Biggest Primetime interview since Lance: Oprah Interviews Harry and Meghan - Official Discussion Thread

Great NYT Opinion piece

...The existence of a monarchy is an admission that a government can’t, or doesn’t care to, solve people’s problems. Instead, it offers spectacle. It has always been easier to elevate one family to a fairy-tale life of luxury than to do the dreary work of elevating every single family to a decent standard of living. The common people fund the lifestyle of a tiny, exalted and thoroughly unworthy elite, rather than the other way around. Any nation that still has a monarchy in 2021 is proving itself to have a mortifying lack of revolutionary gumption.

America is guilty of many crimes against humanity, but this is one thing we got right. Our presidents may be national embarrassments, but at least Americans are not required to scrape and bow before some utterly random rich wastrel whose claim to legitimacy is being the child of the child of the child of someone who was, centuries ago, the nation’s biggest gangster. Yes, we have our own hypnotic capitalist addiction to celebrity, but monarchy is something altogether more twisted — as if the Bush family, the Kardashians and the Falwells were all rolled into one bejeweled quasi-religious fame cult, topped off with a bracing dose of imperialism....

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/opinion/meghan-harry-abolish-monarchy.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

SouthernSun wrote:

Anyone who comments on this without watching the full interview is embarrassing him/herself. The tabloids and even the establishment media have endlessly covered them, and now you have the perfect chance - two hours worth - of hearing what they have to say - and then drawing your own conclusions. If you don't do so, your comment is a joke.

Agreed.

I haven't followed any of the public response to the Meghan and Harry interview with Oprah. I just watched the interview when it aired in the US, all two hours of it. My responses are based solely on what I saw.

I know virtually nothing about Meghan Markle. I know she married Harry, who is the younger of Princess Diana's two sons. And of course I know the basics about her family background.

I thought her testimony was compelling. She was much deeper and more reflective than I'd assumed a former actress would be. If she was dissembling--lying--then she's a pro. I have no reason to think she was dissembling. I just wouldn't know.

Harry came off as completely believable, and dedicated to his wife and family.

It was hard to believe, at a specific moment, that we were seeing two (former) royals being interviewed in a chicken coop, and looking THAT happy, but I believe they were, and are, very happy being there.

When we traffic in princes and princesses, it's probably important to remember that unexpected transformations are a part of the mythos. Kiss the frog and it becomes a prince, etc. The deeper truth is about spiritual gold and where it resides.

I'm not inclined to judge either Meghan or Harry harshly. Harry was discreet about some things, and we noticed that. He didn't tell all. Meghan tried to bear witness--or, the cynical would say, "bear witness," lying about feeling suicidal, about racism within the royal family, etc.

I imagine there are some people so cynical that they view the entire interview as a kind of high-end resume burnishing or reputation-salvaging. I'm just not that cynical.

I see two people who genuinely love each other and are determined to make a way with it.

But of course each of us sees what we want to see.

The british monarchy doens't actually have any power. The UK does have a democractic government. The royal family doesn't need money. If they were to leave their positions it would be while still being very rich. The monarchy's purpose is to symbolize the nation and once the empire but now the commonwealth. The monarchy transcends England to include Scotland and Wales. There is always a threat of a fracture. The commonwealth is other things but it is also a mutual protection organization. All those little countries all over the world vulnerable to their larger neighbors and other threats know the commonwealth has their back.

The question is whether "spiritual gold" must be consistent with reality and self-awareness. Can someone be truthful blindly following their attitudes? They want privacy but spill family business to the world. She praises her mother for keeping her mouth shut while she claims her own won't be. They live in a large mansion in an exclusive enclave of the wealthy and must have many servants. They attack the monarchy but use their titles and association to pontificate about matters they have no personal authority for. She continues to act like a princess. They are lost. If it was about privacy we wouldn't even being hearing about them. If it was jus about money they'd have gone about this much smarter. If it was about making the world better they wouldn't be in that mansion crashing high school classes. They probably didn't even run by their PR people what they were going to say in the interview because they know best.

You say they don’t need money but the UK pays the royal family E84 million in 2020 and is expected to continue at that rate. People here from Great Britain... How are you ok with this?

And you have this couple in LA in their sprawling mansion with servants complaining that they have been cut off from the money and are surviving on what his mother gave him. Complaining that they were never given lessons on how to act royal etc...

It’s difficult for me to be empathetic when there are members of my community having a hard time just affording food right now.

If they wanted to be left alone then they should not have gone on Oprah’s show. If they were trying to find common ground with their viewers they failed. I’m not sure what their motive was.

£84milion,that's pretty good when the net gain from having them is about 1.5billion a year

https://fullfact.org/economy/royal-family-what-are-costs-and-benefits/

You and otter made very thoughtful posts. I have to agree with you. I find two young rich people with a sense of entitlement playing the victim card a bit difficult to accept.

I actually felt pretty positive toward them up to the interview. That public airing was a vindictive attack. Maybe they were mistreated but that doesn't justify a public attack on family.

They didn't express any love, or concern or loyalty for their family. They did say the queen was warm to them, but how did they repay that warmth, by (in the queens words) being hurtful.

