Prince Harry was spotted arriving at Meghan Markle‘s home in Toronto on Wednesday night.
Prince Harry secretly visits Meghan Markle in Toronto ahead of Easter: https://t.co/vxfPQWVVUE pic.twitter.com/c9poz1Kv7Q
— E! News (@enews) April 13, 2017
E Online has photos of Harry arriving at Meghan’s home on Wednesday night with a large duffel bag and wearing a baseball at. You can view the photos here.
This is Harry’s third vacation of the year that we know of. There have been two vacations we have photo evidence of, Jamaica and now Toronto, and one the press told us about but don’t have photo evidence of, Norway. Harry has now taken more vacations, that we know of, so far this year than both William and Kate combined (William did one that we have photo evidence of, and Kate did one that we were told about but have no photo evidence of).
There isn’t much else to say about these photos, so I’m including a few others from Harry’s April 7 Invictus event at the University of Bath.
I also want to say that I finally got around to reading Harry’s full speech about landmines from April 4 and I love the shade he throws at professional athlete’s salaries: “It would take just an additional £100m each year until 2025 – the cost of a star signing for some professional football teams – to clear the world’s most affected countries of landmines.” Basically, if eight professional athletes donated their salaries then the world would be clear of landmines.
I find it weird Harry won’t show up for Easter with his own family. I criticize William for not going to church on a high holy day like Easter, which is FAR more important than Christmas, so I’ll throw it at Harry, too. Easter is time to be with your family. Better than him rushing off to an ex when he has children on Easter, though, but still. I hope he has a lovely time with Meghan (snort I’m sure they’ll never leave!).
If the royals work I don’t much care if they vacation but I wish he worked more. When he does, as evidenced by the IG trials and the landmine event, he shines and can do a world of good. Imagine if he worked as much as his dad! Come on Harry. You have so much to give, you know it, so damn well do it. (The same stuff I level at William, but William lacks charisma, drive, and compassion, three things Harry has. Oh, and a sense of duty/obligation, but I wish Harry had it all the time. like his dad.)
Editing to add: Not only does this keep him away from family on a day so important to HM and the church he is a member of, it keeps his security away from their families on Easter. I know, the UK is not nearly as religious a country as the US so it may not be a big deal at all to his security team but it’s not like he can jet off without at least one RPO, right? They’re followed 24/7, am I correct? so this puts his RPOs away from family too on a holiday. I don’t like it, though perhaps the RPOs choose so those who went with him don’t care about the holiday or whatever…
The Wales family doesn’t really celebrate Easter with the Queen. They all seem to do their own stuff tbh, Charles is usually at Birkhall. In their married years Kate and Will spent Easter with him once. Harry has spent it in Botswana, on base and elsewhere.
I agree. Usually we see the Earl Countess Wessex, the York princesses with HM and PP at Easter Service, but all should be required to appear like Christmas service.
I also don’t consider Prince Harry’s trips to what is now his semi home a vacation. Meghan seem close to becoming the Prince spouse, and is busy working – comittments/obligations – do the same by traveling to Prince’s palace home, This is a temporary necessary part of their private home life .
As we are often told, each family member is able to set his/her own agenda according to how they perceive their obligation, or if they see one at all. I wasn’t aware that Easter was big for the BRF. It should be since it’s the premier event on the Christian calendar, and QEII being head of the CoE.
Since there is no accountability of any sort – of money spent and how, the definition of ‘work’ and how much is done – we shouldn’t be surprised that it is sporadic, undemanding, with months of personal time for the majority of the year. And that means shopping, holidaying, eating cheese on toast in front of the TV, going to Africa or Toronto at Easter or whenever.
Harry throwing shade on athletes’ massive salaries? Given he and his family suck up over 300 million pounds of public money each and every year (and with a hefty increase being recently passed by Parliament) that statement is totally hypocritical. THEY could take a hit and get rid of landmines. At least the athletes earn their money through ability and hard work. I’m reminded that Harry and William wanted others to donate money for a stature of THEIR mother, ffs. They never seem to be able to dip into their own pockets.
Jen, we should know by now that after The Queen; Charles, William, Kate and possibly Harry aren’t as religious as The Queen who lives her life for God.
I think we Europeans still celebrate easter with the necessary seriousness.With the british royals, it’s a family cause and really strange.This whole royal family falls apart when William is king, Harry will do his own thing.
Re the RPO’s. Now I’m not married to one but I am married to an armed officer who knows several people who have held similar posts in London. These jobs don’t necessarily attract people with families, whilst the perks for the individual are amazing it also plays havoc with any sort of routine – when my own husband is absent for about a month each year it’s very difficult.
The point I’m trying to make is about degrees of risk. Those who do volunteer for the role don’t usually remain in post for too long (they usually rotate back to the services they seconded from and are in high demand as trainers and educators due to the special skill sets they have gained). You don’t want your RPO getting complacent, or overly comfortable with a high risk target! But for the families of those RPO’s in Canada with Harry right now this will be a good time. Their loved one is in as safe a location and country as you could wish, the ‘target’ isn’t out and about in public or on duty and things are quiet. A much worse scenario would be Harry on tour in whatever today’s modern equivalent of Northern Ireland is. And even then, if something were to happen the first instinct is to secure the target and get him to safety.
So no, none of the RPO’s will be bothered about not spending Easter with their families. It’s exceedingly rare that I see my own husband over any of the major holidays (he’s missed two Christmas’s in two years and is working tomorrow). It’s part of the job and you get used to it, the job is always first and I hope Harry knows and appreciates how highly trained and professional (most of!) these guys are and how they will always put him first, even over their own lives.
The whole “not being home for *insert holiday*” thing comes with the territory. Anyone who goes into a career that involves shift work knows it. And their families will just have to deal with it. Boyfriend and I both work shift work. So does his brother. Half my cousins do too. My uncle did too before he retired. It’s the norm for our family. Holidays don’t need to be on the day. As a family, we get together on a day when we can all get together to celebrate the holiday. So our Christmas might not actually be in December 25 (or whatever other holiday), big deal. It doesn’t mean that we don’t celebrate it. I’m sure the RPO’s families all have their ways to deal with it. And a total side perk, working a stat holiday means holiday pay PLUS extra time off in lieu. May differ from department to department though. Boyfriend and I sometimes volunteer to work the holiday.
Working holidays always means more money here. The RPOs might hate being dragged across the world for these royals’ whims, but if the work days fall on UK public holidays, they get more money.
Holiday pay is awesome! I’m curious about how the RPOs land this assignment. Do they volunteer/apply for it? Or are they told “you’re now protecting so and so royal”? I think it’d make a difference in their attitude and the attitudes of their families.
Replying to Miss K (but it may appear elsewhere!) The RPO’s will apply and get the posts much the same way any of us gets a job, a mixture of experience, skill-set and being in the right location, in this case London. The only difference is they recruit from a very small pool of applicants, mainly Police, and of them only an increasingly smaller pool will have the training and experience necessary for the role. (For example, my hubby can storm a hijacked building, but he hasn’t had any evasive driving training so wouldn’t qualify). Although I say it’s mostly Police many people who may be potential RPO’s have military or intelligence backgrounds and I’d say it was unlikely that the RPO’s have ‘just’ been Police Officers their entire career. As for where these things are advertised I’ve no idea! And yes, coming from an ex-military or otherwise background these guys won’t ever have worked the 9-5 with weekends off. It’s highly unlikely they will be told to apply, people with those skills may have to do so temporarily whilst a successful applicant receives refresher training but they will be volunteers. It’s a very cushy number for the most part, although I’d struggle with it as I’d want to smack William and certainly wouldn’t pass the vetting procedures!
