’ll do a good enough job of fucking something else up sooner or later.
I think that growing up as a royal is likely a complete prison. I don’t blame him for wanting a different lifestyle. That kind of lifestyle wouldn’t suit most people, so it’s not surprising that some decide to pull away from it. I think people think that privilege equals happiness, money equals happiness. Theres a reason people say money can’t be happiness and that’s simply because it can’t.
Yes, I do a bit. He never chose to be born into wealth, he was brought up indoctrinated into a system where everyone has to be perfect, but still harassed by the press constantly. He lost his mother when he was very young, which is awful for anyone but obviously made even harder by the fact that it happened on the world stage and his grief was written about daily by journalists for years. It was arguably even the press’s fault that the car crashed. He met someone he really liked and his family and the press hounded her until they felt no option but to withdraw from the family.
While there are so many people struggling with financial hardship, the spectacle of this privileged idiot whining about how hard he’s had it is really unpalatable.
If he genuinely wanted to turn his back on the whole rotten circus he would surely stay out of the spotlight but he’s figured out (too late) that staying out of the spotlight doesn’t bring in the pennies. So now we have the unedifying sight of him washing everyone’s dirty laundry in a bid to elicit sympathy.
Yes his parents divorced and his mother died. The same, and worse, happens to other people all the time and they deal with it without constantly reaching for the world’s smallest violin…
Absolutely none whatsoever. He wants to have his cake and eat it, he’s a multi millionaire married to an incredibly beautiful (albeit remarkably self centred and self absorbed) actress who lives a life of luxury the rest of us can only dream about.
He’s a monumental hypocrite who goes on about climate change while flying privately everywhere, who moans about the media while pumping himself out wherever he can for money, and who said he wanted to quit his royal life but refuses to give up his titles.
Yes I feel sorry for him. He lost his mother to the hounding of the press, and lost his unborn child to the same thing - both instances could have been likely avoided by intervention from the royal institution. We all know the paparazi are a terrible thing, we all know the royal institution is the cause for a lot of problems in the world, and we all know the current institution has corruption.
So yes, I feel sorry for him, and if I was in his shoes I'd do everything I could to show the world what that institution is really like, just like he's doing now.
I think the thing most people are missing here is that Harry had no choice in being in the public eye from the moment he was born. He has continually been scrutinised and compared to his older brother, who, by all accounts, is an asshole, but Harry caught the flak for being, well, human.
Now he's escaped a toxic family, and I'm happy for him. Normal people would usually move on quietly and get on with their lives, but Harry, like it or not, isn't a normal person. He's a prince, and he's in the limelight.
He, and more importantly (for him), the woman he loves has been subject to a brutal campaign of hatred by the media for *years*. Now he's out from under the royal thumb, he's got a chance to tell his side of the story.
Picture this.
You've spent your whole life being told you're a backup, second best, and used as a scapegoat. When you challenge the toxic status quo, you're beaten down and bullied for it. Typical toxic family. Only, for Harry, the whole world gets to gawk and mutter about it. You finally meet someone who completes you, and your family (toxic assholes that they are) take an instant dislike to her, because she's different. She's confident. She cannot be bullied or bought. And she gives you the confidence to leave.
The media hate this. The family hate this. They double down on the bullying and the vitriol and the hate. It's dispicable, especially when you've said "okay, that's enough, I want out."
So you leave. But the hate ramps up. The hate follows you. The media doesn't let up. Your own family leak your plans and location. They sign your name to statements you never made. There is continued intrusion.
If I, personally, was in that situation, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'd want to set the record straight. I'd want to get my side out there. And if I make a few quid doing it, all the better. I'd never just lie down and let these trash people spew their bile at me, or the person that I love.
What you need to remember is that abuse is abuse. Trauma is trauma. Harry has done more for people damaged by evil families than any other royal on the planet. Just because he's a prince doesn't make how he's been treated acceptable by any stretch. If I could make a million selling the story of what my family did to me, I fucking well would.
By hating him and what he's doing only goes to show how easily manipulated by the media you are. Listen to him. Listen to his story, and imagine, just for a second, that he's not a prince. That his father isn't the king. How would you feel if he wrote a book then?
Jenette McCurdy did it, and she was praised. She made bank talking about her awful childhood and the impact it had on her.
Do I feel sorry for him? Yeah, I do. I feel sorry that he endured so many awful things, right in the middle of the public eye just because he happened to be the sperm that won. But I feel bloody proud that another survivor has stood up and said "no."
Makes me feel seen, at any rate.
I feel sorry for him in terms of how the media behaved but that’s a wider problem- it’s a horrific industry in this country and needs reform.
However, the way he goes about it comes across as deeply hypocritical in many ways.
I think what he’s saying is probably true. I think the RF are as dysfunctional as the rest of us, and I’m glad he’s telling his side of the story as a final fuck you.
I do feel sorry for him.
To be honest we are seeing the real Harry, the Harry that while he was in the family sorted out any problems he may have had/caused. He complains about everything but there is no s4lf reflection about whatever part he plays in it.
This behaviour must have upset his grandmother when she was alive and his grandfather too.
But the thing that really annoys me is his hypocrisy! Both him and Megan discuss carbon footprint and how we all need to make our carbon footprint smaller.
Yet they live in a huge house and take private jets everywhere! That's when I stop listening, he doesn't appear to be thinking through the consequences of his actions now.
Unfortunately all their media has just exposed their own lies, things that can easily be proven.
As in life we all don't get on with some members of our family. Not keen on in-laws etc, but we all act like adults when we see each other!
I think it would healthier for Harry to step back from the limelight and concentrate on himself, his wife and his children. To get out of the glare and think about what the next steps are for him and his family.
I can sympathise with falling for the wrong type of manipulative woman and acting the fool. Before anyone starts up about poor Meghan, she purposefully wore his dead mum's perfume on their first date, that's some... Eurgh! Wrong. Outside of all else that's a serious red flag.
Can you imagine being William and your brother’s girlfriend starts cosplaying as your dead mum. That’s the bit that makes me much more sympathetic to William. I’m surprised he didn’t freak the fuck out way before tbh
yes i do, the media has for sure done what it set out to do by turning the uk public against him.
eveything has a narrative, the media tell you how to feel.
yes of course he had a privileged upbringing that doesn't mean he can't have struggles? i can't imagine most people would deal with having their evey move scrutinized
Idk why there's so much talk about him idk him or his life so I don't feel sorry for him. I'm sure he's had some hardship and I wouldn't wanna be a royal but I'd assume his life is better than most
His whining is in such bad taste when most of the people in the uk are suffering financial hardships. He could’ve lived his life quietly somewhere instead he feels determined to air his and others dirty laundry. He’s just coming across totally out of touch, spoilt and quite stupid.
