Battle Royale: Harry and Meghan on Netflix
Written by Miranda Vidak
12/13/20228 min read
I didn’t want to be here again. Yet here we are. On Friday morning, I woke up to 24 messages in my inbox, all with the same subject — Harry & Meghan on Netflix. I watched it on Thursday night before I fell asleep in the middle of Episode 3. I still haven’t finished it, it’s the World Cup right now and I don’t have the energy for two rough, world sporting events.
I don’t usually write about something until I have seen it all, investigated it, and analyzed it; this time I’ll make an exception.
I have researched these people plenty. I have so far written four articles about Harry and/or Meghan. I wrote about the unpopularly called Megxit, why so many women have issues with Meghan, their Oprah Interview, and the interview's aftermath.
There is nothing new to learn about these people; this documentary won’t reveal anything a sane human being can’t conclude on his/her own. The foundation of what Harry & Meghan represent and who they enrage is always the same; it goes in circles and it will never change. Those two people are just an apparatus to measure the psyche of the people hating or disliking them.
For all the people hating these two individuals; if you are reading this and you already have the — “But it’s just MY OPINION and I have a right to have my opinion” — ready to fire, it’s time to quit. Evolve. This has nothing to do with your opinion, it has to do with your FEELING. And your feeling is based on your experiences in life, not the actual facts.
You might not want to think this about yourself, but every single person that comes at me trying to explain to me their disdain for Harry & Meghan, thinking you’ll convince me with some aha moment you just discovered, save your breath. The only thing you just did — is tell me plenty about yourself.
I honestly don’t want to be repeating the same things I have already said four times about these two people, and what many wrote about them in numerous articles and op-eds. It’s actually very simple. There is one basis here, one single, poignant sentence the Palace aids threw out in the press, knowing really well it would be the core of why they would eventually succeed in destroying Harry and Meghan’s image.
The never happened privacy manifesto.
You believing this, and repeating this sentence 7 million times only tells me you are a gullible poster boy (mostly girl) for why these tabloids still exist and shape not only people’s opinions but a whole mentality.
You are a subject.
You are just a subject, a mass, a follower with no critical thinking skills. And you are also lazy if you can’t spend 15 minutes googling the lie you heard somewhere, to find out it never actually left their mouths.
You are repeating this sentence because YOU WANT it to be true. Not because it is the truth. You need a legitimate reason to hate or dislike these two people. Repeating this nonsensical sentence that never happened but was invented by the tabloids, somehow makes you feel exonerated from your hate.
The sentence I’m talking about, and you are talking about is the following:
“Harry and Meghan left the Royal Family because they said they want PRIVACY, so why are they showing their face everywhere and asking for all this ATTENTION?”
I have no patience for you anymore.
What they actually said:
We didn’t expect the reporting about us to be complementary or in our service, but we expected it to be at least OBJECTIVE and FAIR.
You know very well they said that. Their actual words are not very difficult to track, since they only gave a handful of interviews or statements over the course of their union.
You heard these people actually speak 5 times since 2017, yet you throw the “seeking attention” line like it pays your rent.
Instead of worrying about them, why don’t you ask yourself why are you bothered by these two people? What do you lack in life? What’s missing? Regardless of what you think might happen behind palace doors, these two people CLEARLY love each other. He WANTS this. He wants her. What else is important here? It’s a non-starter.
Imagine being a person that watched three episodes of LOVE and you are bothered by it? They look great together, flawed clearly, like the rest of us, and so appealing to the eye, and ear — how can this BOTHER you?
I fell asleep watching, full of butterfly-like feels. I don’t care if they are monetizing or not, would you not monetize millions if someone wanted to give it to you? I would. You would. Stop being such a blatant hypocrite. You watched this documentary last night and you woke up with a bitter feeling, disliking something that has no effect on your life.
Harry Windsor was the most famous child in the world. His brother might have been for a hot minute or until age maybe 5–6, where he already showed disdain for his brother, in the famous video in the garden, with Diana. That little kid was bitchy to Harry at legit 5 years of age.
As soon as the little blob of a toddler grew up and developed a character, he was instantly the most famous child in the world. Then he grew up to be the most famous man in the world. In what parallel universe can you possibly think Harry Windsor can ever live without attention, part of the Royal Family or not?
And why do you think this OG Gangsta of the Royal Family is not allowed to demand to be reported about with objectivity and fairness? He might be spare, but should his life, the woman he loves, and his family be fodder for lies and misconceptions so his dull brother and his even duller wife might seem more interesting in comparison?
Everything for The Crown, right? If The Crown made sure they are protected in British Press, instead of planting negative stories about them to win the popularity contest, sucking up to The Crown would probably be what this couple would have continued to do.