So, Harry doesn’t have a job but he does have a lot of someone’s money and time. Must be nice.
As for the shade at athletes- he’s one to talk. Look in the mirror, hun.
I agree. I didn’t like that shade. It’s a super large salary, but at least the athletes earn their money.
I can’t say that William and Kate have earned the millions of dollars they have spent on renovations alone.
As ridiculously absurd as the salaries are, financially it makes sense. If the athlete, or actor in a film, is the draw and making the franchise 1 billion dollars, then 100 million for that performer is appropriate.
ETA: It annoys me, though, when people make a ton of money and then ask their fans to donate to some cause without stating how much they themselves have donated. The same for royals. They are asking people to donate by promoting charities when they live in extreme luxury. I’m not saying living in extreme luxury is a bad thing, but it bothers me when super rich people ask non-rich people to donate money to stuff.
Exactly. I mentioned above Harry and William asking people to donate money for a statue of their mother. Did they donate any of their own money towards it? And for all the hype about her work, Diana left nothing to charity.
http://www.petertatchell.net/celebrities/princess_diana.htm
I really took issue with W&H fundraising for that Diana statue. They both have enough money to fund it themselves if they wanted a statue of their mom at KP.
Wow! I had no idea Diana left nothing to charity. Didnt her family change the money she left for her godchildren to a trinket or gift?
To be fair to Diana, she died a few months after receiving 99% of her wealth from her divorce settlement.
The royals, like soldiers sent to wars, have to make their wills ahead of travel to dangerous places and her will was clearly written before she had thought out what to do with her settlement.
If you read it, it’s very simple for that reason.
All her friends said she was discussing big decisions to be made in September after that last holiday which presumably would have included what to do with all that money.
People forget that despite coming from a wealthy family, Diana wasn’t rich in her own right. Her father bought her a flat and a car and gave her an allowance, but that’s not the same as independent wealth whereby she could use her allowance to purchase her own house or buy art or jewels or endless vacationing etc.
This is the fate of many aristo daughters and male siblings who are not the heir.
The heir of the family receives the bulk of the family wealth, if not it’s entirety, and the siblings are left scrambling for whatever the father or brother chooses to give them.
Diana did inherit some money from her grandmother and later from her mother, but it still wasn’t a huge sum that everyone imagines.
At her death she was worth about £21M. £17M of that came from her divorce settlement which she insisted on receiving in cash rather than art, jewels, houses or stocks.
She had the use of KP, but it wasn’t Charles’s decision to keep her there. If HM had made her pay full rent like other royals, would she have stayed there?
She died before making any big decisions on her newly acquired wealth including how to invest it, perhaps buy herself a house in the country etc. It was just a lump of cash sitting in a bank vault, metaphorically speaking, waiting for her to get back from her summer of love holidays to make decisions.
Her executors decided to hand the cash and everything else to her sons despite her wish to give a few things to other people. No carving out anything to anyone else. They overrode her will giving trinkets to godchildren. The fact that she could only give them trinkets speaks to her relative lack of personal wealth despite living a life of luxury.
We shall never know how she would have handled her new wealth.
Further to the executors, they probably thought that the diana memorial fund would take care of any charity expectations therefore didn’t have to carve out any charity donations in her will.
Sadly, the memorial fund mishandled that money and were always in trouble for using the funds for things like suing some company in America for using Diana’s likeness for their products because they were planning their own range of Diana merchandising.
The fund eventually went to the royal foundation together with any monies still held by the it.
William and Harry are now responsible for any lack of funds to charity in their mother’s name.
They have the money to fund it, but I think there are still determined Diana fans out there who want to contribute. In some ways, those people might feel “left out” if that option wasn’t on the table. Some are so far gone, they’ll plunk down their money and feel vindicated for donating money for something they think hurts C&C.
Thank you Herazeus, for that explanation on Diana’s will. I always wondered.
I agree – it’s a gross use of the royal family status for fundraising- after coming from aristocrat royal families. I see this as more whiny bill chutney and carol middelton enablers to Willnot.
Another case Prince Harry is used attached to the classless common party tat’ish middeltons plans. Creepy and should be at her family home.
It drives me nuts when celebrities ask for donations but don’t donate themselves. They think just giving their facetime is enough. It is super easy to ask others to donate their money, but not so easy for the super wealthy to donate their own. Personally, I think that comment was not a smart one by Harry. He has never had to earn money in his life and lives off others, yet he has the gall to criticize others for accepting the ridiculous amount of money people are willing to pay them? A bit hypocritical.
I think this too, Overit. How can someone so rich and so financial-carefree can ask people who are clearly (most of them) poorer than him? For us normal people it means something totally different to give money, even if they would like to do it.
The people or countries who placed these landmines should feel responsible for this danger.
Don’t get me wrong, I think everyone with the right mind would help to clear the lands off those mines, I just don’t understand why no governance takes some money and specialists and just do it.
I don’t expect celebrities to announce all their charitable givings. But I do love when people like chance the rapper just drops a million for Chicago public schools! because I thibk it’ll help other people give.
I also don’t blindly believe the William donates his salary to charity. Nothing in William’s countenance says he would do any such thing. Unless he’s donating it right back to EAAA and doesn’t want anyone to know that.
Overit:
“…Harry. He has never had to earn money in his life”
Didn’t he get paid a salary/ wage when he was in the Army?
Harry didn’t have to live off that salary, though. If he had, he wouldn’t have been able to afford his lifestyle.
We hear Charles and HM have donated money to charities–Charles a lot–but nothing from W&H.
If I had that kind of money I would not just do the work and visit but I’d donate money, too. Or use my money to build up charities, ie Charles.
I agree with what Harry said, honestly, but I think anything royals say will show up as hypocritical due to the fact they’re, well, royal and wealthy beyond belief. For all Diana did with landmines she never gave her own money either.
They’re “wealthy beyond belief” only, only, only because of the public forced, via taxation, to prop them up.
And those age-old investment portfolios which I don’t judge them for, that’s how loads of people make money (including folks in my family).
We’re told William is donating his EAAA salary. Allegedly.
W&K donated 5,000 to Welsh flood relief, right after the big public bashing they received for the Mustique vs. Africa with Jecca, and Maldives vacations.
As to what Diana gave monetarily to her charities- in our church donation comes in the form of time, talent and treasure. They are all valuable and some people are equipped to give all 3 while others only 1, but for those who can’t afford to write big cheques, the donation of their time or talent is just as equal. I don’t believe very rich people need to throw muy dollars at their causes- can’t all be Warren Buffet- but lending their face or voice to raise something’s profile is very worthy too.
Ray, I agree with your point. Diana’s work raised so much for charity. Would any of us even think of the horror of land mines if not for her? We should remember she was under no obligation to do royal work at all, which the BRF would probably have preferred.
And we all should remember that our ideas about personal wealth are relative.
It bothers me unless they’ve already given large contributions themselves.
In the meantime – the daggars are out on the shady offshore hedge dealings business of pipa carol meddleton – matthews money grab.
Whiny willnot is more and more common/ entitled with the meddeltons.
Yes, this message was a bit tone deaf. It was even worse for Harry to call out athletes because they worked hard for their salaries, whereas Harry was born into wealth. Sell a few paintings and jewels. Unload one of the many superfluous castles and problem solved!
