Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Links - 21st December 2022 (2 - Meghan & Harry)

Resurfaced photo of Meghan Markle sparks online conspiracy theory about how much she knew about Royals - "Markle spoke in great detail about she had no idea what being a member of the Windsor family meant as she grew up in Los Angeles.  However, a photograph has emerged of her holding a magazine with her future sister in law the Duchess of Cambridge on the cover, teasing the suggestion that she is pregnant with twins.  This got some people questioning her version of her events."
"Conspiracy theory". I guess her blog showing she was interested in the royals was a fake too, and her friend was lying when talking about how she was obsessed with them

Meghan Markle wants Prince Harry to tone down attacks on Royal Family: report - "Meghan Markle wants her husband Prince Harry to tone down his attacks on the British Royal Family as the Duchess of Sussex fears a PR disaster... Quoting sources, the report further said that if Queen Elizabeth decided to strip the couple of their royal titles a PR disaster will erupt."

Prince Harry Told Oprah Meghan Markle Didn't Kill Herself Because She Didn't Want To Hurt Him
How to manipulate other people

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are facing a storm over a deal with US firm Procter & Gamble - "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex face questions over their partnership with an American cosmetics firm that makes tens of millions of pounds a year selling 'racist' skin-whitening creams. Meghan and Harry last week announced their Archewell Foundation had signed a 'global partnership' with US multi-national Procter & Gamble (P&G) to 'build more compassionate communities'. But the deal has thrown a spotlight on P&G's hugely controversial sale in Asia and Africa of skin-lightening creams, which reduce the concentration or production of melanin – the natural pigment that gives human skin its colour... Olay – a major P&G skincare brand – sells White Radiance moisturiser in India, Malaysia and Singapore.  In India, the product is said to lighten skin tone and deliver 'radiant and brighter skin'.   In the Philippines, P&G sells Olay White Radiance Light Perfecting Essence, which 'inhibits melanin formation in the deepest layer of skin'. In Lagos, Nigeria, an MoS reporter last week bought Olay Natural White cream, which promises 'pinkish fairness'.  Alex Malouf, a former P&G executive, said Meghan and Harry will come under pressure to say whether they support the sale of such products. 'Meghan has talked a lot about the issue of race and racism, so this does stick out like a sore thumb'... It comes as:
Harry and Meghan faced calls to scrap their deal with P&G because one of its biggest suppliers of palm oil – FGV Holdings – has been accused of exploiting and abusing workers in Malaysia;
P&G was also lambasted for its role in the destruction of large swathes of virgin forest in Canada to make loo roll. It is claimed the company buys an estimated 490,000 tons of wood pulp a year from Canada's boreal forest;
A study by a major US environmental organisation found that suppliers of wood pulp from the forest were cutting down the habitat of the woodland caribou, an 'at-risk' species of reindeer.
Prince Harry has been outspoken on environmental and wildlife issues...
following an investigation by the website Buzzfeed, Johnson & Johnson said it was dropping its Fine Fairness line, which was available in Asia and the Middle East.   The L'Oreal Group announced plans to remove 'white/whitening', 'fair/fairness' and 'light/lightening' from the names of its products, while Unilever announced plans to rename Fair & Lovely – a popular brand in India.  But P&G has continued to sell the popular White Radiance and Natural White products via its Olay brand. Olay has defended such products by comparing them to tanners or make-up."