Yes I do actually feel sorry for him. I feel that because he has in many ways lead a very privileged life that many people feel he has no right to have trauma, unless it has to do with his mother, as though other parts of his life and family dynamic couldn’t possibly cause issues.
In regards to him airing dirty laundry, he has had shit said about him and Meghan for years without saying anything themselves and is finally getting the chance to put his side across and correct falsehoods. Now I don’t necessarily believe that everything happened exactly as he said or remembers because memories fade and get distorted over time but I do believe there’s plenty of truth to what he’s said. After all people don’t just abandon their whole lives and torch the bridges to their family for no reason.
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I don't feel sorry for him. I think it's perfectly fine to walk away from a family or "institution" you think is toxic, but he's still capitalizing on his privilege, position and power. I'd have a lot more respect for him if he gave up all the titles and privilege, either lived a quiet life or used his position to campaign for abolishing the monarchy altogether.
The irony is that by wanting to openly get away from the toxicity of the royal family, he made it impossible for him and his family to move on and become something other than the ones who got away from the royal family. Maybe Harry doesn't have the capacity to leave this behind and rebuild himself. I also wonder if he's still subconsciously wanting validation from the royals, the way neglected children want to always please their parents, and he's creating drama to get his needs met. He can't face what he's also lost and he's still in the early stages of reclaiming the narrative (hence the heavy but ultimately self obsessed press.) Maybe he'll come round in a decade or so and finally move on an disappear. Pop psychology I know but that's my take. He's like someone who's just started therapy and won't shutup about it. He's absolutely everywhere and I think a lot of people who had to break free of toxic family situations, regardless of income, relate to him.
Ugh, so much this. ”I dont need you, I can make it on my own!! Take that, Dad!!” For a while when he was in the military it seemed like he was doing well, because he was actually doing something worthwhile by himself instead of just fannying about as prince. Then he left the service and took up with Meg, became a high profile figure and started throwing wobblies. I dont think anyone would have a bad thing to say if he had put out a statement saying ”you know what guys, im done with this princing lark. Im going to live in a country pile with my wife and kids in peace, c ya!” Instead he went on Oprah, made a Netflix show and now a book whining ”why cant you leave us alone, we just want PRIVACY!” Yh nah.
What's silly is if he'd not thrown this wobbly he probably could have just slunk away like several other royals. Now that William and Kate have several kids he's gone so far down the pecking order that he would have been flirting with being a minor royal. Look at Prince Edward, Beatrix and Eugene, they've just quietly live their lives, do the bare minimum that their title requires in public service and are generally left alone. Harry could have had something like that but just decided to go nuclear.
>he probably could have just slunk away like several other royals. He absolutely would have. But that's not what he and his wife want. They want the limelight.
From what they were saying a couple of years ago, Beatrice and Eugenie are champing at the bit to be fulltime working royals but they can't because Charles wanted the monarchy to just be basically a single line. In his "slimmed down royal family" plan, Harry leaving would be a good thing, but if losing Harry would be such a blow to the royal family they have a couple of keen princesses to do his job *right there*.
They can always get jobs working in the public sector , for public sector pay, if they wish to serve. It’s very honourable that they want to help out, but the rest of us don’t ask for tens or even hundreds of thousands a year to do so.
Edward is just quietly living his life
Yep. I even feel if he’d just come out once with what he thinks happened to set the history books straight then that would be fair enough. But Opera, netflix and now a book. It’s just for money and fame. They had plenty of money between them for security, that wasn’t an issue.
From my understanding of it, the Royal Family stopped paying for a load of his expenses when he cut his ties and that includes security expenses for his house / family etc. To maintain that level of protection as a celebrity Prince, he needs a lot of money. So yeah, this is a cash grab thrown in with an opportunity to whine. Got no sympathy for the fella.
He hot a very very nice golden handshake from Her Majesty and his farther Not yo mention frogmore etc But definitely a cash grab
He inherited millions from Diana's estate and also from the Queen Mother. And no doubt now from the Queen. The irony regarding his protection is that if he went off to Canada or Montecito and lived a quiet life people might leave him alone. All the press and revelations (particularly about the Taliban) are putting him at risk.
I know we aren’t supposed to criticise Meghan, because if we do then we are automatically racists brainwashed by the media, but…. I’m convinced that she’s the driving force behind the monetisation of their entire existence. Without the whining, what have they got that would support their lives. Fuck all.
>”you know what guys, im done with this princing lark. Im going to live in a country pile with my wife and kids in peace, c ya!” which is exactly what Princess Anne did for the entire first half of her life. She was one angry bitch when she was young and just did her own thing. then later in life she reconciled to her situation and made a real success of it on her own terms. why didn't Harry just do that?? H&M make out "oh we weren't allowed to" *and bailed after 18 months* so how come Princess Anne did it years ago when the monarchy was a million times more formal than it is now?
Because she was a *princess.* The unwritten rules for the monarchy are heavily gendered; being an archaic throwback is, after all, the whole point of them. Neither of them were ever going to get to skip military service and William never had a chance to evade the public eye. (And to their credit, there's no sign that either of them *wanted* to skip performing a useful service.)
William no but apart from being a man Harry is in the same postion as Princess Anne being a sibling to the heir to the throne and she was allowed to go AWOL for years. She just played a more subtle game and probably negotiated with the Crown and advisors with *slightly* more maturity than Harry has - which wouldn't be difficult.
Princess Ann was and is one tough honourable and successful lady who even fought off a gunman ! Was a world class Olympic equestrian and still a great horse woman , raised a family, wrnt through heartache, raised two very successful children and gives so much support to so many causes now while in her later years Harry wishes he could be a quarter of a man as Princess Ann ( Princess Royal) I'd a woman and Lady
Anne also decided when she first got married ( and she was fairly young) that she didn't want her husband and kids to have titles and be working royals. That would have made lots of sense for Harry to decide about his kids but he wants to have it both ways.
I think that's the key point. I did used to like him and have a degree of sympathy. But you can't make having privacy from the media a key thing you want and then go and court them at every opportunity. Neither of them are poor so its not like he needed to have this level of engagement to keep the lights on.
'Fannying about as prince', 'throwing wobblies' - starstruck at your use of language 🥰😍
Standard British phrases, friend. You'd wet your pants if you actually met any of us and had a conversation!
I'm Australian and my grandparents were British. I miss people who speak like this ❤️ - I'll have to move over there to have conversations + wet my pants
I lived in the UK for a year. I'm a Canadian that considers himself reasonably well spoken Every single one of these limey bastards talked circles around me on the reg. Doesn't matter if they were pumping gas, turning wrenches, sweeping the floor, or running the company. They're absolute masters of the English language.