…I may be mistaken, it’s not their castles to sell.
True, but the Royals are quite wealthy–they’re as capable of donating huge sums of cash as any well-paid athlete.
Balmoral and Sandringham are privately owned.
Ah, but are they secured and staffed with private money or taxpayer? We may never know.
I agree with most finding issue – if some become fully open to visitors/Tourist, would earn their maintenance other,instead of millions allotted from the poor and needy,medical, etc.
My sentiments exactly! I think athletes salaries are ridiculous but at least they’re doing a job that they excel at. Not one based off hereditary rule. How much does he get for being “a working Royal”?
Pot meet kettle
I really think there is no shade being cast, Harry is merely placing the cost in a context to make it relateable. It’s a little like some say things like the cost of a Mars Bar could vaccinate a child in the developing world, I think he’s simply placing the cost in context, nothing more. As for making a donation himself, that must surely be a personal matter.
I was thinking the same thing Daisy1000. If you think of all the landmines in the world and getting rid of them it seems like a task that was too big and it wouldn’t be ever completed. But if you put it in terms like Harry did then it makes it sound like it is possible and it can be done!
For me, harry’s relationship with Meghan has brought to light just how many vacations he takes.
I really feel like he needs to get a job. When he left the army, I was under the impression he would find a job working with veterans. If we criticise will and Kate for their lack of work ethic it is only fair to hold harry to the same standard.
Yeah, when Harry left the army we were told he would be getting another job in 2016 after spending time in Africa in summer 2015 and volunteering in fall 2015. But then 2016 came and went and no new job for Harry.
What sort of job would Harry do? He’s retired from active duty. Has he been released totally from the army? Do you think he would take a military desk job? He is not qualified for anything else but a figurehead position, since he hasn’t any post secondary education. I guess I’m just wondering what other job opportunities there are and have been historically for someone in his position. Look how people grouse when he misses any royal family event. Hard to have a job, carry out his charitable commitments with all the travel and whatnot, and also be present for every function he could possibly attend with the Queen/King. I’m not being snarky, I truly wonder what his job options are. I do think he needs to have something. He’d actually be more suited to his brother’s job! And he’s a pilot, they wouldn’t have needed a special heli with “training wheels”!
Maybe Harry needed to see a jobs counsellor. Harry has endless resources at his fingertips, to help him juggle the obligations of his life, and yet we treat him as if being a prince leaves him with no options at all.
If Harry actually wanted a job, he would have one by now.
I do think it’s hard to find Harry a job because as you mention he has no post secondary education so a lot of jobs he isn’t qualified for. Helicopter pilot is always an option, but I always thought based on his interview during his second tour of Afghanistan he didn’t actually really want to be doing that, he did it more because he wanted to see active duty and that was the only way they would let him.
Ever since he did that stint with the UK Rubicon charity (think that is what it is called) in Nepal, I always thought that would be a perfect job for him. It’s outdoors. He’d be active and working with his hands. And it’s comprised of veterans, which also would fit with him. It’d give him the ability to travel, which he seems to like. They also were helping to rebuild communities affecting by flooding in the UK. That would be great PR! I know nothing else about this charity, so I’m not even sure it’s possible, but if it is I thought it would be a great fit for him.
I also think getting an actual job with the recovery unit would be another great fit for him.
But like mentioned above, I think the issue is not that he can’t find a job, but that he doesn’t want to have a job. Jobs require you to be in the same place at the same time consistently. I don’t think Harry wants that. I think he wants the freedom to be able to go wherever he wants whenever he wants.
I think you’re right about that. The polar opposite of his brother in personality but very much the same in how they think
There is no urgency for Harry to get a job because ‘his’ money – courtesy of Charles but really the UK taxpayer – comes with absolutely no demands or accountability. Harry chooses what he does and that, so far, has been dabbling in things that interest him. He has ability and charm to enthuse a crowd BUT he is using that to obfuscate his lack of ongoing, full-time work of some kind. Flip the thinking: his life is a vacation, with some engagements and causes inserted here and there.
To me, the idea of a vacation is a moot point. The royals live their lives in idle bliss because they don’t have to work.
Is this a vacation? No, it’s a lifestyle. Like Jen said work is only a short interruption in their life of indolent spending, self absorption thanks to tax payers who do work. (Thank goodness, for those pesky, albeit useful, plebs.)
Yes, you’re right; it is a conscious choice to live like an unemployed celebrity. As Patricia said down thread, when you add up the numbers, the royals don’t contribute much. Yet ‘ordinary’ people do far, far more at the coalface, without any acknowledgement. I don’t begrudge sportspeople their money: they have demonstrated skill and hard work to the point where their market value is judged at a certain level. There is also a limited time frame for an athlete to peak and earn the megabucks.
Oops, it was Ann who made reference to the level of charity performed by the very wealthy.
For this reason my opinion of Harry was starting to change. Now the press reports their whereabouts more often confirming just how often he vacations.
I truly now think Harry and William are no different. The only difference is that Harry does a better job on engagements and knows how to play the PR game better. If you take away the public’s weird need to see Diana’s spirit reincarnated, you’d be absolutely underwhelmed with Harry, who really is an unemployed 32 year old who dabbles in charity work when he wants.
+1
If Meghan was in the UK, and these trips…then we could call this a vacation. It’s hard having a meaningful healthy relationship (and before marriage), separated by thousands of miles in a high profile public pressure – one or each in turn will need to followthe other if committed. If he fails to make trips the story will become, Meghan is chasing…and, Prince Harry have work with his Invictus Games.
We only notice Prince Harry Meghan change in homes, because we hope for more from both than the dissatification that is lazy entitled willnot cannot middeltons.
I agree 100%. I couldn’t have said it better.
I think Harry also has such lower expectations from people (in part because he is not 2nd in line and in part because he had such PR disasters for awhile) that people think he’s doing great when he does slightly more than the bare minimum.
Carter, your last sentence is especially poignant. With any number of resources at his fingertips, he is able to do whatever he wants.
Why did Harry leave the army? That seemed like the perfect job for him. I believe commenters previously said he had advanced as far as he could, that he could only do desk jobs from now on. I dont understand that. Are there rmilitary reserves he could have joined? Was he not qualified to advance (my suspicion)?
He has dyslexia. The next stage or rungs of his army career would have involved alot of desk work and paper pushing rather than active service. His army career flourished because he wasn’t doing paperwork.
He could always join the TA, but i think that was headed up by the recently deceased 6th duke of Westminster. Not sure if the 7th duke is interested, so that might be an option.
That would be a great idea. New Duke doesn’t seem as Army-focused. The TA would then have Royal patronage and give Harry something to do.
What is the TA?
Territorial Army (Britain’s Army Reserve)
What JET Texas said
If he wanted to remain a helo pilot, but that wasn’t an option, than a desk job was it. From what we’ve seen of his military service, he wasn’t someone who would thrive driving a desk.
He talked at the time of having many colleagues from the service who quit around the 10 year mark as well. They’d enjoyed their service but it was time to move on.
In the interview he gave on his New Zealand tour in 2015, he basically said that from here on out if he were to stay in the military his responsibilities would be increasing and he felt like he couldn’t give his all to the military and be able to do royal duties as well. Then he said he was looking for a job as a civilian because he and his brother feel it’s important to earn a wage to stay grounded. The next year during the lead up to invictus in Orlando he said in interviews that he couldn’t get a job because most jobs “were not going to work” combined with royal duties and other jobs were “not even on the table”. But that he had projects and ideas in the woodwork. I’m not sure what those are now that we are a year out from that. I guess he meant the heads together campaign.
