After Netflix released the first and second Harry & Meghan trailer, a new industry sprang up within hours: an industry of sourcing all of the images used in the trailers. There are already complaints that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are using images taken from some Katie Price court case and a 2011 Harry Potter premiere to illustrate how Harry & Meghan were “hounded.” The royal commentators are, as always, doing a lot. Here’s how I answer all of those inane criticisms: the docuseries is about a lot more than “how Meghan was treated,” it’s about how the British media works in total. Liz Garbus clearly used B-roll to illustrate and heighten certain conversations about the media, and that B-roll was also spliced into the trailer. Considering many royal commentators couldn’t even properly source what year in which certain royal photos were taken, maybe they don’t have the franchise on this particular issue?
Speaking of, alongside the performative “concerns” about the B-roll used in the docu-series, we also have the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and other British media outlets using royal sources to royalsplain how they never leaked anything negative about the Sussexes, ever. This is very “Royal Sources Claim Royal Sources Don’t Exist.”
In clips for the show, Harry, 38, took aim at royal aides, smirking as he commented: ‘It’s a dirty game.’ But royal sources insisted it was ‘absolutely wrong’ to suggest Harry and Meghan had been briefed against and ‘unprecedented steps’ had been taken to support them.
The couple’s claims sparked incredulity amongst royal insiders, some of whom were keen to make clear they are only speaking out because of the nature of the allegations from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. One said: ‘The truth is that the Palace took unprecedented steps to support the couple. They were given their own dedicated household, office, press office, home and staff. That is unheard of for a member of the Royal Family in their position [not a direct heir to the throne]. The Queen even sent her most trusted personal staff to support Meghan, not that she wanted any of their advice. Both the duke and duchess always thought they knew best.’
The source pointed out that not only were the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting asked to personally advise Meghan, but Harry’s grandmother persuaded her deputy private secretary, Sam Cohen, to stay on for six months to guide the couple.
Another source adds: ‘Yes, this was a very new situation for the Royal Household but they were excited about Harry and Meghan’s potential and what they could achieve as a couple for the monarchy and the country. They were keen to put in the framework for them to succeed. It’s why Her late Majesty handed them plum jobs within the Commonwealth. Could the Palace have done more? Very possibly. Can it be quite slow and unwieldy sometimes? Definitely. Certainly too slow for the likes of Harry and Meghan, who were very impatient. The Palace’s starting point always is “but what is our precedent?” And of course there was none here. But it is absolutely wrong to suggest that they were unsupported or, worse, that people were briefing against them.
‘It would actually be laughable, if it wasn’t so serious. The Harry and Meghan show was a very different beast from the one they [the Palace] were used to. But they tried, they really did.’
One royal source added that far from leaking or placing negative stories about the couple in the media, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace actively tried to quash rumours that all was not well behind closed doors.
On the issue of the ‘family hierarchy’, a well-placed insider said: ‘Is there a hierarchy in the family? Of course there is. It’s like any other company or public institution. There’s a CEO, chief executives, department heads … That’s how big organisations work. They would be ungovernable otherwise. There’s a structure and it’s there for a reason.
[From The Daily Mail]
“But it is absolutely wrong to suggest that they were unsupported or, worse, that people were briefing against them.” Are you sh-tting me? I guess little elves and fairies were telling Tatler that Kensington Palace called Meghan “Me-Gain,” and that Meghan “made Kate cry.” I guess all of those royal reporters were lying when they said in interviews that Kensington Palace and Clarence House leaked against the Sussexes. I guess it was the Gossip Buttons telling the Times that William and his staff were drawing up plans to exile the popular Sussexes and eventually send them to Africa. I guess it was Kate’s Harvard Wiglet™ briefing the media last week that Prince William thinks the Sussexes “are like the Kardashians.”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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