How much did Meghan Markle know about royal life before she married Prince Harry? - "An old photograph of Meghan Markle holding a magazine with the Duchess of Cambridge on the cover has resurfaced on social media, leading to fresh questions over what she knew about the Royal Family before marrying Prince Harry.  Meghan has previously said that growing up, she knew very little about the Royal Family and was unfamiliar with tabloid newspapers in the UK. She made the comments in interviews discussing her decision to step back from senior royal life with husband Harry.  A picture originally shared in October 2014, however, shows her posing with a copy of U Magazine, a glossy Irish women's publication, which bore a headline about her future sister-in-law Kate – wrongly suggesting she was having twins. The picture has been shared widely again over the last few days... The picture, which is nearly seven years old and was taken at least two years before Meghan met Harry, has reignited the questions about what she might have known before she met the prince.  Meghan said in the couple's engagement interview with Mishal Husain that she had not known much about the royals... Another image which occasionally resurfaces shows a 15-year-old Meghan posing outside Buckingham Palace with a friend on a holiday to London.  There are various reports of friends of Meghan suggesting she had a copy of a biography on Diana.   Ninaki Priddy, who was Meghan's maid of honour when she married Trevor Engelson, told the Mail in 2018: "[Meghan] was always fascinated by the royal family. She wants to be Princess Diana 2.0.""

DR MAX PEMBERTON: Why I fear Harry's had too much therapy - "Far from being the poster-child for the benefits of therapy, I’m afraid Harry is actually becoming quite the opposite.  He is starting to embody the characteristics of those who’ve had too much therapy — self-centred, self-obsessed, aggrieved and resentful. He says he’s talking about his troubles ‘to help other people’. This rings rather hollow. While a bit of self-obsession is acceptable inside a therapist’s office, it is unbecoming in public, especially from someone who has — and continues to have — a life of almost unparalleled luxury and privilege.  It would be far more helpful if Harry showed through his actions how he has turned his difficulties into something positive, rather than simply sounding spoilt and angry.  He has also failed to understand that the modern obsession with getting everything off your chest, airing every grievance, isn’t helpful at all.  Sometimes a stiff upper lip is precisely what’s needed. Sometimes talking about something endlessly isn’t the answer. Talking can only make so much difference. There are times when you need to accept the past and move on.  No amount of chat is going to change what has happened. The best advice doesn’t always come from Freud or Jung. I often think a good mantra to live your life by is the song from Disney’s Frozen: Let It Go.  After all, isn’t that all that psychotherapy is, really? It’s simply helping us to let go of something in the past and move on. And there does come a point where people do have to let stuff go.  At what point, for example, do you stop looking back and start looking forward? At what point do you stop blaming your parents for all the mistakes you’ve made in your life?... Looking at the young who embrace the idea that we must constantly examine our feelings, I wonder if they really are happier than the older generation?  Has society got noticeably better, with more psychologically rounded individuals? I’m not convinced it has.  If anything, I think people have become more self-obsessed and narcissistic... Who, over the past few decades, come across as the most psychologically robust? It’s certainly not his much- loved mother Princess Diana, who, despite hours upon hours of psychotherapy, was still dogged by problems. No, the royals people look up to are the Queen and Princess Anne, both of whom are paragons of emotional restraint."

Queen visits £3.2bn 'Big Lizzie' warship as she's seen for first time since Harry fired attacks - "In his latest attack, part of a series on mental health for Apple TV+ with his friend Oprah Winfrey, the former royal suggested his father, Prince Charles, had allowed his children to 'suffer' when it came to the media because of his own negative experiences.  His comments came on the five-episode The Me You Can't See series – part-televised therapy session and self-help guide, part-confessional – which was released in its entirety yesterday. It contains a number of 'truth bombs', an insider told the New York Post earlier this week.  In the documentary, Harry described how Meghan shared her darkest thoughts with him, including 'the practicalities' of how she had considered ending her life.  He said: 'I felt completely helpless. I thought my family would help – but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, just got met with total silence or total neglect.'  Harry was billed as an executive producer alongside Miss Winfrey, who originally bagged the lucrative Apple deal. But it also included large segments of him in conversation with the chat show host, as well as interspersed footage of Harry at his mother's funeral and her being chased by paparazzi as a young woman.   It set the tone for what was another slew of accusations against the Royal Family, the monarchy and the British media.   Harry told how frightened he was by Meghan's 'clarity of thought' about how she wanted to kill herself when she was six months pregnant with their son Archie. Going back to his childhood, the prince talked in moving terms of how much he had been scarred by the loss of his mother... He said it was his wife who persuaded him, after a row in which she said he had regressed back to his 12-year-old self – the age at which he lost his mother – to seek professional help. This included Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)... Harry also claimed that 'forces were working against us' as they attempted to quit as working royals, but that he and Meghan were proud of what they had achieved and 'had no regrets'."