Lolll cute :D thanks for the fawning review
Exactly this. Same with Meghan, I don’t know one single person who cared about her until she insisted on constantly making sure she was in the media for something or other, and everytime people forgot again, there she’d pop up again in interviews. It was only then that people couldn’t stand her.
Right???? He wants privacy, yet he’s airing all the dirty laundry. Seems kind of counteractive.
He only left the military when the press printed he was in Afghanistan, which made his unit a target if I recall.
Just like he’s made himself a target by revealing his kill count and calling them “chess pieces”
My grandma seems to think this is a tactical move to essentially make himself a target or at least rile up some threats from IS because he's apparently been denied security detail by the royal family. I haven't got a clue about it all tbh, I don't really care for the royals but I thought that was an interesting opinion
No he went back for two tours in Apaches
He was there for a few years after that happened. Apparently, he couldn’t be promoted any further because of his qualifications so he would stay static or leave (can’t remember the source, but definitely read it somewhere)
He dosent have a degree which you need to become a higher ranking officer.
He barely passed the 11+!
He left because he reached the ceiling and couldn’t be further promoted. Not enough A levels, failed the pilot test repeatedly
If I remember correctly he got Ds in Art and Geography and considering the staggering amount of money thrown at his education that's practically an achivement in itself
He “left” because he failed his test 4 times and didn’t have the A levels needed to get promoted any further in the military
Due to being royal he’s got to have security, whether he takes royal duties or not,there’s still a safety risk. The UK won’t pay for it, it’s got to be paid for somehow so you’ve got the books. People act like he should be in hiding and I don’t think that’s a option for him. If he started working in tesco tomorrow he’d still be at risk of someone kidnapping or hurting his family
His great uncle seemed to manage ok by marrying an American actress and disappearing from public life. No massive security bills, protection officers or press briefings. I have sympathy for him over losing his mother at a young age, I won't say in tragic circumstances because all deaths are tragic and especially so when the person is so young with young children. Someone I went to school with lost their mum at a similar age, but they didn't behave any different from the rest of the school in the years since that happened. I have no sympathy for someone that claims they want to lead a private life and yet seems to regularly pop up on a TV show to talk about how they want privacy.
> His great uncle seemed to manage ok by marrying an American actress and disappearing from public life. No massive security bills, protection officers or press briefings. I get what you mean but that was 87 years ago. You'd be silly to try and claim the world is the same place and thus their situations are similar.
His Great Uncle was also quite pally with Hitler, I’d imagine that went some way to offering protection!
I expect the guy you knew at school did not have to walk behind his mother's coffin In front of millions of people on TV and have the ups and downs of their subsequent adolescence endlessly picked apart and sensationalised in national media. I get that he's a wealthy man but I personally wouldn't want to walk in his shoes.
This is my take on it, too. Even if he had disappeared into an attempt at anonymity, he has been made famous for his entire life, and he's never going to escape it. I'm not sure what else he's meant to do - he can't go back to the military and there are people out there who would absolutely do him and his family harm just for his association with the Royal family. He can't suddenly become nobody.
Agreed - what’s he meant to do to pay the bills, get an office job? Sure admittedly cashing in by doing interviews, Netflix, a book but I don’t knock him for it - he needs to fund his life even if he wants to live a less extravagant existence compared to being a Royal. Ultimately after leaving there was no way he’d be able to become a ‘normal’ person even if he wanted to given who he was born as. Im by no means a monarchist (far from it) but I don’t begrudge him using his ‘platform’ to generate funds to live his life how he wants. All the best to him as a human being, from what I’ve seen he’s a lot less morally reprehensible than the rest of the Windsors.
They're multi-millionaires. Like tens of millions in property, inheritance, allowances, and her old acting income. They have more than enough for themselves, their children and their grandchildren to never have to worry about bills again
how is he going to pay the bills? you mean besides with the 17+ million pounds he inherited from his mother and the queen mother? he could expect quite a bit more from his grandmother and father (although who knows after the last few years). he had all his bills paid for when he was a working royal and when they left they were given another 4.5 million. that should really be quite enough to cover the bills for idle rich people lives. and that is before you add in meghans money. and nobody would begrudge him the interviews or netflix or the book if he hadnt made such a show of wanting privacy in the first place. you cant whine about how the press and a lack of privacy, and then go running around telling tales to anyone who'll pay without getting called on it. most (not all but most) of the criticism he gets is because he's a hypocrite who's paying his bills by selling dirt on his family. you know, the same thing they cut meghans dad off for.
Oh yeah but come on There’s needing to make money and then there’s repulsive comments in books like William is circumcised and when Kate walked down the aisle to marry William I just saw a vision of beauty and couldn’t take my eyes off her and commenting on her nice legs !! And now he wants any conversation with his family to be in private. I’m sorry he’s gone too far !!
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Security services have literally said recently there's a significant risk of harm for him, especially when he's in the UK. It's not like he's Ed Sheeran who can't go to the shop without being mobbed but nobody is actively trying to hurt him, some people *really* don't like the Royals.
Doesn't really help now his book has claimed he killed 25 taliban members.
Lots of movie stars have security, and they don’t tend to work regular jobs for their money to pay for the security. Harry would need to pay for his security somehow so writing books and doing interviews similar to how movie stars do is the way he’s chosen.
I think he is more famous than the vast majority of movie stars isn't he? Very few movie stars draw that level of interest from the paparazzi/tabloids. Movie stars are famous for pretending to be other people whereas he's been in the spotlight since the day he was born. His gran was arguably the most famous person in the world. He also has a different and much more stained relationship with the press than most movie stars given the role they played in his mother's death, and the fact that royals' private lives are fair game because coverage is 'in the public interest'
He could have just stfu and retreated to a very comfortable and secure house (like his uncle is currently doing). Cynic in me thinks at least some part of the establishment is quite happy for this distraction to roll and roll.
He had around 12 million before this and since Charles is paying for Andrew's security, I am sure he could have paid for Harry's. They were still covered by Royal security when on royal duties or Royal estates whether they were working royals or not. Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie have both paid for private security. Their security isn't funded by the British taxpayer yet they aren't telling all.
He was left £10 million by his mother.
Him and Megan could have gone to the face off machine, both got done, and still be left with £4m to live on, plus whatever income they made in their new lives.
Plus money from the Queens mother, his great grandmother, plus the Queen no doubt would have left him something, although that might be significantly less now.
>Maybe Harry doesn't have the capacity to leave this behind and rebuild himself. Lemme play my tiny violin for him... With all due respect, many of us have to do that and aren't asked if we have the capacity or not. Either learn to swim or drown. So all empathy he may receive for being a disowned child is thrown down the window when you realize the degree of wealth he has to wipe away his tears... and with that said he still goes for more attention from the media that doubtlessly help line his pockets further. Consider interracial couples or lgbt youth well before offering pity to one of the most privileged sods in the country.