The flexibility of 2-3 days a week volunteering at the rehab works for him. If he wants to continue in that, it needs to be made official so people accept it is really happening. But he’d still have to put royal duties ahead of that, so being hired on a regular shift as a rehab assistant wouldn’t work.
Yeah, and he couldn’t and shouldn’t be paid if he had a real job. We know William pocketed his RAF salary and pockets his EAA salary.
It’s a conundrum where I don’t feel Harry can ever win. Charles had this problem, too, and made his choice: use his pension to start a charitable organization and do something with himself and his life and position. Harry needs to do this. He has in some form with Sentebale and Invictus, which is where I see him very different from his brother who has done absolutely NOTHING.
Jen,
The mavens of royalty here know best but as I understand it, this charity shtick is pretty recent, to justify the millions to support them and to maintain their importance. In effect, to get paid big bucks for charity appearances.
But haven’t Harry’s royal engagement numbers been the lowest of everyone’s since leaving the army? So what was/is the dilemma of taking up full-time work? He’d do even less?
The Heads Together campaign has not developed; the trio are clearly not progressing it. Invictus takes up time but a professional team does the ongoing work. Harry is flitting from this to that, obfuscating the lack of full-time hours. To me, seeing his gf is a separate issue, his choice and his business alone. No-one should dictate who another loves or might marry. That said, all costs for personal trips should be borne personally (including security).
A PR juggernaut holds the BRF together; it is overblown, claiming these people work tirelessly for charity, are so passionate, so keen, are a cut above everyone. They most definitely are not, but PR keeps the status quo. Nota, down thread, provided a list that included some drop-kicks wanting a free ride in life. Against all common sense, we are supposed to revere them as they stumble around with their sub-par efforts. When the cracks inevitably reveal ordinary people with feet of clay, why are we surprised?
And to add insult to injury, they are getting *paid* to do charity. How can one not see the absurdity in this?
Clearly not, Maven. That salient point is buried under mountains of PR. Didn’t the charity work become a fixture of royal activity only a couple of generations ago and for self-serving reasons eg retaining privilege and status?
What flabbergasts me is how some of the royals’ PR people–specifically Jason Knauf, Amy Pickerill and Rebecca Deacon–are so liberal in their politics and beliefs, yet continue to promote these extremely average, lazy, vapid individuals as worthy of praise, adulation and a tax-payer supported, beyond-belief luxurious lifestyle. How can anyone claim to be for economic and social equality for all and then turn around and create stories, conceal the truth, and even lie openly all in an effort to preserve, protect and promote the positions of these royals? Maybe it’s because I’m an American that I just can’t understand it. (And sorry, don’t mean this comment to start a political conversation.)
I can only assume that each thinks it’s a good career move. It’s a stretch from serious corporate/government spheres to numptie fluff. I’m not aware of their individual liberal leanings. How do you turn it off to enable undeserved privilege?
Knauf clearly can’t influence his out-of-control clients; he looks bad and that’s going to follow him if he wants to get back into serious work. Trouble is, it calls into question whether he was effective in previous roles or whether he had competent staff who cleaned up the mess.
I doubt that they are liberal because they have a ‘me first’ attitude. I was just reading about a politico in the US who just loves the challenge, nothing more. This is a person without conviction.
I do think it is easy to be a soul seller when you don’t stand for much.
To be honest, I went on more vacations than him and I am just a ordinary working woman with a husband and kids and a full time job. As far as I can see he only took a weekend here and there, not weeks.
I don’t feel visiting his girlfriend is a vacation. They have a long-distance relationship and at some point it’s his turn to visit. If she’d live up north say in York, would a long weekend there over Easter also be branded as a vacation?
I think long distance travel to see a boyfriend or girlfriend is considered a vacation. My friend’s employee took several days off work plus a weekend to go visit her boyfriend in a different state, and me, my friend, and his employee all called it a vacation. Maybe it’s different for Harry since he doesn’t have a proper job and most of his life would be considered a vacation, but if you’re taking off of work to go out of your city to visit an SO then yes it’s a vacation. I would especially consider overseas travel not related to work to be a vacation.
Visiting a girlfriend across an ocean sounds like a vacation to us plebs, the ‘normal’ ones. For the well heeled it’s not a big deal- which just goes to show that a guy with no job and a lot of money, from the perspective of us plebs, is on permanent vacation.
I don’t care if he goes to Toronto every weekend if he 100% pays his way and also that of his RPO(s). The taxpayer should not be burdened with paying for Harry’s (or anyone’s) personal activities. If there is no demostrable return to the taxpayer, it should be a personal expense.
When in Canada the RCMP also provide security. At least that’s what was said in articles about his last visit.
Again, the Canadian taxpayer should not be burdened with the cost of rumpy pumpy. Happy for the couple, though!
I am happy that Harry is visiting Meghan and not making Meghan visit him all the time. Especially since she’s working right now and she spent so much time at KP earlier this year. It’s nice to see him actually visit her.
Do we know this is not a personal expense? I don’t understand why we are assuming any taxpayer is paying for any of his visits to his significant other. Is there any evidence of this?
The taxpayers always pay for the RPOs travel and accommodations, I believe.
Plus police from the country they are in have services from local needs diverted to protect royals. That’s a cost too.
I’m with you Tete. Most people have a long weekend over Easter and if he flew to Scotland I wouldn’t call it a holiday, so visiting his future wife isn’t a holiday. Employees in the UK often get 25 days plus 8 statutory days so we view these things a little differently than in the US.
His RPOs would be working wherever he was, they will get generous time off in lieu. It comes with the territory to follow the Royal.
Harry is a grown man I do not see him being away from family he doesn’t live with as anything similar to William leaving his wife and kids at Easter. Neither is Harry future Head of the Chirch.
It may be a US v UK thing. Most people I know who travel over Easter call it a vacation, even if it’s just the weekend. I’ve also never known anyone to travel overseas not related to work and not call it a vacation, no matter how long it was. I agree that Harry traveling over Easter isn’t the same as William going to Jecca’s wedding over Easter or even a big deal since Harry doesn’t seem to celebrate Easter, but I would still call his travel a vacation. Especially if William’s and Kate’s ski trips were considered vacations even though they were shorter than what Harry’s trip will most likely be. It’s all overseas travel not related to work.
So if he visited his girlfriend in Bristol would that be a vacation? I wouldn’t call it that. When I lived in the UK and visited my fiancé working in New York every time I could afford it I didn’t call it a vacation. We’ll agree to disagree in this one.
I would call overseas visiting of an SO a vacation. If one lived in London and took time off work to go visit an SO in Bristol, then I would call that a vacation. Like I said above, maybe it’s different for Harry since he doesn’t work a proper job. Anyway, agree to disagree.
Americans have a different definition of vacation to us Brits.
Also, we seem to have more time off than they do. As an example, Easter weekend is 4 days off ( good friday, sat/sun and Easter money) What to do with those days. And 2 weeks later we shall have a bank holiday meaning 3 days off. And 4weeks after that another bank holiday meaning another 3 days off.
The cheapness and ease of travel means it’s not a big deal to go to Europe and some far flung destinations that doesn’t involve the planning required for an official holiday. The fact that i can visit my brother in Norway for the day (leave in the morning and return same day last flight back) or a cousin in France for lunch without losing work, time or money, means i see them more than they would like me to.
Yet my spending the day with my brother/cousin or his visiting me would be judged a vacation by Americans.