Prince Harry: my ‘compassionate’ Oprah tell-all interview means reconciliation is possible - "The Duke of Sussex has insisted that his Oprah Winfrey interview was done in “the most compassionate way possible” to pave the way for reconciliation...   He accused both the Royal family and the media of trying to “smear” the Duchess, 39, in what he described as a “combined effort” that had left her sobbing into her pillow whilst trying not to wake him because he was “carrying too much”.  But the Duke said he knew his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, would be proud he was living the life she had wanted for him...   Explaining their decision to give a bombshell interview to Ms Winfrey, in which they accused members of the Royal family of racism and of ignoring their pleas for help when Meghan was suicidal, the Duke insisted that it was “about being real and authentic” and sharing experiences that are relatable to people around the world... the Duke revealed that he had been “worried” and “afraid” about returning to London for the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.  He revealed on the documentary that flying into London was a “trigger” for his trauma, as he was returning to a place that he felt trapped and hunted by cameras."
Even in the US this doesn't work, unless the people you want to reconcile with are on TV at the same time (and even then not always)

Prince Harry's mental health documentary exposes his hypocrisy - "Really, he’s been through it. Consider this: “Every time I put a suit and tie on,” Harry tells us, “I was in a fight-or-flight mode.”   I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: This is a supremely bad look for the COVID era. Who is advising these people?... Harry claims that his critics — by which he means the tabloid press who he believes exploited and killed his mother — must be psychotically damaged to find fault with him.   Who’s commodifying Diana now? But by all means, Harry, please keep talking — out of both sides of your mouth, as is your wont, begging for privacy from the media while becoming an active player in the media... Harry’s back to share more details of how terrible a father Prince Charles was, bequeathing him “genetic pain,” and how his entire family cared nothing for his unhappiness, let alone his future wife’s — despite fast-tracking Meghan into the fold and throwing a $45 million wedding.   Most shockingly, Harry offers more details about Meghan’s suicidal ideations while pregnant with Archie — with no thought to how this will surely affect his son.   Yet Harry tells us that four years of counseling has made him all better! Harry is therapized, Americanized and ready to go, becoming one of our specialties — a self-help guru who’s really only in it to sate his narcissism.   America, strap yourselves into this feedback loop. We’re in it for now, even though Harry hasn’t realized that self-pity really isn’t in the American DNA. Unlike a little thing called the First Amendment, one of our most valued protections — which Harry last week called “bonkers” and something “I don’t understand.”...   Psychobabble, word salad, gobbledygook and Greek to me: It’s all on display, with Harry blissfully unaware that each public overshare diminishes his value on the open market. We are watching an overgrown child throw an epic tantrum, and the point is unclear. Does Harry want to bring down the royal family? Prove he has something worth contributing? Does he even know what he wants?   One thing is clear: He’s profoundly tone deaf, and a course correction seems unlikely. Even Harry would have to admit the royals did one thing well: Their carefully crafted image of Harry — military man, good with kids, the lighthearted prince with a charitable soul — was far superior to this one."