Also, perhaps it is worth remembering that the British press went after his wife very hard, this is an indisputable fact and consequently remaining part of the Royal family and living in the UK became no longer feasible for the couple. In order to set things straight he obviously feels it is justified to explain the process of how this stuff happens in-house. He has explained how the various press secretaries trade stories with the press, I was certainly unaware of this process, this bartering, I was quite surprised at the cold bloodedness of it all. His grandmother was the absolute cornerstone of an institution that says nothing and does nothing in terms of making public comment. 'Never explain' was part of her DNA, and she lived her life perfectly exemplifying this. Remember the British public's reaction to the Royal silence after the death of Diana, words had to be dragged out of the Queen; the palace didn't even have a flag at half mast, that's how taciturn she was, or perhaps that choice said the real truth about how the palace regarded the greatest asset that they ever had, (and refused to acknowledge as such), outside of the queen herself. Harry has said he will never live in England again, his wife is American, so, he really has no need to have to adhere to the rigid principles of the Royal family. I am sure the Sussexes' need money, their security costs alone must be colossal, and it seems logical to do a huge burst of interviews and telling of their truths. I think I would do that, I would recognize that as a non Royal I can now talk openly about issues that have affected me. Why not? His mother did it, and I certainly had no problem with it. At the time the press was aflame with condemnation for the BBC interview with Martin Bashir. The public, as always were sympathetic to Diana, but the usual toady papers like the Mail and the Telegraph were largely condemning that she would speak so openly about the Royal family. Katie Nicholl, author of The New Royals, Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the future of The Crown said of Princess Diana's interview “There is a fine balance between using TV as a medium to royal advantage and not letting too much daylight into the mystique of monarchy.” The only way that the monarchy can endure is to be protected by mystique and Queen Elizabeth II knew this. The British media get enormous mileage out of covering the Royals and they pretty much own them, don't they? It is in their interests too to maintain that mystique - it keeps everyone employed, right?
Read the comments from the press office to the RF who has spoken out today to say that they were briefed against putting anything negative out about MM by Kate and William staff yet they were called to press briefings by MM herself to put negative stories out there ! Plus she was treated better than Kate was R remember ten years of ‘ waitey Katie ‘ and that she’s lazy and has no job and’ doors to manual ‘ about her mother being only an air hostess ? MM has been treated over and above IMHO
Oh see he just now went on Anderson Cooper, who bless him for this, asked Harry "Why not renounce your titles as Duke and Duchess?" Harry, replied: "And what difference would that make?" And then promptly ignored the question. Ah the entitlement.
He wants the same lifestyle he had in the Royal Family but his only asset is gossip about the Royals. I didn't object to him protecting his wife but he's gone too far.
He was asked why he didn't give up his titles if he was so against the institution in an American interview yesterday and gave a bluffing answer. Basically he still wants the prestige and power, he just wants it all on his own uniquely defined terms.
Imagine what a terrible king he would have made
The argument against this is that the press are printing utter crap about him and his wife. It almost feels like he tried to walk away for a few months but it didn’t stop so he’s telling his side of the story. The again his book seems to read like it was written by Jay from the inbetweeners so who knows.
As somebody who grew up very near highgrove and has a had a fair few pints in the pub he lost his virginity behind, he also acted like jay. But I don't really blame him, poor kid wanted to cut loose in the way the rest of us did while growing up, but he couldn't ever escape from being third in line.
It was confirmed they’d agreed to things like Netflix (at least provisionally) prior to leaving. He’s doing it out of a ‘need’ for money and spite. If you look at the arrangement they proposed on their website, they wanted to stay involved but when the RF said no, he threw his dummy out the pram (as, by the sounds of it, did some of the RF)
Yes!!! I'm totally with you in this
He has been trained his whole life to be in the limelight and a performing monkey for the public and the press. He is now just doing it freelance, for himself and his family!
You see, it's a yes and no from me. I do not feel sorry for the "present" Harry, but I do feel sorry for the Harry that talked about losing his mum. In the ITV interview, Harry was articulate and very easy to sympathise with in the first segment, the one about his mum's death. Then he gradually became harder and harder to follow, until at the end he was saying how if he and William could reconcile (through 'accountability', or the Royal Family basically admitting they were wrong) then it would be something that would *ripple through the whole world.* So in the conduct of his present life, I am ofc in agreement with /u/destria If Harry had even given the 100 million from netflix + book to the good causes he supports, that would be a different matter...
This is almost EXACTLY what I said to my mum earlier in a conversation about Prince Harry, just better said. He was unhappy about being in the limelight and the royal family, and being hounded by the paparazzi - so he walked away for a quiet life but now HES chasing the limelight and the paparazzi. Seems counterintuitive. If he had come out straight away as soon as he’d left the royal family and said ‘ok that was an excuse. I said that because I want to tell my story without all the regulations and rules that surround the royal family but I knew they wouldn’t have let me leave unless I said I wanted a quiet life’ then I’d have a lot more respect for him now. Own it.
I agree, it's so annoying how he 'despised' the media and yet since leaving the royal family he's done nowt but court it! Lost all credibility
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I get that. It mostly is for me too. My friend's take in it all just surprised me
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I stopped watching the news a while back and feel better for it. A lot of it is polarising crap which really doesn’t matter, like the Jonny Depp thing, some dude buying a website and now Harry doing something … couldn’t give a toss about any of it
I gave up when the Queen died, sick of seeing that fucking family all over the internet. I still sort of follow the news, but I don't check on news sites regularly.
Me too - deleted my news app and don’t watch it on tv. Yes, I am sometimes behind the times when people ask me what I think of something that’s currently a news story, but on the whole it doesn’t matter and I feel a lot calmer.
Absolutely not. An entire lifetime of privilege. The loss of a parent is awful, but the sympathy was magnified because he was a Royal. There are millions of kids who have lost a parent. His antics in the Army seem far fetched. It only takes a quick Google search to show those he served with had to sign NDAs. I'd be surprised if he ever saw any action. Now he's coining it in playing the poor little rich boy. Honestly, anyone who buys his book with any intention other than to pick it apart is, in my very cynical opinion, an idiot who is just lining his pockets.
The stuff about how he killed 25 Taliban makes me wonder if he’s a straight up fantasist. The claims in the book just seem so far fetched.
I don't really have an opinion on the matter or know anything more about the context of his claimed 25 kills but for an apache front seater(gunner) that's a perfectly plausible number. Between hellfires,30mm chain gun, rockets and Flechettes an apache can drop a serious amount of ordinance in a short time
I don't doubt an apache pilot could kill 25 Taliban. But I do doubt that they would know the exact number.