Out of all the articles, radio shows, TV pieces, and op-eds I read about Harry and Meghan, there is one guy who gets my sentiment about this subject to a tee. I have said plenty about these people; in this article, I want to include someone else's view on this subject.
He has spoken about them many times, he regularly lets the couple’s haters call in on his radio show where he mauls them with logic and sense. The level of impatience James O’Brian has for haters and naysayers of Harry and Meghan — is a pure art form. This is what he said on his radio show on Friday, the day after Harry & Meghan on Netflix aired. He gives a precise blueprint of this nonsensical, raging hate:
James O’Brian:
“Here’s the bottom line; Harry and Meghan have become hate figures for much of Britain, never mind the British media for two reasons, the first is, in James Baldwin's timeless quote — “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hate so stubbornly is because they sense once hate is gone they will be forced to deal with pain”. And the second reason is, they gave their finger to the Fleet Street (British tabloid media headquarters), and the media won’t accept that.
Look what happens if you dare to stand up to the British tabloid media, they will kick you around the room until you’re bruised and bloody, and in the case of the Dutchess, contemplating the worst possible way out of that level of abuse and unkindness.
And yet, Harry and Meghan carry on. They refuse to buckle. They tred to play by the rules. They sought the kind of deal the Royals have been securing through the ages in dealing with the media, they tried to get a kind of a hiatus, a reprieve, a cease-fire, but they didn’t get it.
The Palace, for good or for real, did not come in on behalf of Prince Harry and his wife, so they decided to do everything their own way. They decided to rewrite their rule book, they decided they would not dance to anybody’s tune but their own.
They are not perfect, they are not infallible, some of the stuff they do is a little bit silly, but my goodness, they made their break. Imagine that, imagine growing up in that fish bowl and deciding that you’re gonna smash the glass, and see whether or not you would survive.
And that’s what they can never be forgiven for.
And here finally, is the question. It’s just envy, isn’t it? The whole point of the attacks upon Prince Harry and his wife, whether they’re coming from within the Palace, on the record, off the record, nowhere near the record, or whether it’s coming from the media; it’s because they’re simply better at everything. They are better at PR, they’re more media savvy, they’re more articulate, they're more empathetic, and crucially — they are more accomplished. Look at their careers; compare their careers, they are more accomplished and they are more attractive.
So here is the real sin of Harry Windsor. And this only occurred to me last night; the real reason for the hatred and the viciousness and this astonishing level of abuse is because they make a complete mockery of Royalty itself.
The idea that he gets the top job and he sits in the sidecar for the rest of his life is absolutely absurd. But we can never ever admit that because it shakes the very foundation of The Royal family.”
The way he conceptualizes “the issue” of Harry and Meghan, which only really mirrors the issues of The Royal Family — is nothing short of brilliant.
“Harry and Meghan have become ‘hate figures’ because of 'envy' and their ability to make a mockery of the Royal Family.”
I’ve seen someone post a story on Instagram, after Harry and Meghan on Netflix aired, saying: “What is the difference between them and the Kardashians, this has become a reality show”, also Piers Morgan tweeted the exact same thing; it’s interesting to me how strong your feeling has to be about certain people, which you then transform into an OPINION you are entitled to have, while not realizing The Royal family is actually The Kardashians here.
Cooperating with media and allowing them access to in return write complementary articles about you. Planting negative stories about more popular members of your family so that you can become more loved or more popular. Lying, and manipulating in order to keep the hierarchy that suits you in place. This is literally what Kim Kardashian and her mother have been doing for decades.
The Kardashian Kartel, and The Firm; please find differences. I’ll wait. Funny how you think the Royal Kartel is in the right and the people who are trying to expose their wrongdoings aren’t. And not just people, but family. You do this to your family. You very well know, if you wanted to really get to the bottom of this issue, that Jason Knauf, a communication head of Harry’s own brother’s office planted negative stories about his wife, in the media.
You don’t find an offense in that, yet you find an offense in a man trying to expose that.
The compilation James O’Brian’s shows talking to people who hate or dislike Harry and/or Meghan is a perfect showcase into the psyche of these people, and you, if you are one of them. Listen to these, and how literally not one has any arguments but - “It's just so obvious”. When challenged and asked a simple question — “How do you know this?”, or “Where is your evidence?”, all of them get extremely angry, talk on a tangent, and keep repeating: “Well, I READ it!”, “You could just TELL!”.
The year is 2022, and you know what media and tabloids are capable of and what they have done. You have proof, Harry gave it to you, and you also see it daily at play, yet you STILL let them form your opinions.
I can never repeat the Jerry Seinfeld classic enough: “People who read the tabloids deserve to be lied to.”
Do you really want to be one of these people?