Prince Harry is ‘very immature’ for criticising public mourners of Diana, royal biographer claims - "Royal biographer Angela Levin has accused Prince Harry of being “very immature” after the Duke of Sussex spoke of his resentment over the public mourning of his late mother, Princess Diana... Levin then claimed that Harry’s feelings of resentment were understandable when he was 12, but that he should “be able to cope with it” now that he is 36.  “Walking behind his mother was hideous for him, but to resent the people who admired Diana and loved her and thought incredibly highly of her, I think it’s not up to him to say who should mourn her”

Prince Harry has been 'selfish' and 'very immature,' his biographer claims - "leading royal correspondent Roya Nikkhah says that Prince Charles has decided on a policy of 'dignified silence' in public, despite having come under 'quite heavy fire' from his son.   'The Prince of Wales has really come under quite heavy fire, in terms of Harry's account of his parenting, but he has maintained a dignified silence... that's his ploy,' the Senior Royal correspondent adds.  'I think that must be hard because I should think there is a lot he wants to say. If Harry feels he has really benefited from the counselling and therapy that he has had and it is opening up emotions and helping him in his new life across the pond - good luck to him.'  'But one wonders if in order to do that do you have to publicly speak about your family in such a negative light.'... ngela Levin took to Twitter and  claimed how she doesn't think the Queen will slam the door on Prince Harry because she fears the 'devastating consequences' for his mental health.  She penned: 'My view is that Harry's family in London are very worried about his mental health and think slamming the royal door in his face could have devastating consequences.'"

Harry and Meghan care about PR, not privacy - "The royal couple reportedly bought the domain name ‘lilibetdiana.com’ on the day their new daughter was born, and before her name had been approved by the queen (Lilibet was Her Maj’s family nickname). The Sussexes also secured a ‘significant’ number of other website names, apparently, just in case the queen refused to give her blessing to ‘Lilibet’.   Naturally, sources close to Harry and Meghan have dressed this up as them protecting their family’s privacy or something. One said it was to ‘protect against the exploitation of [the baby’s] name once it was later chosen and publicly shared’. We leave readers to make up their own minds on the believability of that.  But let’s just say there is something a bit weird about being blessed with a newborn baby and immediately thinking to yourself, ‘Well, we better buy up all the relevant domain names then’. As ever, Harry and Meghan seem to care more about PR, and adding to their media empire, than almost anything else. Still, we wish Harry and Meghan all the happiness in the world with the new baby – and we look forward to little Lilibet’s first podcast."

Royal fans say Americanisms in Harry's Afghanistan statement show it was 'not written by him' - "The Duke, 36, and Duchess of Sussex, 39, released a lengthy statement via their slick Archewell Foundation website where they said the Taliban's advance in Afghanistan has left them 'speechless' and 'heartbroken' in a wide-ranging statement that also addresses the Covid-19 crisis and the humanitarian disaster in Haiti... 'If nothing else, the way "realise" has been spelt shows this was certainly not written by Prince Harry'... The couple have been slammed by Prince Harry's biographer Angela Levin who called it 'another attempt to form an alternate woke royal family.'   Meanwhile, social media users branded the statement 'vague publicity seeking word salad' and said it was 'irrelevant' as it doesn't mention how they personally will be helping in the crisis"

Prince Harry's Royal Marines tribute is an Americanism alien to British military - "The Duke of Sussex signed off his tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh with the slightly odd phrase “per mare per terram”.  Those with a military interest will have picked up on the significance. But does the use of the phrase send more than one message?... it is a military custom in much of the US armed forces to sign off letters, speeches and even individual social interactions with a unit motto... This custom is not practised in the British armed forces...   Prince Harry's peculiarly American sign off perhaps says more about the direction of his future career than his, or his grandfather's, previous one."

Harry's gesture when 'cameras stopped' showed 'true feelings' to royals, expert claims - "Jesus Enrique Rosas pointed out that Harry began to laugh as the credits started to roll, before catching himself and allegedly mimicking sadness.  “You’ll be surprised by how someone’s real attitude and emotions can show when they think the cameras are not rolling anymore. And, Harry and Meghan are not an exception”... "Harry has been absolutely in control of his actions all this time."  He went on to claim it showed Harry was "happy" about the alleged revelations coming out about the Royal Family.   The body language expert also rejected the argument that Meghan had forced Harry to do the interview, noting: “You can have a counter-argument, that’s fair – that Harry didn’t really want to do that interview, that he didn’t want to hurt his family.  “But then you will be implying that somehow Meghan has an absurd amount of power over him. “That would mean that Harry has absolutely no responsibility for his actions. “So, what actually happened at the end of the Oprah interview is that he was showing his real face of joy… and then he remembered that he had to show a serious and sad attitude, and instantly adjusted his emotion.”"
Whatever it is, the two are full of red flags