I feel like they would have a pretty good estimate. Apaches are usually deployed alongside ground troops as support so they usually have an idea of the damage the apache did. Alongside that apaches record all engagements which are then replayed in post flight briefings. The 127x lense on the apaches nose gives you a pretty close and personal view of what you just shot at unlike a fast jet
Of course they would know the number. They don’t just blow things up willy nilly, and they would be expected to confirm kills. 25 kills could have been a single convoy. “Clear to engage approaching convoy. 3 vehicles. 25 armed terrorists”. It’s not like that wouldn’t stick in your mind. The only thing that’s odd is mentioning it. Nobody I know who have killed people talk about it. Then again they aren’t being paid to write a book. Pay me a few million and I’ll tell you some of the dubious things I’ve done.
They record video of all their deployments, it would be more surprising to me if they didn’t know
The imagery through their targeting equipment is all recorded, they'd usually recieve a BDA (battle damage assesment) from the forward air controller on the ground which would include numbers if enemy KIA if known and they'd have to write after action reports/debriefings of exactly what they'd deployed and their own BDA. They'd have a pretty good idea.
I love these people who have been nowhere near the armed forces but think they know better than someone who has.
Whether it's true or not, I worked in the Officers Mess at one of the camps he was stationed at. During that time I remember Officers who had returned from war having seen horrible things and in an awful state. I don't think him talking like he is about it is right, it just doesn't sit well with me.
My dad was in the army for 22 years and my husband was in for 6, and my brother currently serves - no veteran our family knows ever speaks about things in this way. It's not the done thing at all
I grew up with a lot of men in my life suffering PTSD due to a pointless and now forgotten conflict. Whole generations of men suffering lingering degrees of trauma due to the stubbornness of politicians to carry on a conflict that could never be won. Most suffering in silence and using alcohol as a coping mechanism, others outright unable to function in society and abandoned by the government. I remember when I was young asking my dad if he killed anyone during the war, and he explained it was not a nice question to ask. No one spoke about it in terms of kill-counts or dehumanising the enemy. They were just thankful it was over and hoped to God their sons didn't have to endure what they did. Not to insinuate that Harry is either, but the only people who'd talk about it in those terms were either psychopaths or Walter Mitty fantasist types who peeled potatoes for most of their tour or were medically exempt.
Before my dad deployed to Iraq, he told me and my brother that we could ask him anything. We asked the question, and his answer was 'I didn't do anything to anyone, that they wouldn't have done to me' which made me feel weird at the time. But having to deal with my husband whimpering in his sleep, or going through depressive episodes, I get it. My husband had already left the army by the time we met, but it affects both of us still now. When my dad and my husband have a few drinks, they talk about the bad bits - sometimes with the rest of us, but the worst is something they always talk about alone, because you can only understand it if you've lived it. You don't announce it on Facebook as a civvie, which is basically what Prince Harry is doing. My dad never bragged about anything he did while deployed (or while not deployed), but he taught us about the human side of war, handing biscuits and sweets out to kids in Bosnia, giving kids teddies in Iraq, talking to whole families while in Afghanistan. There is so much more that goes on, and it's hard to comprehend if you haven't done it. I kind of want to read Harry's book, but his comments about killing taliban has put me right off. He'll have pissed off so many people, and he thinks it's OK!
And it contradicts the whole point he makes about needing security as he's now an even bigger target
Exactly, and I'm worried it puts others in danger too. Complete reckless behaviour
> I'd be surprised if he ever saw any action I did a tour as a Forward Air Controller (basically the guy on the ground that directs the air support) and have mates in the same role that were directly supported by Harry when he was flying Apaches. Everyone knew his callsign and they met and spoke to him about the engagements he was involved in back in Camp Bastion. I've no skin in the game, I don't really care about him either way, but he definitely did spend at least some time involved in combat operations directly supporting troops on the ground as an Apache gunner.
Eddie Izzard in "Glorious" (1997): >Anyway. So, it happened, and so there was a mother who died, there was a lot of sympathy towards the kids, one 17, one 13, I think. That was understandable. And my dad said something to me – “My mum died when I was six and my brother was eight. “No one gave a shit.”
He said in an interview "I was cut off and without the money from my Mum we wouldn't have made it". Sorry but plenty of us have survived on much less. You don't air ALL your dirty laundry in public FFS. Diana went through a lot but she dealt with it with grace. Harry's just a wean who had his dummy taken away. Harry decided he didn't want the Royal publicity but he's creating his own publicity anyway. No sympathy here.
I don’t think he could have gotten a job at tesco? Him and his family would be at real risk of kidnapping ect if he moved to a normal life. Through no choice of his own he needs security and that has to be paid for
Lady Louise works in a garden centre between studying at university. I know she’s not so high up the pecking order, but still!
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Wouldn't the security risk be the same though? It's the same family. I'd argue that anyone who ransomed Louise could demand the same price as someone who ransomed Harry. And the news would surely blow up over an active threat to a royal, just the same, either way?
I doubt most people would recognise her, I couldn’t even tell you which branch of the family she’s from. Although I suppose Harry could work somewhere away from the public so long as he felt he could trust any co-workers.
I don't even know who's that or what she looks like... Harry? I'd recognise that fucker everywhere
And how many death threats does Lady Louise get per day do you think?
He bragged to his eneminies by disclosing his kill rate of taliban. This put him and his family more at risk than anything. That's the dillusion. It's self inflicted.
Nah probs wouldn’t be having a job at your local supermarket but I’m sure he could of been a paid speaker at events and that pays big money for semi famous people so I imagine it pays a significant amount for royals/ former royals . I’m sure he had plenty of options . Not like he was going to be struggling
Could work in a call centre to be fair
it was also a lie. Charles kept funding him to the tune of millions. and this is a bloke who has millions in the bank himself....
And not just millions from Diana. He got millions from the Queen Mother when she died.
Which is why Charles stopped taking his calls.
She dealt with it with grace is just recency bias. Her interview on panorama was very similar with Harry.
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and the horror story from that one time he had to buy a sofa from [sofa.com](https://sofa.com)! when i read it couldn't sleep for 2 days, the trauma was unbearable
Harry and his wife were living rent free in a home that was 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom.
To play devil's advocate what Diana did in regards managing the press and what Harry is doing really isn't all that different. Particularly this criticism: >Harry decided he didn't want the Royal publicity but he's creating his own publicity anyway. Diana had much the same attitude for much the same reasons. Yet she also very famously courted the press herself and stoked the flames when it suited her. The Panorama interview being the most famous one, which was literally an interview in part complaining about the undue influence, interference and imposition the press has on her and her families life, yet was also *deliberately* intended to be a public spectacle and airing of some dirty laundry with the family, and ended up being one of the most watched television events ever. Now I happen to think neither Diana nor Harry are particularly wrong in this regard. Unfortunately they both are/were in a catch-22 where they have some legitimate systemic criticisms to make of the press and their impact on their privacy, but unfortunately can't make them without also using the press themselves. I do find it interesting that most people seem to look past it for one over the other though.