ETA: one of my friends commutes from Sweden to Denmark for work with a few days a month in London.
In the US, some people get Good Friday off but not everyone. Loads of people don’t get any time off around the Easter weekend – I never have. So to me it’s just a normal weekend; there are no extra days off.
I am so jealous of being able to go to Norway for the day or Paris for lunch!!
Any extended period away from work, not the typical weekend, whether it’s 4 days or 14 is a vacation in my opinion. You can travel or stay home but if you aren’t working for more time off than normal it’s a vacation. A mini vacation is still a vacation
I agree. I would also say that any overseas travel, even if it’s just the weekend, is a vacation. I’m in Florida, if I went to the Bahamas for a weekend – leaving on Friday night or Sat morning and coming back on Sun night – I would call that a vacation. I’d make the distinction of a mini or weekend vacation, but I’d call it a vacation.
I agree. I also think peeps are arguing semantics becuase he’s visisiting his gf means it’s not on vacay? Why? It’s not work. In my mind any trip not work related, regardless of who your’re visiting or what you’re doing is a holiday.
I go home to ok. Not the most exotic of locales but my family is there, it’s still a trip which = vacay. The way my shift work is I can take 4 days off w/out taking 4 days off-still vacay tho if I go somewhere
I’m assuming this is another holiday William is off too, his coworkers are probably counting the days they can say good riddance
People are arguing semantics because of the negative connotation attached to the word “vacation.” I mean the argument is kind of ridiculous given the fact that we’re talking about a bunch of people that don’t actually have jobs, but whatever lol. Anyway, I work Monday-Friday and have never thought of my Saturday and Sunday off as a “vacation” because it isn’t. The weekend is off time, not matter how I spend it.
I’m an American and I’m with Tete and Birdy on this one. I don’t call visiting a girlfriend/boyfriend for a weekend a vacation. I also don’t think when you’re in your 30’s that you need to spend the Easter holiday with your family – a long-term girlfriend is family at that point. So I don’t have a problem with this trip. As KMR says, agree to disagree!
Harry is in a relationship with someone from another country, like Willem-Alexander, Fred, Joachim, Margrethe, and Beatrix all were. To put forth the effort, that means you go to their home sometimes too. If he never visited her but she only visited London, I’d find that disrespectful.
Now we are in a 24/7 news cycle where everyone has the ability to be a pap. Because of social media, it is out there and discussed more than ever. When W&K were dating, one year they took 10 vacations in a single year. Not weekends away, but full-on off to Mustique, France, Switzerland, wherever. It was far less criticized because people 1) didn’t have immediate access to the info and 2) social media wasn’t what it is today.
I don’t think he should be required to marry someone from the UK, when that requirement wasn’t put on anyone else in the family. He needs to be careful with this, but I don’t think he should stop seeing the person he’s in a relationship with just because she lives in another country.
I remember WK’s vacation. Ten days or a fortnight at a time which works out as ten days/fortnight every month.
One time, Kate spent ten days away with her family in Mustique, arrived back in London and the next day flew back out with William for ten days!!!
She really should have married some unknown rich man, nobody would care about such life-style (although I don’t like it either). What I think is, once she got to know William, she couldn’t let the oppurtunity slip to win him over.Maybe she wanted to make her mother proud, who knows. I think she always liked William but it’s obvious that the Middleton girls have a great “liking” for those with money and status.
Geez… ten vacations in a year? That you know of? No wonder they are so put out about having to work. They’d be too exhausted from the vacations.
I don’t think he should stop seeing her because she doesn’t live in the UK either. What he does need to do though is work more when he is in the UK. No one would begrudge him a trip to Toronto if he worked full time. As of right now, he puts in a couple engagements then disappears. Now because of social media coupled with interest in Harry and Meghan’s whereabouts we are much more aware of where he is going.
Prince Harry, HM POW need to sort his relation/residence soon. PH do have his Royal duties as priorities before personal trips/life. Something whiny and chutney ignore.q
I’m with you. I hate to quibble, but since the word “vacation” is used here in a critical context, then we should be fair about how we apply it. He’s travelling to spend a long weekend with his girlfriend. And it’s a holiday weekend in the UK (bank holiday today and on Monday), so he wouldn’t be “working” anyway.
But he arrived in Toronto on Wednesday apparently. So if he worked in a job he would have had to take 2 days off work at least for this trip. That’s assuming that he returns to the UK on Monday. Which obviously I’m not his travel agent so I am not sure when he plans to return.
Alright, let’s quibble lol!
Yes, he arrived Wed night, which means he would have to take two whole days off ahead of the holiday weekend if he had a job (he doesn’t but we’ll roll with it.)
He appears to have arrived late Wednesday evening, which means he would have left Wednesday evening from London. One day off of work, which I’m sure many others facing the 4 day Easter weekend did too.
Carter, Friday and Monday is a holiday for everyone in the UK.
Therefore if he had a regular job, he would have taken off only Thursday.
When I was growing up we got a 4 day weekend for Memorial Day and always traveled out of state to visit my grandparents. I always called that a vacation. No, we weren’t taking time off that wasn’t already given and we were just traveling to spend time with my grandparents, but since we traveled long distance we always considered it a vacation. So I would consider this trip of Harry’s to be a vacation. Anyway, agree to disagree.
In the end it’s your blog and you frame your content to suit your preferences, which is as it should be!
But I just want to clarify my point. Here at KMR, “vacation” is framed in opposition to work. As in, “William is off skiing in Verbier when he should be working.”
“Vacation” isn’t used here as a synonym for travel or holiday – it’s an accusation of absenteeism, and I just don’t think that connotation fits when we’re talking about a long holiday weekend trip (in which even lowly commoners like you and I would be off the clock) or even his trip to Jamaica, where his presence was requires as he was in his friend’s wedding party.
I use the term vacation on here the same way I would IRL, which is why I gave examples elsewhere about what I would consider a vacation IRL. I don’t have a KMR definition of vacation and a IRL definition of vacation. But if we want to have a different definition of vacation that’s specific to the royals, then I’m okay with that. But then that means that a lot of William and Kate’s vacations wouldn’t be considered vacations either. Like William’s Easter vacation to Jecca’s wedding last year which everyone gives him crap about – it was over the Easter long weekend so he was not taking time off work, in fact he had a meeting with the Kenyan president so it would actually then be considered a work trip, it was for a friend’s wedding; so then not a vacation. Most of W&Ks recent vacations wouldn’t be considered vacations since they were long weekend trips and they weren’t scheduled for events so they didn’t take off work to go, like the skiing trip last March with George and Charlotte. Even the most recent ones when they missed Commonwealth Day wouldn’t be considered vacations because they were weekend trips and W&K were never scheduled to be at Commonwealth Day anyway. The reason I’m calling this Harry trip a vacation is because if this were William or Kate I would be calling it a vacation, because it fits my definition of what a vacation is. I understand that Brits tend to have a different definition of what a vacation is than I do since I’m American.
I’m perhaps the wrong person to weigh in on this because I don’t have a problem with Will and Kate’s holiday schedule! The only qualm I have about Will’s Easter trip was that he was away from his young family. He could have brought them along.
+ 1
Can someone please explain the use of ETA on this site? I have been meaning to ask for awhile and keep forgetting. I always see it used on here as ETA: followed by an example.