Meghan Markle's half-brother says her marriage to Harry is doomed - "“We were close before,” he insisted. “Money changed her, money and fame went to her head really bad. I guess when you are introduced to the one percent of society – that is most likely the reason that happened to her, when she didn’t have anything before.” Admitting he has “no idea” how Meghan “ended up with a Prince,” he confessed he isn’t sure their marriage will last as he slammed Meghan’s “cold” treatment of her former husband, Trevor Engelson, with whom she was married from 2011 to 2013. “That guy just took care of her. She was adored by him,” Thomas claimed “The guy she was was married to the first time, Trevor, have you seen those Saw movies? This guy works for that production company. That guy just took care of her. She was adored by him.  “And she just walked all over him and dumped him, that fast. After being married, she sent him the ring in the post – is that cold or what?”  He added: “Harry’s next. Harry is on the chopping block next. The only difference between now and then, all the photos prior to that he had a smile on his face, all the ones after he doesn’t.”"

DAN WOOTTON: Unless Harry resigns from Netflix at Diana: The Musical then he is Prince of Hypocrisy - "For years the Duke of Sussex has waged war against any media organisation which, in his eyes, demeans the memory of his late mother or exploits and misinterprets her life for commercial gain.  Over the weekend his new US paymasters did exactly that in the most outrageous fashion. Diana: The Musical is the most offensive and degrading portrayal of the late Princess of Wales in fiction since her death in 1997 – and in terms of accuracy it makes that other historically-derided Netflix series The Crown look like a royal encyclopaedia of truth.  The lies about Di's life are egregious – from suggesting she used HIV patients for publicity to attacking Margaret Thatcher for her politics... For her sons Prince William and Harry there couldn't be a worse portrayal of their beloved mother.  So will Harry swallow his morals because the taste of tens of millions of dollars is far sweeter? Of course he will!  The moment the Sussexes traded in a royal life focussed on the ability to work unencumbered on good causes in exchange for big moolah in Hollywood their priorities became clear... What we know now is that Harry will only exercise the right to try and protect his mother's memory if it suits his political purposes.  So when it comes to attacking the 'evil' British tabloids – and journalists like me who reveal inconvenient truths about the Sussexes – he will do whatever he can to speak publicly in the most aggressive of terms, take unnecessary legal action and attempt to influence the public mood against the media  But if it's a woke US media company – the type staffed by his mega-rich friends in California – then speaking up is out of the question.Hollywood Harry has become the prince of hypocrisy and greed."
Money talks. If making up lies about your family earns you money that's fine