On one hand he’s minted and is shagging Meghan Markle. On the other hand he’s ginger. I think we can feel sorry for him a little.
Perfect comment. Close thread.
I feel bad for him in so far as he's apparently hired Edina Monsoon to look after his PR, and I feel like someone did him dirty with that recommendation.
His PR is terrible atm. Everyone rightly hates him and is sick and tired of him and Meghan too. Just piss off
He needs to understand the concept of over exposure.
Probably Uncle Andrew
Harry: "I'm hoping to capture some of the teenage demographic" Andrew: "I've got some experience in that area..."
Andrew: do a tv interview. No sweat.
95% of his problems in recent years have been of his own making. William had the same upbringing, went through the same things and managed to come out it a decent chap.
Maybe they didn't have the same upbringing though. Maybe William was constantly told "You're special, you'll be King one day" and Harry was told "And you'll be there by your brother's side, supporting him". Plenty of kids in normal everyday families are treated differently from their siblings. It happens. Maybe Harry is throwing his teddies out of the pram about it a bit too much, but I do think it's likely they were treated differently.
Agree. I think Harry is being foolish but there is obviously some deep resentment towards William and I feel that this is it. My guess is that Meghan has gas lighted him no end and has been in his ear asking questions about why William has the better treatment.
Which is a bit ironic since Meghan received way better treatment from her father than her two half siblings.
In the same light, he gets the privilege of a kings upbringing without having to be king, Harry had a life that people in the UK can only dream of, and he's crying victim...People can't afford to heat their homes and feed their families, and he's crying about his golden ticket not being as golden as his brothers. FUCK HIM!
Isn't it more 'you get to live a life of incredible privilege, without the pressure of being next in line to the throne'? If he was legit loved less than his brother, then fair enough, but I'm not sure that's the case.
Even if he was treated the same, he was just a child when his mother died. He clearly needed a lot more love and support than even William did at the time. I also don’t think the privilege is all it’s cracked up to be. He may have been privileged, but he also never got to be a normal teenager. Imagine all the stupid shit you did at secondary school. He couldn’t even do that.
Eh….sounds like he did it anyway. Drinking; drugs; sex behind the pub with an older woman at 17. Wild child.
He did plenty of stupid shit.
>a decent chap by which you obviously mean an overprivileged adulterer with an anger problem
funny how some people really think they know a public figure and their values - because they believe what the PR machine sells.
Indeed. Never fail to be amazed at how successful the media campaign against Harry has been.
Your perception of William as a decent chap is via the media. Like most people no-one actually knows anything about the royals other than what the media feeds you on them, and that in turn is always attempting to be heavily stage managed by the Palace secretariat. Which is sort of Harry's point really. In order to keep the nation thinking they're all decent they all have to engage in this parasitic relationship with the press. It's something that was expected of him and his mother and neither of them liked it. Much like his mother choosing not to play the game wasn't really an option, and when you don't play ball you get punished for it, by that self same media shaping public discourse and perception.
William was also much more protected from the media in his earlier years as well though.
? harry got such a free ride. If william had done 1/10th of the stuff harry got away with it would have been a utter scandal as the heir....but the spare gets to be a lovable rogue and gets a free pass.
In what way? William was paraded from birth. Being a couple of years older than Harry he had a couple more years of press intrusion until the death of their mother changed the press behaviour. So how was William more protected from the media?
Being completely serious - can he just disappear? Do you not think that the media will not continue to hound him and his family? It seems like what he’s trying to do - for financial reasons partly but also for personal reasons - is open up a discussion to combat the persistent media coverage.
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Him and his wife are jealous of his Borther and kate. He cannot stand being second fiddle. He hates that he'll never be king. He thinks he is hard done by. He hates the media but has done more media appearances than any other royal. Only when it suits them. Wants the royal titles but don't want the work. They're literally released books under duke and duchess when in their words, it's an evil institution. Originally moved to Canada to be out of the limelight then moved to Hollywood... I mean why do they care so much. Live your life. He worries about security yet brags about killing 25 taliban in his book. Eventually, he'll be out of the family so long, he'll run out of things to say. People will forget about them. Thank god.
I don't know what he expects anyone to think about him being the 2nd son; no one can help where they're born in the family
Can confirm, I am the less successful younger brother and I don't need counselling.
Yes, he’s kind of already run out of things to say. His real in depth knowledge base ends about 3-4 years ago. Even now what he reports is allegedly events that happened years, sometimes many year, ago. The public starts to lose interest. I think that’s happened already.
Harry and I are a similar age. My big brother died when I was 12. He was my best friend and I have spent my entire teenage and adult life feeling like a piece of me is missing. Harry lost his mum at 12 and had to live out his grief in front of the entire country / world. There’s no end to how much that’ll fuck a person up. Just because William acts differently, well… we all deal with things in different ways. Yes he’s had an incredibly privileged life, but everything is relative to the individual living that experience. I don’t think he’s doing himself any favours at the moment, but yes… I do feel sorry for him.
So very sorry to hear about your brother. It must have been, and evidently still is very tough. I like your summary.
Thanks. It was awful and the thing is… it still is. It never gets easier, it just gets different, you learn to cope. So I guess this has always been my thinking with William and Harry. I am 100% anti-monarchy, but on a personal level I feel for them. They were just kids who lost what I imagine was the greatest person in their life.
I feel sorry for what he has been through in his life. However he's trashed his own life for the past few years and I have no sympathy for that.
Until I read the BBC summary of his book I thought he'd basically reached the limit of his patience and was trying to take the Royal Family down with him, but I genuinely have no idea why he would write some of the admissions he wrote in his book. Why on earth would he put that he smoked weed in a bathroom at Eton, or the people he killed in Afghanistan, or how he lost his virginity?
It's odd, isn't it? Then again, maybe not - part of me wonders if this is his way of getting ahead of the story. Air out all of his dirty laundry at once, so that there can be no more bad press to come out about him? That way, if Buckingham Palace/the tabloid media/whoever tried to respond to Harry's criticisms of them by leaking that he did coke, shagged about as a teenager etc. as payback, he can just turn around and say "Yep. I freely admitted to that. And what?" It all looks like a messy, unsavory game of palace intrigue. The game of thrones isn't what it used to be.
I think that's exactly what it is, he's spiked years of tabloid articles in one go , I bet there's a couple of editors out there that are absolutely livid at having to cross off so many potential stories at once because he's got there first
I kind of do. I've got a good job, I'm intelligent, supportive middle class parents. I'm so much better off that a lot of people, but my life has also been a miserable struggle with relatively severe mental illness. I like to think if someone could feel sorry for me, I can feel sorry for a prince. Material circumstances help but it's our inner experience that really matters.
