News and pics of Harry and Meghan 08/19

[Celia]

So the clothing really *was* hand-me-downs from Archie and not surplus gifts from the public!  Wow.

And the whole "let's sit on the floor so the kids can play" just came off as so awkward and photo-op-y.  Yuck

[Athena]

A pity to carry a beautiful bouquet this way.

It appears to include Chincherinchee from Cape Province, and Protea, the South African national flower.

I hope she appreciated that.

[Victoria38]

They should have thrown the stuff back at her when she said, "We're all in this together". It's beyond patronising, it's down right insulting.

[Ellie]

Meghan had a meeting with Obama Young Leaders from the Obama Foundation, and Michelle Obama posted a nauseating tweet about how Meghan is making the world better and is her friend. Good Lord. PR on overdrive! I wonder if Sunshine Sachs is involved with PR for the Obamas as well.

[SunFlower19]

Re donating old clothes.  I am trying to be mindful that Megan receives a lot of criticism, so I thought how I would react if a different royal did the same, particularly one that I am a fan of.

I wouldn’t have a bad reaction to the act itself, but I do think another royal would not have drawn attention to the donation. I think Megan and Harry are too focused on getting the credit for their good acts, and thus they often need to punctuate each thing they do to ensure it’s covered by the press. 

I’m not surprised that Megan may be feeling insecure, but I am surprised that Harry is.  Harry always appeared down to earth and humbled in his charity work for Sentabale and Invictus games, and should know from that work that one doesn’t have to highlight their good deeds to the press - the press and the public will figure it out. (At the very least, better to leak it to the press than be your own PR person, though even that is questionable if done too much).

I do think they both should put aside their pride and employ professional speech writers or give less speeches. I didn’t mind Megan’s speech the other day (as a sister, WOC, etc.) as a one-off, but generally find that this past year both focus too much on sentences that begin “I know” “I feel” “My ...” “I decided to.. “.   The focus should be on the charity/people at the event. 

TBH, I prefer royals that spend their time at charity events giving the spotlight to those that run or benefit from the charity. I would have loved to hear more from the moms today, or from the charity directors themselves.

As for the seating issue - that should have been discussed and decided prior to the start of the event, out of respect to the attendees and so that the photographers could be set up properly. From the chair set up, it seems it was.  I’m saddened that it will now over shadow the work of the charity in the press coverage.  I am a longtime volunteer with a non profit and have been part of celebrity visits. When a celebrity decides to go off script it can be frustrating as we put so much work and thought into the event, and have spent hours prepping kids for what to expect.  Sometimes the rogue celebrity does something brilliant, but typically we are scrambling with stressed smiles trying to get the visit back on track, or worse, trying to prevent a rule violation or unsafe situation.

[sal89]

Re donating old clothes.  I am trying to be mindful that Megan receives a lot of criticism, so I thought how I would react if a different royal did the same, particularly one that I am a fan of.

I wouldn’t have a bad reaction to the act itself, but I do think another royal would not have drawn attention to the donation. I think Megan and Harry are too focused on getting the credit for their good acts, and thus they often need to punctuate each thing they do to ensure it’s covered by the press. 

I’m not surprised that Megan may be feeling insecure, but I am surprised that Harry is.  Harry always appeared down to earth and humbled in his charity work for Sentabale and Invictus games, and should know from that work that one doesn’t have to highlight their good deeds to the press - the press and the public will figure it out. (At the very least, better to leak it to the press than be your own PR person, though even that is questionable if done too much).

I do think they both should put aside their pride and employ professional speech writers or give less speeches. I didn’t mind Megan’s speech the other day (as a sister, WOC, etc.) as a one-off, but generally find that this past year both focus too much on sentences that begin “I know” “I feel” “My ...” “I decided to.. “.   The focus should be on the charity/people at the event. 

TBH, I prefer royals that spend their time at charity events giving the spotlight to those that run or benefit from the charity. I would have loved to hear more from the moms today, or from the charity directors themselves.

As for the seating issue - that should have been discussed and decided prior to the start of the event, out of respect to the attendees and so that the photographers could be set up properly. From the chair set up, it seems it was.  I’m saddened that it will now over shadow the work of the charity in the press coverage.  I am a longtime volunteer with a non profit and have been part of celebrity visits. When a celebrity decides to go off script it can be frustrating as we put so much work and thought into the event, and have spent hours prepping kids for what to expect.  Sometimes the rogue celebrity does something brilliant, but typically we are scrambling with stressed smiles trying to get the visit back on track, or worse, trying to prevent a rule violation or unsafe situation.

This is a beautifully written and thoughtful comment! 

[Ellie]

I think their problem is besides not listening to anyone on their team, their team is completely incompetent. There are no diplomats from the Foreign Office to help arrange things and to give them briefings on what's going on. On cultural expectations and behavior. Not like they would listen, but they are really shooting themselves in the foot here being so independent - as they would like to call it. To me it is just foolish and rude.

[Ktc]

Re donating old clothes.  I am trying to be mindful that Megan receives a lot of criticism, so I thought how I would react if a different royal did the same, particularly one that I am a fan of.

I wouldn’t have a bad reaction to the act itself, but I do think another royal would not have drawn attention to the donation. I think Megan and Harry are too focused on getting the credit for their good acts, and thus they often need to punctuate each thing they do to ensure it’s covered by the press. 