William and Harry: two dukes – two very different approaches to happiness - "Prince Harry, who has long craved privacy, made headlines yet again... he added that he owes his decision to have therapy to a conversation with Meghan, which helped “burst the bubble”.  This struck me as odd, as I interviewed Harry at length shortly before he got engaged to Meghan in 2017, for the biography I was writing. Our conversation turned to his depression and panic attacks, and I asked if Meghan had encouraged him to get help.  “Absolutely not,” he replied. “She had nothing to do with it.” It was, he said, his brother Prince William who had convinced him his mental health needed attention. “At first I didn’t listen,” he added. “The time wasn’t right and like many others, I don’t like to do what my older brother says.” In the end, though, he took his advice and added how grateful he was for the help.  William, of course, was brought up by the same parents, with the same worries that Harry mentions to Shepard – one of which was that he wouldn’t be able to trust a woman enough to have a successful marriage.   It is on this issue that the lives of the two brothers have so obviously diverged. While Harry lashes out from his home in California, making woke podcasts and giving interviews to Oprah with his wife by his side, William has always been able to see the bigger picture – and set about a very practical pursuit of happiness from a young age... George was born in July 2013 and on the steps of the Lindo Wing, Kate revealed that William had already changed his first nappy. It is inconceivable that any previous heir to the throne would even have contemplated such a thing and it was William’s first step to being a hands-on father. He takes his turn to do the school run, spends weekends in Norfolk and obviously loves the rough and tumble with his children, who you can see adore him. It is beyond doubt that as his genetic destiny looms larger, his little family will remain top priority.    Harry has a different personality, more Spencer than Windsor, and has responded to his upbringing in a different way – not least because he is the ‘spare’. Diana encouraged him to be naughty and not get caught. He started drinking in 1997, aged 12, when he, William and their mother were holidaying on a boat owned by Mohamed Al Fayed – Harry going ashore whenever he could and returning drunk on the local tipple. It became a way for him to escape. He also told me he’d chosen to join the “bad boys” at Eton and added smoking and drugs to his intake.  Most teenagers start seeing their parents as imperfect, but Harry lost his mother before that could happen. Now in his thirties, and in therapy speak, he blames Prince Charles for the “genetic pain” he feels. Many think it is about time he stops playing the victim card.  Of course, like all those who have had turbulent upbringings, there is nothing wrong with trying to “break the cycle of pain and suffering” – and, as William has demonstrated, there are many non self-destructive ways to do this, including just getting on with parenting your own children. Instead, Harry seems to hang on tightly to his family’s mistakes... there is always the chance that when Archie grows up he might rail against the decisions of his own father – about missed opportunities and how his name has been used to promote commercial goods and charities for his parents’ financial gain"

Prince Harry Is Contradicting Himself - "An examination of interviews that Harry has given over the years shows inconsistencies and omissions in the story he is now telling the world... When asked for comment, a Sussex spokesperson drew a distinction between Harry’s private struggles and his public advocacy work and told BuzzFeed News that although he had sought mental health treatment before meeting Meghan, she was the catalyst for finding a therapist who could finally provide him with the care and support he needed. The first of these contradictions are Harry’s recent claims in The Me You Can’t See that members of the royal family aren’t encouraged to speak about mental health — even though erasing the stigma around public discussions of the issue was one of the biggest causes he championed as a working royal... in May 2016, years before the docuseries was announced, Harry, along with his brother and sister-in-law, Prince William and Kate Middleton, launched the #HeadsTogether campaign. The initiative’s goal was to “end stigma around mental health” and “change the national conversation on mental wellbeing,” showing that working royals advocated for the cause... despite claiming in the docuseries that “every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is” about mental health “just got met with total silence or total neglect” from the royal family, at arguably his lowest moment as a working royal after his marriage — when Meghan told him that she was having suicidal thoughts — he did not ask for help.  In the joint Oprah interview, Harry admitted that although he was “terrified” after Meghan told him about her suicidal ideation, he said he didn’t go to anyone for assistance. Oprah asked, “Did you tell other people in the family, 'I have to get help for her, we need help for her'?” He replied, “No. That’s just not a conversation that would be had. … I guess I was ashamed of admitting it to them.”"
Even Buzzfeed is catching on to the lies