I have always known ETA as Estimated Time of Arrival, and I.E. is for an example. I.E.-this is my example. Am I missing something? Lol. Every time I see it on here all I think is estimated time of arrival which really throws me off. So, I thought I would see what people who use it on this site define ETA as? lol, thanks 🙂
Edited To Add.
ETA is usually used in comment sections to mean Edited To Add.
Lol, thank you guys! Now I won’t read estimated time of arrival anymore 🙂
But it will still be confusing if you are at the airport or traveling on a plane and reading this blog at the same time.
Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I needed that laugh/smile Jen. Thanks! 😉
Ha! Good Kimothy. I was worried that no-one else got it. To be honest, I too first think of Estimated Time of Arrival when I see ETA and have to ‘translate’. And Happy Easter or Passover or TGIF to you and everyone too.
Lol, I guess I better not read this blog at a airport than Jen. I will be all thrown off and miss my flight 😉
Ha!Didn’t I say that actors and sportsmen earn to much money? Yes, they clearly do.
One side of me can understand Harry’s need to spend much time with his girlfriend, the other side doesn’t like that he has too much free-time.Funny, with the money he spends, you could clear a land off mines,too.
+1
We pay far too much for our entertainment. Don’t get me started on American football costs here in Texas. Wait, the taxpayers need to pay for another stadium because the billionaire who owns the team doesn’t want to pay for it? Sure!
So many vacations. He needs to use his personal money and get a job and get to work.
I would think he is using his personal money. He is not doing what Will does and tack on a ‘government meeting’ so the taxpayer covers the cost. I am sure he would love to go without an RPO, but that is not a decision he is able to make. I think it would be great for the BRF to have some fresh blood so having an American girlfriend gives me a lot to be pleased about. I think other European royal families have benefitted from married in ‘foreigners’ bringing a fresh perspective and ideas.
For all we know, this could be a business / vacation visit. The Invictus Games in Toronto are fast approaching, and Harry could be here for business, and arrived early for the Eastwr weekend. Lots of people go early or stay later when on a business trip. The bottom line is we don’t know !
Yes. I really wouldn’t be surprised if we hear about an invictus games meeting that was tacked into this trip. In which case will people get just as much up in arms about this trip as they were about William tacking on a meeting to his personal trip?
If the Invictus Games meeting was already scheduled months ago, then less. William only tacked on the 30 minute business meeting after he was publicly-criticized for the news that he was going to Africa to attend Jecca’s wedding.
Of course they would. People would say that he’s flouting that unofficial rule that prohibits royals from mixing business and leisure travel. Remember the Great Toronto Diversion Scandal of 2016?
There is a book by bioethics professor Peter Singer about poverty. Stats show that people making over $300,000 a year give the same amount to charity as someone who is lower middle class. We can call it greedy, but it’s actually more due to exposure. For example, I work a lower middle class income job in social services. In my work, I encounter and help people living below the poverty line. If you’re making a big salary, you are not working in a not for profit or social services position. Your exposure to poverty is through the news, or a volunteer day at your company. Poverty is not a daily reality staring you in the face. For all the charity work the BRF does, you add up the days and it’s a small percentage of their life. They have all the talk of service, which is great, but their actions are hit and miss. Some of the very rich can obviously be wonderful philanthropists, but many are blissfully unaware and give little to charity.
I love that Harry is invested in making this work with Meghan. I do agree that if I shade WK for skipping a religious holiday, I need to do the same for Harry. Plus the added expense to the taxpayer.
You all know I love Harry. But the shade he threw can come back to bite him. Making comments like that can come off as quite arrogant given his financial status. It is ridiculous the amount of money celebrities make. However, he put himself squarely in the cross hairs with that.
Thanks for the update, KMR!
Athletes and celebrities are two different things. An elite athlete trains their entire life to play a sport; a celebrity is usually just famous for being attractive and/or the offspring of a actor/musician/politician/etc.
I see nothing wrong with an elite athlete being generously compensated with all of the injuries they endure.
+1
Celebrities aren’t all just talentless pricks either. I am just saying because some are very talented. Look at some of them that do live plays, sing, dance and train, long hours training for parts, etc. It’s all an art and if you decide to work for X amount of dollars/ pounds, so be it! You earned it! Unlike the royals who are given it from birth!
Very shocking to hear this about pro athletes from a man who never had to pay a bill on his own two feet, provide a roof over his head or feed himself, ever. Some celebrities/ athletes came from nothing, worked damn hard and actually pay rent and own property from their own craft and hard work. Even the Kardashians can say they earned their own, no matter what they had to do to get there. Big difference Harry….
Just to stand up for some professional sportspeople and to spread some Easter cheer:
Rio Ferdinand donated £500,000 at Christmas 2016 to buy toys for poor children in Manchester because he didn’t want any children not to have a present to open on Christmas day
Cristiano Ronaldo donated 5 million Euros to the victims of the Nepalese earthquake
Mesut Ozil gave his world cup winning bonus to support surgery for 23 kids in Brazil
Kanu’s foundation has led to almost 1000 children in Africa receiving heart treatment
Yobu has created 300 educational scholarships in Ghana
Happy Easter everyone!
I don’t want anyone to say anything about Rio Ferdinand because everything I’ve read about him portrays him as a real stand up guy. Please don’t tell me he isn’t!!
He is! Not all professional sportsmen are greedy monsters. I thought it was a lazy comment from Harry demonstrating a real lack of self-awareness
If we stopped funding the Royal Family and stopped paying for these entitled people to take frequent vacations on public money, then we have the money to clear land mines globally! At least the professional athletes have talent and have worked hard to get to where they can command millions in salaries, unlike these people who feel entitled to millions for being birthed from the right birth canal
I agree about the hardwork and talent that elite athletes possess.
Seriously, if the Queen sold some of that gold she hoardes or just one diamond in that vault it would help end a little of things! That was a really dumb comment to make. Maybe he should give up his vacations and money set aside for his lavish wedding and do it himself. I am sure the price of food and the servants would do just fine.
Thanks Herazeus for your thoughtful response. NLopez
The ‘normal guy’ persona that Harry has cultivated is showing cracks.
Harry needs to make some changes or people will put him in the same league as Will.
“Normal guys” take advantage of long holiday weekends, too, though.
It’s vacation… but he doesn’t have a job what’s the vacation from? but it’s good that he is making the effort to go to her, cause she has a job unlike him.
First of all, Happy Good Friday and Easter weekend to my fellow KMR’s! Also, Happy Passover to those who celebrate! And for those who don’t celebrate: TGIF!! 🙂
Now: I’m as much of a Harry sugar as the rest of them, and I’m glad he’s investing/putting in the time and effort in his relationship with Meghan (and I certainly hope he paid for his airfare and whatnot to travel to Canada) buuuuut…….it’s like he’s following the same formula pattern as his big brother and SIL: do some great engagements and then slip away to go on vacation/a trip for a while and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Sigh.
On the flip side: I hope to see some great royal fashion this Sunday. I’m curious at how much Lady Louise has grown and what she’ll wear (the York sisters too) to church.
I think that Harry visiting Meghan shows his interest in her. Anything to get away from the trio label for a while. I like how Lady Louise is close to Beatrice and Eugenie. Considering the age gap.