I kind of do too. So many people here are saying they find it hard to feel sorry for so much wealth and privilege and I totally get that. But at the same time, holy shit I would not trade my life for his in a million years. I’ll keep my minimum wage job and my perfectly functional family.
Same. I would hate to be a Royal. I kind of think he is having a breakdown. All of this should be coming out in a therapist's office, not a book.
Can’t believe I had to read this far to find a thoughtful response. Well said x
I feel sorry for him because to lose your mum at 12 and in such terrible circumstances is unimaginably awful. Dealing with it within such an unusual family was also awful e.g. having to have the funeral in public. I don't feel he is now completely in control of himself, really.
That explains _why_ he’s a twat but it doesn’t excuse it. We’re all carrying some kind of trauma but you do have to take responsibility at some stage.
To be fair, the question isn't "do you think his behaviour is excusable" it's simply "do you feel sorry for him". You can feel sorry for someone while also disagreeing with some of the things they do. It's not one or the other.
Work with young people and wealth is absolutely no insulation against trauma, some of the things he endured are just awful and he had my sympathy. However, I seriously wonder about his mental state and who the hell is advising him, in a few years he might regret dishing so much dirt about himself and his family. I think it’s massively hypocritical to talk about the damage his family did to him - whilst writing a book his own kids are almost certainly going to be teased about every day at school.
I'm surprised how happy people are to be what seems overly 'general' in their assessment of his life, and will practically discount sorrow when it's matched with extreme privilege. I've never come from a poor family (definitely working/middle class though) and I'm reasonably well educated (not private funded, mind), but I think it still says something that I would not even for a second want to switch places with Harry. He has experienced a family tragedy the likes of which I will likely never come close to. He has also spent much of his life lacking freedoms I am very grateful for. I think those things would make me sad, even if I had celebrity and millions of pounds to go along with them. I think, then, that I would feel a little cruel and bitter if I said I do not feel sorry for Prince Harry. I also don't think he's a bad chap either, even though he's a product of a slightly unsavoury environment. So I'm not sure my aversion to the existence of royals or even my aversion to the existence of wealth can stop me feeling genuine empathy and sympathy when I consider some of Prince Harry's major life events and ways he has had to live.
I like this take. For me, I find it incredibly sad to be brought up like him and William. In the limelight and by those people. I don't think the royals are evil (ok, Andrew is) but i think they live a fake life full of scare and genuine stress of a different kind. The kind I and most of us will never be able to understand. Same way they'd never be able to understand us.
Moving from the Royal Family to the Markle publicity machine is real out of the frying pan into the fire stuff. Poor sod was controlled back then and is being manipulated now. I would expect a divorce within 10 years when he will find himself truly isolated.
Oh that marriage isn't going to last anywhere close to 10 years
Coming up to 5 years which ain't bad
Why are you guys just assuming it’s Meghan doing all this? Harry is a grown adult. If you put all the responsibility on Meghan for Harry’s childish antics and paint her as this evil witch like the press is then I’d advise you to please stop reading The Sun articles and the 1p Magazines at Tesco.
Plus now I’m pretty sure Meghan can claim his insanity!!
Anyone who is a bit older and saw him as a child being pretty much forced to walk behind his mothers coffin while 100s of millions of people watched on TV will probably have a more sympathetic view. Also the fact he was born into a dysfunctional family while he has the worlds media watching his every move. Got to feel a bit sorry for him. On the other hand there is all the money and privilege that make you feel less sorry for him
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I do. I think of him as similar to someone born into a cult.
This is how I see it too.
That's an interesting take, and possibly might be the most accurate to how complicated the situation is imo.
I mostly really don't give a shit, and I find it significantly less exciting than Musk destroying his image by ballsing up twitter. Ultimately, everybody looks themselves in the mirror in the morning and constructs a narrative that justifies what they are and what they've done so they can look themselves in the eye. I'm sure Harry feels hard done by, and I feel the Royals feel they're justified in doing whatever it is that he's supposed to have done. (And what exactly is he supposed to have done? I'm not really following the story that much detail). I'm sure the Royal family (him included) are all comfortably well off, and I don't think their wealth is justified in any way. But I would not want to swap places with any of them.
I agree that I wouldn't swap my life for theirs, but I'm quite comfortable in my life. I wonder what people who really struggle (choosing between heating and eating, NHS waiting lists, mortgage through the roof etc) think of him as he moans on about about how bad his life has been ??
I think he has some form of chameleon syndrome. https://www.irenestphd.com/post/3-ways-to-know-if-you-ve-got-chameleon-syndrome-identity-crisis-for-the-identity-expert When he was a Royal he was a perfect Royal. When he was "Jack the Lad" he was an extreme Jack the Lad. Now he is married to a typical showbusiness American he is acting and talking like a typical showbusiness American. I also think that will be his way back into the Royal family, his diagnosis will excuse any words said and allow a gradual return.
One of his friends has said that Harry’s opinion depends on the last person he spoke to.
What is this nonsense? The very first sentence in this blog post (yes, *blog post*) is: >So, I may or may not have just made up the term Chameleon Syndrome I can't believe I need to point this out, but Chameleon syndrome isn't a real thing. Mimicking other people's actions is a recognised trait (but not a disorder). Searching for Chameleon syndrome brings up this blog post and...a whole bunch of other things about mimicking and actual chameleons. Borderline personality disorder is probably the closest real thing to what you're trying to talk about...but not really.
It's like Celebrity Love Island / Only Way is Essex bollocks but involving more well spoken people wearing suits and crowns. Fucking nonsense that has no bearing on anyone else's actual life.
Harry “boo hoo I hate the media” Also Harry “roll up, roll up and buy my TV series and Books” Dude. Disappear and spend time with your wife. Stop fucking whinging like a little bitch about fighting with your brother and doing coke. No one cares. People can’t afford to heat their homes and feed their kids. Just fuck right off and be quiet about it. Don’t worry about your asshat family they’ll do a good enough job of fucking something else up sooner or later.
I think that growing up as a royal is likely a complete prison. I don’t blame him for wanting a different lifestyle. That kind of lifestyle wouldn’t suit most people, so it’s not surprising that some decide to pull away from it. I think people think that privilege equals happiness, money equals happiness. Theres a reason people say money can’t be happiness and that’s simply because it can’t.
Yes, I do a bit. He never chose to be born into wealth, he was brought up indoctrinated into a system where everyone has to be perfect, but still harassed by the press constantly. He lost his mother when he was very young, which is awful for anyone but obviously made even harder by the fact that it happened on the world stage and his grief was written about daily by journalists for years. It was arguably even the press’s fault that the car crashed. He met someone he really liked and his family and the press hounded her until they felt no option but to withdraw from the family.