Palace insiders slam Prince Harry and Meghan Markle saying 'nothing ever appears to be THEIR fault' after parenting moan - ""They appear to be making careers of talking about their previous ones. It is not helpful."... "He is being incredibly rude again - nobody minds what he does, he just seems to lash back at family in the most unpleasant, disloyal way... it was "absolutely disgusting" Harry had attacked the royals so soon after Prince Philip's funeral.  She added: "There's a lack of understanding of anyone else's position - poor Prince Charles, who as we saw when the funeral took place was absolutely devastated, and the Queen at 95 bravely went to open Parliament, but you could tell it was not the same Queen.  "She was desperately upset, she adores Harry. It is unspeakably, ruthlessly cruel."  Her comments were echoed by royal commentator Robert Jobson, who said Harry's "harping on" was getting "embarrassing".  He told Australian breakfast show Sunrise: "To criticise his father for his parenting skills but also the Queen and Philip who only just had his funeral, he's only just lost his grandfather, I think it smacks of pretty shameless behaviour."...   Harry also claimed that he was told “you need help” while he was growing up but rejected it, saying: “There is nothing wrong with me.”"

The tragedy of Prince Harry - "Prince Harry has drunk the woke Kool-Aid. He’s guzzled it down. This former squaddie with a penchant for playing naked billiards and dolling up as a Nazi for bantz has had a Damascene conversion to the cult of correct-thinking. He used to be the Loaded Prince, titillating the rah-rah set by sneaking into Glastonbury in a porkpie hat or drinking champagne from a prosthetic leg. Now he’s an acolyte of Oprah, boring the world rigid with blather about his ‘genetic pain’ and why we must all embrace the religion of critical race theory. There’s a delicious irony to Harry’s latest self-regarding pronouncements. On the Armchair Expert podcast, hosted by actor Dax Shepard, Harry described life in the royal family as a constant gawp-fest. It was ‘a mix between The Truman Show and living in a zoo’, he said. So now he’s escaped the zoo by… moving to California. Celebville. The pap capital of the world. And by being emotionally incontinent on Oprah’s TV show. And by making podcast after podcast about his ups, his downs, his feelings, his therapy, his fallouts with his dad, his arguments with his brother… What next – Harry: My Struggle With Piles?... This idea of historical pain, or inherited pain, or father-to-son pain is classic millennial bullshit. It speaks to an urge to shirk responsibility for one’s life. ‘It’s not my fault I’m messed up – I got it from my dad.’... the cult of therapy discourages us from embracing such self-government in favour of telling us that some family member or traumatic event or historical crime is in the driving seat of our lives, shaping our personalities, moulding our emotions. This freezes people into a permanent state of childish bewilderment towards themselves and the world. Harry has entered into this state. It’s kind of sad.   Much of what Harry says now is just annoying. His claim that Covid-19 is Mother Earth’s way of reprimanding humankind reveals the misanthropy of the woke worldview. His chatter about white privilege – it’s like being lectured about obesity by Giant Haystacks – confirms that the trendy, dangerous fad for racialising every area of life has been fully embraced by the elites. His habit of private-jetting his way to climate-change shindigs to give barefoot lectures about environmental destruction reeks of aristocratic hypocrisy. But leaving all that to one side, it’s worth pondering what Harry has lost. Like others in the woke set, he now looks upon the royal family as a cruel, gilded cage in which there is loads of privileged living but not much freedom or emotional honesty. But is his new life really the great stab for liberty he and others claim it is? It seems to me that he is locked into a pretty destructive relationship with the global media, where he must continually offer up more glimpses into his life for the approval and analysis of the self-styled awareness-raisers of the woke set. To stay on side with the new elites he has joined, he must keep giving himself away, presumably until there is nothing left to give. Is that freedom, or the subordination of the self to the voracious cult of self-revelation?   This is the tragedy of Prince Harry. He left the royal family in the name of privacy, but he has far less privacy now than he did when he was a working royal. He struck out for freedom, but performative pain for the gawping woke media is a very phoney form of freedom. He said he wanted to be independent, yet, thanks to the therapeutic worldview, he lives in the shadow of his father and his allegedly corrosive influence more now than when he was in Clarence House. There’s a lesson here. Rejecting the ideals of duty, loyalty and family commitment doesn’t translate into instant liberty. Harry thinks he broke free from an individuality-crushing cult that punishes honesty and openness and that he is now getting in touch with his true self – I think the precise opposite has happened."

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