According to the article
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also featured in several images alongside racist language.”
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Because (as usual) if racist Brits are texting racist remarks, they wouldn’t dream of excluding H&M. I think it’s in their by-laws.
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My first reaction: I’m not sure what stripping Harry and Meghan of their Duke and Duchess titles will actually accomplish. (As an aside, it does little to change the narrative concerning the relevancy of the British monarchy after Queen Elizabeth’s death.)
My second reaction: Is Prince Andrew still Duke of York?
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Yes.
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The difference to me is Andrew very much wants to be in the royal family, and would love to perform any duties the King asks of him (King isn’t asking). Andrew doesn’t say anything negative about the family, didn’t write a book, came running any time the Queen or King asked him to. He was a bad boy, but didn’t try to shame the crown (it just came naturally).
H&M? Not so much. If they would just shut up they could keep all their money and houses and jewels.
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I think “bad boy” is a slight understatement. And not very smart if he didn’t realize how much he was shaming the crown.
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I also am not familiar with what, if anything, the material negative repercussions are from losing those titles.
My opinion is that this is pushback for what amounts to libel/defamation. Harry and Megan called the current king and future queen of England racists in a published book. They can claim that it wasn’t supposed to be in the book, but clearly they said it to the author. It’s come up repeatedly in news publications, and I think it was even discussed in the Oprah interview. At some point there’s going to be consequences. Harry and Megan have done absolutely zero to repair their relationship with the royal family and in fact, have done exactly the opposite, which is to use the royal family as a foil to increase their personal wealth. And it keeps happening. They honestly don’t seem able to control themselves.
Andrew has withdrawn from public life. He did not write a book. He gave one catastrophic interview. He settled the one civil suit filed against him. He has done everything the queen and the royal family has asked of him which is 180° opposite what Harry and Megan chose to do and continue to do.
lol - because he’s a sexual predator.
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Yes, that’s the right description. I’m surprised he still has a title. Ugh.
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Andrew’s choices clearly made him no longer fit to represent the monarchy and while I do think the argument could have been made to remove his dukedom when he was removed from being a working royal and from his patronages, I do not think that because his was not removed is a justification for not removing the dukedom from the Sussexes.
“While they can no longer formally represent The Queen, the Sussexes have made clear that everything they do will continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty.” Official BP Statement, Jan 2020
Can anyone really argue with a straight face that in the past 4yrs the Sussexes have continued to uphold the values of Queen Elizabeth? Amongst her many quotes in her historic reign are “Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust” and “Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves — from our recklessness or our greed.”
"The Royal Family respect and understand the wish of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex to live a more independent life as a family, by removing the supposed ‘public interest’ justification for media intrusion into their lives." Official Sussex Statement Jan 2020
The Sussexes have done entirely the opposite of their own words by creating the public interest and media intrusion into their lives…but for profit.
[Netflix Contract Sept 2020, Spotify Contract Dec 2020, Oprah Interview March 2021Book Deal 2022, plus admitted-in-court contributions to Finding Freedom 2020, speculated but hardly arguable contributions to Endgame 2023]
Following conversations with The Duke, The Queen has written confirming that in stepping away from the work of The Royal Family it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service. Official BP Statement Feb 2021
The queen herself recognizes that they are just using their position as members of the royal family to make money. And true to form immediately after passing, they were quick to announce on their own their children as Prince and Princess to capitalize on their birthright despite having spent the previous 3yrs condemning for profit everything about that birthright (and there was precedent by the now D/D of Edinburgh, to not style grandchildren through sons of the monarch as prince and princess because their parents were not working members of the royal family).
Personally I don’t think their titles need to be stripped per se, I think as part of the monarchy he pledged allegiance to the crown and he has failed to uphold that and should renounce them on his own, but at a minimum they should be not allowed to use duke or prince titles in the public domain given the merits above. I also don’t think he should be allowed to profit anymore in the way that he has. She can write books about benches and do podcasts on empowerment as Meghan Markle and he can chair the Inviticus Games as a former marine.
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The podcast thing didn’t work out so well. The other activities aren’t going to support the lifestyle they want, nor support living in a $15M house. Not sure though how much $ Harry has currently, or what he might inherit when King Charles dies. Perhaps Harry’s inheritance is something King Charles is thinking about and/or discussing with William.
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At this point, what it far more important is to remove them from the line of succession. If they do not want to be working members of the Royal Family, they should not have this right.
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I don’t think anyone is suggesting that or if it is even possible. William has added enough children to make it unlikely, but if you take Harry/kids out, the next in line is…Andrew! I think there is going to be a lot of bubble wrap around William and his kids to keep Harry out of the Palace.
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Finished the final Netflix episodes last night. Carole Middleton and Harry are certainly the losers in the final season. Yikes. I thought it was poor casting for Harry (not to mention in the first episode the actor was 23 playing a 13 year old). But Harry just came off as an awful person.
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I thought he came off as a not-atypical surly teenager. How much was artistic license is unknown (at least to me). But the cigarettes, beer, weed, Nazi uniform are based on history.
I thought Carole Middleton came off poorly, and have no idea how much was based on fact.
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I think Harry was pretty cute as a teenager and probably got away with more things as cute/charming kids can do. I felt the actor who played Harry didn’t have the charm or looks that the real Harry has and maybe that’s why he came off so poorly to me. Not to mention a terrible haircut!
I had heard about Carole’s scheming to have Kate and William meet, but who knows if it was as extreme as on the show. I think Kate in real life is a lot prettier than the actress who played her.
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I went to read articles to see if it was a fact that Kate also took a Gap year and went to the same places as William, p,us changed universities at the last minute. Looks like it’s true, and I don’t think it was quite fair to throw her mother completely under the bus for that, as it could have been Kate’s idea. I’m not a Kate fan since Spare came out.
It wasn’t quite fair showing all of Harry’s bad points, but not Williams. But that would be if you believed Spare I suppose.
I couldn’t believe how the young Elizabeth looked and acted so much like Claire Foy. Talk about great casting!
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“The Palace Papers” corroborated the story if that means anything.
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