I’m not surprised that Megan may be feeling insecure, but I am surprised that Harry is.  Harry always appeared down to earth and humbled in his charity work for Sentabale and Invictus games, and should know from that work that one doesn’t have to highlight their good deeds to the press - the press and the public will figure it out. (At the very least, better to leak it to the press than be your own PR person, though even that is questionable if done too much).

I do think they both should put aside their pride and employ professional speech writers or give less speeches. I didn’t mind Megan’s speech the other day (as a sister, WOC, etc.) as a one-off, but generally find that this past year both focus too much on sentences that begin “I know” “I feel” “My ...” “I decided to.. “.   The focus should be on the charity/people at the event. 

TBH, I prefer royals that spend their time at charity events giving the spotlight to those that run or benefit from the charity. I would have loved to hear more from the moms today, or from the charity directors themselves.

As for the seating issue - that should have been discussed and decided prior to the start of the event, out of respect to the attendees and so that the photographers could be set up properly. From the chair set up, it seems it was.  I’m saddened that it will now over shadow the work of the charity in the press coverage.  I am a longtime volunteer with a non profit and have been part of celebrity visits. When a celebrity decides to go off script it can be frustrating as we put so much work and thought into the event, and have spent hours prepping kids for what to expect.  Sometimes the rogue celebrity does something brilliant, but typically we are scrambling with stressed smiles trying to get the visit back on track, or worse, trying to prevent a rule violation or unsafe situation.

We’ve all had someone we’ve just met that’ve just tried to hard too be a friend, and that how she comes off. If she gave clothes privately, or genuinely tried to make connections it’d be different. It seems all for show.
Every charitable thing is leaked by PR but her private life is covered by the tabloids. She wants it both ways but, suprise! That’s not working.

[jolene]

My hope is that Archie comes out fine with those two as parents since it doesn't seem he'll have much interaction with the Cambs or Phillips/Tindall group.

[Ktc]

she doesn’t seem like she wants to acclimate herself even a little bit. It’s become a whole circus and it’s wearing a bit thin.

[Hester]

He is indeed a cutie

I don’t find him cute at all. A very plain baby.

[Hester]

Archie looks so much like Harry as a baby. Hes a cutie.

I think he resembles Thomas Markle.

[Chandrasekhi]

Megan assumed that all the women would feel comfortable sitting on the floor.  That really hit home to me the importance of the Royal Family's experienced staff, who do the research and advising before royal tours.  If the women were told to expect a very casual visit and Megan would be playing on the floor with the children, fine. IF the women dressed up for an important occasion and were asked to sit on the floor - blunder.  What are the customs in South Africa?  Do teachers sit on the floor with kids in child care centers? Do parents?  All of these details have to be worked out in advance, I assume.  

Except for the excessively high levels of violence perpetrated against them South African mothers are no different from other mothers the world over: we also play with our kids. The details were in all likelihood worked out in advance but Meghan went off-piste. The optics are so "Madam & Eve", it's frightening, and in South Africa, nogal. Historically, (and in large measure today), huge numbers of especially Black mothers were/are domestic workers, spending a lot of time on their hands and knees, scrubbing floors and generally cleaning up after others to eke a living that, more often that not, is not a minimum wage, let alone a living wage-paying job.

"Hey, Meghan: **knock, knock**: anybody home?  The dominant patriarchal society no doubt contributes to the high levels of violence against women and children, you invested so much effort in highlighting. So you are now issuing these women with more instructions for your comfort? How very patronizing and patriarchal of you!"

A Razzie for you, Madam Meghan. And here you thought you couldn't possibly have anything in common with your President. .

**edit: another lesson in  South African history, Ignorant Sussexes: bragging about the bag of hand-me-downs (even of the progeny of the Second Coming) is not only appalling etiquette but echoes of a  relic of apartheid where Madams would give hand-me-downs of their much-loved children to their maids in lieu of a decent wage.  Now is probably a good time to be grateful for little mercies: at least Madam Meghan did not hand out half-filled bottles of award-winning wines to the mothers given the prevalence of foetal alcohol syndrome in the Western Cape related to the apartheid era practice of wine in lieu of/to top of slave wages on vineyards. For the history lesson, you are most welcome, my self-proclaimed WoC Sista.

[PruNordstrom]

I've never had a baby so I don't know, but I thought you couldn't get pregnant if you were breast feeding? Is that true?

Thse are some replies with posters names omitted:

"It’s an old wives tale. If you have unprotected sex and you’re not on actual birth control, you might be getting pregnant.
That’s where Irish Twins comes from."

"Very much not true. Many "Irish twins" came about that way."

I'm asking that RDers to not use this phrase because it has been used to denigrate cultural and religious beliefs. Aside from the obvious reference to the Irish people, it is also used to imply that certain religions (catholicism in the Irish reference), fundamental christian and islamic sects, and nativism beliefs are inferior to other more mainstream/popular versions of particular religions.
  
I understand the science behind the caution, and I think most RDers do, however we shouldn't look down on the cultural and religious beliefs of others no matter what we think we know about the science of conceiving. I've lived in a very large metropolitan area and have learned about multiple cultural attitudes towards yearly pregnancies over time. It was a revelation in the outlook, beliefs and acceptance of the caprice of conception. Let's not label that with a derogatory reference.

We are better than that aren't we?

IMHO ~Pru

[Harley]

In Danish, it’s called Pseudo Twins. Does that expression work in English as well?