I am thankful for my family and am glad they are nothing like Harry and Meghan. Meghan and Harry know nothing the heartache and suffering from being trapped. To pretend they do during a time of Covid devastation, is very socially dense. Some people just love drama and attention. Oprah's attempt to return to glory didn't come off sincere. There were too many fake expressions considering it was a story she heard from her neighbor many times. Meghan is a gifted actress and played her role effectively. Oprah has lost a couple steps.

These were not poor victims.

I'm with the NY Times piece on this. Why is anyone interested in anything about these people? Is it because you're told you should be interested - because they are on Oprah? The monarchy is an utter irrelevance in this age, and its members merely another brand of celebrity soap opera (sorry, Oprah).

Common sense.. wrote:

The family said things that never even occurred to this couple to say. The royal family said that Meghan and Harry are family and will always be loved. (Meghan nor Harry mentioned love.

Did you actually watch the whole interview? Because you’re wrong here.

You seem to be posting the same comment under different handles.

Armstronglivs wrote:

I'm with the NY Times piece on this. Why is anyone interested in anything about these people? Is it because you're told you should be interested - because they are on Oprah? The monarchy is an utter irrelevance in this age, and its members merely another brand of celebrity soap opera (sorry, Oprah).

Why is the Crown such a popular series? Its reality TV. Its stupid but its kind of interesting.

The Crown will cover this story in one of it 's future seasons. Meghan Markle is an actress, maybe Meghan Markle can play the role of Meghan Markle. I bet she would be good at playing that role. We would all be crying in sympathy for poor Meghan Markle.

Dwightarm wrote:

Common sense.. wrote:

The family said things that never even occurred to this couple to say. The royal family said that Meghan and Harry are family and will always be loved. (Meghan nor Harry mentioned love.

Did you actually watch the whole interview? Because you’re wrong here.

You seem to be posting the same comment under different handles.

No, I didn't watch the entire interview. Tell me did she say she loved or was devoted to her family?

Answer me this question: If you left your family business because of unfair treatment. Your grandmother, who was good to you, was head of that business. Your grandmother is going through a difficult time with her husband who is well over 90 in the hospital and may not survive. Would you do everything you could to make things easier for her, or would you choose this time to go on television and tell everybody everything that is wrong with the business and the family?

I dare you to answer that question.

Its possible I posted under different handles. You can't use the same handle from different devices. I try just to change the periods after the name to be consistent but I may have forgotten.

KudzuRunner wrote:

If she was dissembling--lying--then she's a pro. I have no reason to think she was dissembling. I just wouldn't know.

She is a pro. It's literally her job to lie, she's an actress.

Fact checkers have already exposed that she told a series of lies in this interview.

But of course each of us sees what we want to see.[/quote]

Regardless of what is true or false? If that is so then all discussion would merely reflect an adherence to our predetermined views and not an effort to grasp where truth may lie (excuse the pun). I would be surprised if you are saying that.

Armstronglivs wrote:

But of course each of us sees what we want to see.

Regardless of what is true or false? If that is so then all discussion would merely reflect an adherence to our predetermined views and not an effort to grasp where truth may lie (excuse the pun). I would be surprised if you are saying that.[/quote]

That wasn't my quote, but unfortunately there is a bit more truth in that quote than most of us would be willing to accept.

Agree with all quoted above. And I certainly don't need to watch the entire interview to gain understanding, there has been plenty of clearly thoughtful response to frame the highlights I saw. Besides, this couple has nothing at all to earn my attention for that two hours. I was good with them prior to this, but they just revealed enough to damn them along with the rest of the royal twits. Amazingly entitled with a huge lack of self-awareness. Even if there is a net financial gain to having them on the books, it's a bad look to any who aspire to enlightened society. People who are enamored with royalty are fools, the same type of fools who get suckered into cults of any stripe.

Meghan cancels a journalist because he doesn't believe her lies: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9345377/GMBs-Ranvir-Singh-reveals-Piers-Morgans-spot-Susanna-Reid-6-30am.html

Meghan wrote to ITV's boss to complain about Mr Morgan hours before the GMB co-host quit following an on-screen row with weatherman Alex Beresford.

The Duchess of Sussex insists she was not upset that Mr Morgan said he 'didn't believe a word she said' in her Oprah interview - but was worried about how his comments could affect people attempting to deal with their own mental health problems, an insider told the Press Association.

Standing firm today, Mr Morgan told reporters outside his West London home: 'If I have to fall on my sword for expressing an honestly held opinion about Meghan Markle and that diatribe of bilge that she came out with in that interview, so be it.'

On Monday Ms Markle went directly to ITV's CEO Dame Carolyn McCall, the former boss of the left-wing Guardian newspaper, who signed off on the broadcaster's £1million deal to show the Oprah interview and said yesterday they were 'dealing with' the GMB host.

Mr Morgan is understood to have been ordered to apologise - but he refused and quit instead saying he had the right to tell viewers his 'honestly held opinions' and declaring: 'Freedom of speech is a hill I'm happy to die on'.

Common sense. wrote:

Why is the Crown such a popular series? Its reality TV. Its stupid but its kind of interesting.

.

The Crown is a fictionalized drama based on real people. It is in no way Reality TV. The dialogue is written out of whole cloth, it is not a documentary, nor is it reality.

Piers Morgan has just had a growing grudge against her since she ghosted him after having met Harry.

https://twitter.com/truth_well/status/1369326987593080832