I like that too. There are 15 years between Beatrice and Louise and 13 years between Eugenie and Louise but the difference doesn’t bother them. The age cap can be a bit tricky but if you make the effort the relationship will still be strong. Example: I have a cousin, Madeline, who is 18 years younger than me but I make an effort to stay in touch either via email or texting. I recently found out that, in the Fall, she’ll be going to university where I live (Go Noles!) and will be living less than 10 minutes from me via car. I’ve already texted her giving her tips in terms of buses, Uber and whatnot (she doesn’t have a licence) and I already told her that if she ever wants to hang out with her nerdy, much older (but young-looking 😉 ) cousin, I’m here for her. 🙂
I want to know where Harry and Meghan hang out when they are here. I think of Toronto as being fairly laid back and respectful about celebrities which is probably nice for them. We had a couple of pro hockey players (aka Cdn royalty) living on the street behind me for a few years and a minor rock star lives a block away. I have never once seen fans or photographers or reporters.
I will keep my eyes open for H&M while I am out and about this weekend. Though, I will be surprised if they are at my storage locker or my local grocery store!
While that may be regular for other famous people in Toronto, I doubt it would be what happens to these two. I’d think the tabloids in London already have people in position to follow them in Toronto.
Check out the Easter Parade in the Beaches Sunday afternoon. That would be a fun outing for them, and maybe not noticed by the press.
Yorkville for sure! It’s pretty close to MMs home and it looks to be a nice weekend
I think they will avoid Yorkville since it’s been reported he is in TO. I suspect more obscure neighbourhood pubs if they go out at all.
I’d take the 10 minute ferry trip to the islands for lunch at Rectory Cafe. Only been to Toronto once, but I’d love to go back and spend more time there.
Notasugarhere: I’m glad you like the island. I actually live on my boat by the Rectory Cafe in the summer. It’s fantastic.
No H&M sightings so far.
Green-eyed monster over here! I stayed at a B&B on Ward’s Island and never, ever wanted to leave.
Harry’s point is, on its surface, valid. But its best not to get into ‘donation’ territory. Especially goading those who’ve actually earned their millions through hard work and sacrifice.
Two years of earnings from the tax-payer owned Duchy of Cornwall would *also* solve the landmine crisis. Yet we don’t see Charles lining up to do so 😉
+1
Of course it’s easy to be madly in love when you have clandestine dates all over the world, go on luxury vacations, when one is a D list actress on a Z list tv show looking for the next career opportunity and the man in question is a balding, unemployed guy from a rich but dysfunctional family. Yep a love story for the ages.
Yikes, this is a really vicious comment.
+1
not yet earned or deserved, plenty of time later if we get another lazy entitled Prince/ess.
This made me LOL! Bwah! I do love your acerbic style.
I would love to impute all good stuff to them, but given Harry’s Willy-like qualities, it makes one wonder. As for Meghan, maybe she is a social climber too. If true, she’s definitely better at maintaining a positive image than the ever anemic Kate. I guess I don’t see the appeal of a feckless man especially when I am a working woman, even if he is a prince. I’m neutral about Meghan too. My gossipy heart actually hopes she marries him and gives Kate a run for her money because the dullness is killing my gossipy brain cells.
I agree that travelling around the world secretly to meet up with your honey, sometimes in exotic places, keeps things intense and romantic. Would that we all could experience that. It’s hard to imagine reality has a chance to set in.
I bet they both want kids. The love boat will be docking fairly soon, I’d think. Enjoy it while it lasts, young lovers, babies open a door to a whole new existence you never dreamed of ?
The daughter of a man who served high-up in the government of a dictator.
A man who was a member of the Hitler Youth.
A woman who was in a relationship with a drug lord, then edited her own wikipedia page to hide it when she married a prince.
A penniless man with two Nazi brothers-in-law, and a mother who was formerly institutionalized.
A woman who moved to Europe on her boyfriend’s dime, was handed a pretend job by her boyfriend’s friends, and lived off him for a couple of years before the engagement.
A former Olympian who didn’t do much of anything for years until an engagement.
An unemployed woman who lived off her parents money, including money made off child labour, and basically never worked for a decade while waiting for a ring.
All of them in relationships with people from “rich, dysfunctional families” who live off the taxpayers.
Do you have such a horrible opinion of all of them too? Or just Meghan Markle and now, by extension, Harry?
Yes, lobbit, what goes on in the anti-Meghan Markle realm is something unusual.
Who are you talking about ?
The first one seems to be Maxima ?
And the olympian is Charlene.
But the others ? Who are they ?
Queen Maxima
Prince Claus of the Netherlands
Crown Princess Mette-Marit
Prince Phillip
Crown Princess Mary
Princess Charlene
Kate
and I have too much time on my hands 🙁
1. Maxima of the Netherlands
2. Claus. Husband of Princess Beatrix formerly Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
3. Mette Marit of Norway?
4. Philip, husband of Elizabeth, Queen of UK
5. Mary of Denmark
6. Charlene of Monaco
7. Kate Middleton
Ditto Springsmom.
I don’t know about all of them, but:
#2: Queen Beatrix’ German husband Claus (+)
#4: Prince Philip
Prince Philip had nothing to do with his brother in-laws. I seriously don’t think it is right to criticize him for his background.
He had his own flourishing career which he had to reluctantly give up .But through all this year’s he has proved his mantle and earned the respect (much less than he deserves) .
Atleast he didn’t and doesn’tspend money on lavish holidays
I’m not criticizing him, or any of them. I am listing, in a harsh manner similar to Red Tulip’s, the objections that have been used to criticize those other royals through the years.
Philip wasn’t responsible for the fact that he had Nazi BILs. He and HM are responsible for the fact that they continued to have a relationship with Philip’s sisters and his Nazi BILs for decades after WWII. Always conducted quietly, often overseas, but that side of the family wasn’t cut out.
#3 is Princess Mabel. That relationship was part of why Friso removed himself from the line of succession.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-dutch-royals-wikipedia-idUSHER15273720070831
(Another one who has too much time on her hands, or rather, spends that time royal watching!)
1 & 4 are dealing with family members and not their own questionable actions. And bringing up that a family memeber was institutionalized as a supposed mark against them is pretty low
I’m not the one who used it against him, it was people in the UK who used it against him for years.
That may not have been your intent but your whole list is about actions and family members actions that are less than desirable/questionable.
These may all be things others have said and you don’t care about them but by posting them in the context that you did are you not essentially doing the same thing? Thus using the MH of a family member. Philip has enough of his own issues, you could have used any of those
No, what I’m doing is listing various reasons why some have had objections to those royal matches through the years. In Philip’s case, those objections again him (and his mother) were made at a time when MH was viewed very differently. Context, context.
They’re not my objections, but things that have been discussed, looked at, or set aside when wearing rose coloured glasses by some. Whether I (or you) agree with any of those doesn’t matter.
The OP’s post was harsh about Meghan and Harry, so I stated things harshly about others as examples. We’re supposed to think they are the only royal match to which people have had objections? You’ll note, I left off some people that tend to bring on whiplash emotional responses (Sofia). I was listing (off the top of my head), a handful of the objections that others have had through the decades.
So much negativity is directed towards these two, but when if you look at many royal matches through the years? I see no big deal with these two.
I don’t think 1,2, and 4 are fair criticisms with context. Not sure how 5 and 6 are real criticisms given the circumstances. But I get your point, Red Tulip was really harsh.
Red Tulip…. so bored with demeaning comments about her being a D or Z list actor… tell that to all the waiters/actors in LA they would kill for her career, stable job for 5+ years!!!
Oh boy Notasugarhere, I was just being sarcastic and wasn’t insulting any poster here. I like that Meaghan actually works for a living and I like the idea of an American woman of colour shaking up the Brit monarchy. But I think monarchy in general is ridiculous anyway, including all the ones you mentioned.