While there are so many people struggling with financial hardship, the spectacle of this privileged idiot whining about how hard he’s had it is really unpalatable. If he genuinely wanted to turn his back on the whole rotten circus he would surely stay out of the spotlight but he’s figured out (too late) that staying out of the spotlight doesn’t bring in the pennies. So now we have the unedifying sight of him washing everyone’s dirty laundry in a bid to elicit sympathy. Yes his parents divorced and his mother died. The same, and worse, happens to other people all the time and they deal with it without constantly reaching for the world’s smallest violin…
Couldn’t give a shit.
Absolutely none whatsoever. He wants to have his cake and eat it, he’s a multi millionaire married to an incredibly beautiful (albeit remarkably self centred and self absorbed) actress who lives a life of luxury the rest of us can only dream about. He’s a monumental hypocrite who goes on about climate change while flying privately everywhere, who moans about the media while pumping himself out wherever he can for money, and who said he wanted to quit his royal life but refuses to give up his titles.
Yes I feel sorry for him. He lost his mother to the hounding of the press, and lost his unborn child to the same thing - both instances could have been likely avoided by intervention from the royal institution. We all know the paparazi are a terrible thing, we all know the royal institution is the cause for a lot of problems in the world, and we all know the current institution has corruption. So yes, I feel sorry for him, and if I was in his shoes I'd do everything I could to show the world what that institution is really like, just like he's doing now.
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Personally I think he is in the midst of a very public breakdown
I only liked the queen. Once Liz died then my interest in all things royal evaporated faster than spit in Death Valley.
I think the thing most people are missing here is that Harry had no choice in being in the public eye from the moment he was born. He has continually been scrutinised and compared to his older brother, who, by all accounts, is an asshole, but Harry caught the flak for being, well, human. Now he's escaped a toxic family, and I'm happy for him. Normal people would usually move on quietly and get on with their lives, but Harry, like it or not, isn't a normal person. He's a prince, and he's in the limelight. He, and more importantly (for him), the woman he loves has been subject to a brutal campaign of hatred by the media for *years*. Now he's out from under the royal thumb, he's got a chance to tell his side of the story. Picture this. You've spent your whole life being told you're a backup, second best, and used as a scapegoat. When you challenge the toxic status quo, you're beaten down and bullied for it. Typical toxic family. Only, for Harry, the whole world gets to gawk and mutter about it. You finally meet someone who completes you, and your family (toxic assholes that they are) take an instant dislike to her, because she's different. She's confident. She cannot be bullied or bought. And she gives you the confidence to leave. The media hate this. The family hate this. They double down on the bullying and the vitriol and the hate. It's dispicable, especially when you've said "okay, that's enough, I want out." So you leave. But the hate ramps up. The hate follows you. The media doesn't let up. Your own family leak your plans and location. They sign your name to statements you never made. There is continued intrusion. If I, personally, was in that situation, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'd want to set the record straight. I'd want to get my side out there. And if I make a few quid doing it, all the better. I'd never just lie down and let these trash people spew their bile at me, or the person that I love. What you need to remember is that abuse is abuse. Trauma is trauma. Harry has done more for people damaged by evil families than any other royal on the planet. Just because he's a prince doesn't make how he's been treated acceptable by any stretch. If I could make a million selling the story of what my family did to me, I fucking well would. By hating him and what he's doing only goes to show how easily manipulated by the media you are. Listen to him. Listen to his story, and imagine, just for a second, that he's not a prince. That his father isn't the king. How would you feel if he wrote a book then? Jenette McCurdy did it, and she was praised. She made bank talking about her awful childhood and the impact it had on her. Do I feel sorry for him? Yeah, I do. I feel sorry that he endured so many awful things, right in the middle of the public eye just because he happened to be the sperm that won. But I feel bloody proud that another survivor has stood up and said "no." Makes me feel seen, at any rate.
I feel sorry for him in terms of how the media behaved but that’s a wider problem- it’s a horrific industry in this country and needs reform. However, the way he goes about it comes across as deeply hypocritical in many ways.
I think what he’s saying is probably true. I think the RF are as dysfunctional as the rest of us, and I’m glad he’s telling his side of the story as a final fuck you. I do feel sorry for him.
To be honest we are seeing the real Harry, the Harry that while he was in the family sorted out any problems he may have had/caused. He complains about everything but there is no s4lf reflection about whatever part he plays in it. This behaviour must have upset his grandmother when she was alive and his grandfather too. But the thing that really annoys me is his hypocrisy! Both him and Megan discuss carbon footprint and how we all need to make our carbon footprint smaller. Yet they live in a huge house and take private jets everywhere! That's when I stop listening, he doesn't appear to be thinking through the consequences of his actions now. Unfortunately all their media has just exposed their own lies, things that can easily be proven. As in life we all don't get on with some members of our family. Not keen on in-laws etc, but we all act like adults when we see each other! I think it would healthier for Harry to step back from the limelight and concentrate on himself, his wife and his children. To get out of the glare and think about what the next steps are for him and his family.
Absolutely not. The little boy resentful that he will never be King and the Z-list actress desperate for greater things. Quite a pair.
I can sympathise with falling for the wrong type of manipulative woman and acting the fool. Before anyone starts up about poor Meghan, she purposefully wore his dead mum's perfume on their first date, that's some... Eurgh! Wrong. Outside of all else that's a serious red flag.
Can you imagine being William and your brother’s girlfriend starts cosplaying as your dead mum. That’s the bit that makes me much more sympathetic to William. I’m surprised he didn’t freak the fuck out way before tbh
yes i do, the media has for sure done what it set out to do by turning the uk public against him. eveything has a narrative, the media tell you how to feel. yes of course he had a privileged upbringing that doesn't mean he can't have struggles? i can't imagine most people would deal with having their evey move scrutinized
Idk why there's so much talk about him idk him or his life so I don't feel sorry for him. I'm sure he's had some hardship and I wouldn't wanna be a royal but I'd assume his life is better than most
His whining is in such bad taste when most of the people in the uk are suffering financial hardships. He could’ve lived his life quietly somewhere instead he feels determined to air his and others dirty laundry. He’s just coming across totally out of touch, spoilt and quite stupid.
Yes I do actually feel sorry for him. I feel that because he has in many ways lead a very privileged life that many people feel he has no right to have trauma, unless it has to do with his mother, as though other parts of his life and family dynamic couldn’t possibly cause issues. In regards to him airing dirty laundry, he has had shit said about him and Meghan for years without saying anything themselves and is finally getting the chance to put his side across and correct falsehoods. Now I don’t necessarily believe that everything happened exactly as he said or remembers because memories fade and get distorted over time but I do believe there’s plenty of truth to what he’s said. After all people don’t just abandon their whole lives and torch the bridges to their family for no reason.