+1
I may not have heard of Meghan before her relationship with Harry became public, but she’s doing better as an actor than lots of aspiring actors. Meghan has a better acting career than Cressida Bonas for instance. At least Meghan is working and making money; Harry doesn’t have a real job and lives off the money of others.
Amen.. and yes, never heard of her either, I vaguely remembered seeing commercials about Suits when it was first coming, but that’s it never watched it.. My boyfriend just said that Harry is on welfare .. lol
I remember commercials for Suits when it first premiered because I used to watch Psych on USA, so I’d see the Suits commercials, but I never watched it.
Lol at Harry being on welfare. Yeah, if you think about it the entire RF is just one large welfare family.
Yes Psych was and covert affairs was the only reason I would have been on the USA network, … what ever happened to covert affairs anyway… ?
Covert Affairs got canceled in 2014 or 2015.
Okay I don’t feel the same about Harry visiting Meghan as I do about all of Will and Kate’s deceptions. It’s like comparing apples and oranges.
One is heir to be King with all the goodies that come with it and the other won’t inherit a thing.
One decided to take extensive time off to “raise a family & work” & then we discovered that he wasn’t doing either, while the other one continued with the Army.
One received 4 million to renovate a palace and then decided they didn’t really want to live there, while one continued to live on a military installation & with his father.
One has a wife that is being supported by the public & yet does little work but spends atrocious amounts of money on horrible looking clothes, while the other had a few girlfriends while working in the military & now she’s overseas.
One has two children & has threatened people taking photographs with being shot, while the other throwing a bit of a tantrum asked people to not say racist things about his girlfriend. (I never saw these racist comments so I don’t know.)
One has been known for throwing temper tantrums all the time, while the other appears to be more personable.
One had a special helicopter purchased so he could pretend to be at work, while the other qualified to fly and was in a war zone. (I don’t believe Will would have gone if he had the choice).
One has no learning disabilities, while the other has dyslexia. (Although there are plenty of people who have dyslexia and still manage to work.
One goes on outrageously expensive holitours created based on his wife’s wish list, while the other goes on tours created for him based on what the Queen would like him to do.
One has to be forced to do his royal family’s work, while the other even flew home early to be there so his brother could dad dance.
I’m sure I could come up with many more examples but to me it’s not a “if we do this to one, we have to do it to another” conversation.
Vacation is defined as taking a break from your regular work or routine to relax, therefore it is vacation based around a “holiday” to visit his girlfriend. If his girlfriend lived in London then it wouldn’t be a vacation, however if his girlfriend lived in Wales it would be.
The main point is that you can’t equate Will & Harry because they both have two different paths & responsibilities. The same way I wouldn’t think that Meghan should be compared to Kate, if she marries Harry, regarding her work schedule. I would equate them regarding what their “jobs/positions” are.
This is how i feel too.
Dad dance… good one.
+1000
Well said
FYI- Harry is not in the United States visiting his girlfriend. He is in Toronto, Canada.
Ummm, you might want to read the blog post before commenting. Lol.
I put it right there in the headline that Harry is in Toronto.
Does any i think H will skip the middleton wedding to visit mm?
I’d like for him to skip the Middleton wedding, period. Don’t care why.
I think it would be rude to skip it for anything other than an emergency since it’s already been announced that he’s going.
Yay no way he is going to skip it… and why should he?
Because he isn’t friends with the bride or groom, he isn’t related to the bride or groom, and in all likelihood is just being invited to make the Middleton-BRF connection look stronger than it is. But apparently he accepted, so he has to go.
+1 (Or someone accepted for him and publicly announced it.)
To be fair, we assume he isn’t friends with them, but we don’t actually know. We see about maybe 5% of their private lives, and that’s being generous. For all we know maybe whenever Kate and William are in London they have Pippa and James as well as Harry over for dinner.
What we do know is that he accepted her invitation publicly and officially, he plans on going and would assume that unless an emergency comes up, he’ll be there.
We know that someone decided he was going and announced it. We don’t know who that someone was, or the circumstances of the odd invitation. An invitation that seems strange to many people, as there has been no evidence of a relationship between Harry and either Pippa or James Matthews.
In 16 years, we have never seen a photograph of him with any of the Middletons that I remember, outside of 1) W&K wedding-related things 2) first christening but not the second 3) Christmas pap stroll with the royal family and 4) the time William faked a sprained ankle and sent James in his place to the traditional princes-play-football match.
In all those years, no pap ever managed to catch anything else? Likely because there was nothing to catch.
In 16 years, we have a handful of pictures of Beatrice or Eugenie at the same wedding as Pippa, or at a couple of high-profile events where they’ve posed together in the last year or two. I don’t see B&E being invited to this wedding.
Carter,
We’ve not seen any interaction with them that gives us the idea that he embraces any of the Midds. Just like we’ve never seen a single photo of Harry with the babes. You would think PR would pursue that but they have not. So I’m thinking this paucity of evidence weights fairness on the side of No.
I believe that Willy talked/pressured him into attending. Harry is the loyal spare/brother until death and I have to say I find that rather touching although I’m hoping his future wife smacks him upside the head to snap him out of it.
William could’ve also guilted/blackmailed Harry to attend the wedding. Lord knows why or how….. (just a theory!)
Article in today’s DM re how there isn’t enough room in Middleton Manor for the family of the groom to stay over. Buried in the text however is the mention that Harry gets to stay there. Back to my point mentioned a few posts back – he’s going to be the first ever brother-in-law of the sister of the bride to appear in the immediate family group photo.
My opinion is that Harry was invited due to the fact that the Midds wanted to validate their importance within the RF and most importantly Pippa wanted to ensure that she would get an invite to Harry’s future wedding.
I was just joking! Sometime i like to shock.
I know that some people have revised their opinion of Harry, but here is an example of his involvement in his work.
A party organised at BP for the army widows Association, and Harry sent them a personally written (handwritten) response to their enquiry about dress code.
They posted it to twitter.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ArmywidowsA/status/852875723476008960
I love Harry does things like this.
W&K would never but of course Harry had to mention them or we’d forget.
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2017/04/17/meghan-markle-and-prince-harrys-royal-riddle-govani.html
I guess Meagan will be Harry’s date to Pippa’s wedding reception after all. Their first public and official debut as a couple? This should be fun!
I imagine Ma Middleton is actually congratulating herself on the celebrity / royal coup of the decade. Two photogenic Royal attendants who happen to be her grandchildren…..check. Future King and Queen who happens to be her daughter……check. First UK social event for second Royal brother and his likely bride to be……check.
And the whole shebang sponsored by Party Pieces. Now if she can only get a few other Royals and maybe a Percy or two to attend she will have cracked it and graduated from social Siberia. Doors to manual indeed.
I love Harry, but until he donates his trust fund and princely income to landmine removal efforts, he’s in no position to ask others to give up their salaries. To be fair, athletes get paid exorbitant amounts of money, but they also work very hard and had to make an effort to get where they are. Harry was born with a silver spoon and did absolutely nothing but be born to get his wealth and privilege. Although, he’s my favorite British Royal, it’s comments like this that remind me how out of touch and entitled even the best Royals are. Haryy does a lot for charity and is actually emotionally engaged at his events and I love his efforts for the Invictus games, but the truth is that an accident of birth is the reason he has everything, not talent, ability or years of hard work. He does what Royals are SUPPOSED to do, unlike Will and Kate, but that really doesn’t give him a free pass to ask that athletes donate their salaries if he’s not willing to donate his.