Rift between royal brothers laid bare in new book extract

[left-of-center2012]

LONDON (AP) — Prince William infuriated Prince Harry when he told his younger brother he should move slowly in his relationship with the former Meghan Markle, fearing that he was being “blindsided by lust,’’ a new book on the Windsors says.

The second installment of a serialized version of the book “Finding Freedom,” which appeared in the Sunday Times, claimed that Harry was angered by what he perceived as William’s snobby tone in a discussion about the American actress when they were dating. Royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote that Harry disliked William’s advice to “take as much time as you need to get to know this girl."

The authors quote a source close to William as saying he didn’t want Harry to be “blindsided by lust.” The authors wrote that Harry “no longer felt as though he needed looking after,” and took it badly. “In those last two words, ‘this girl’, Harry heard the tone of snobbishness that was anathema to his approach to the world,’’ the excerpt said, noting that Harry has spent 10 years in the military and outside the royal bubble. “Also, to remove Meghan from the equation, Harry was tired of the dynamic that had become established between him and his older brother,’’ the authors added.

In announcing the book's publication, Harper Collins U.K. said the book by Scobie, royal editor of Harper’s Bazaar and Durand, Elle magazine's royal correspondent, would aim to capture “the real Harry and Meghan." The publisher said the authors have been given “unique access” and the cooperation of those closest to the couple.

Ahead of the book’s release, Harry and Meghan issued a statement denying taking part in the publication. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not contribute to ‘Finding Freedom’,’’ it said. “This book is based on the authors’ own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting.”

https://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2020-07-26/rift-between-royal-brothers-laid-bare-in-new-book-extract

[LizBeth]

1. 'this girl', That is what popped for me.

[Squinch]

4. In what way? It doesn't seem to be an unusual way at all for a family member to

talk to another family member about a new girlfriend who, at the beginning of this relationship, was simply the latest in a long string of new girlfriends.

[LizBeth]

5. Grown men are not addressed a boys. I think grown women shouldn't continually be addressed as girls.

[Squinch]

6. That's nice, but my point holds.

[LizBeth]

9. Right back at you. Nice, but my point holds. It is condescending, Harry felt it was condescending

and he did not like it. Yea, him.

[Celerity]

14. Lololol. Riduculous. Both older men and women are referred to

or call each other boys or girls all the time. Talk about pedantic.

My boomer grandfather on the Swedish (father's) side always says he is out with the boys (or lads). Same for my mum and her group of female friends in London, most of whom are bankers (as is she), barristers, doctors, etc.

SMDH

[Denzil_DC]

15. Would you accept that there are some social contexts

where the use of "boy" or "girl" can be demeaning, even deliberately so?

[Celerity]

17. yes

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Since it's not a direct quote, but what an unnamed source reported he said

it's hard to get worked up about it. It's hard to get worked up about the book at all, in fact. Royal correspondents have to keep their beat going somehow, I suppose. Can't have coronavirus getting in the way of a gossip story.

[LizBeth]

13. I am hardly worked up about. About at the point of really don't give an iota about this story.

Or celebrities, or "royals". I made a two second comment. Hardly "worked up" about it.

[Squinch]

2. The English are so interesting about their monarchy. They love it, but at the same time

they seem to need to find some scandal in it.

Given that none of the parties to this conversation took part in the book, it is unlikely the conversation even took place, but they sure are setting up poor Harry to be the bad guy in it.

And if it DID happen, I do feel sorry for both brothers for the fact that their intimate friends would dish to an author about their private interactions.

[Ghost Dog]

8. You'd be surprised how many of us want to see

Last edited Mon Jul 27, 2020, 12:23 AM - Edit history (1)

an Irish-style English Republic; and a Scottish one too.

Ex-king Juan Carlos I of Spain became heir to the throne after killing his older brother with a shotgun. Perhaps Harry should have done something similar.

[T_i_B]

10. One major problem I have with Republicanism in the UK...

...is that it focus's much too exclusively on abolishing the monarchy and says virtually nothing about what sort of constitution they would want in it's place. Which leads me to worry that we would end up with even less checks and balances than before.

Also, it's bad enough having Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, but imagine how much it would go to his head if he were made a President.

[Ghost Dog]

16. I'd advocate a thoroughly backstage, purely constitutional role

for a president of a constitutional parliamentary Republic. Nothing like the Rome-imitators such as the USA or France. And, yes, getting the written Constitution, and proportionally-representative electoral system, including recall processes, right must come first.

[Denzil_DC]

11. It's a heinous dynamic.

Diana, William and Harry's mother, was constant headline fodder while she was alive. The outpouring of ostentatious demonstrations of grief on her death, spearheaded on by the very same media that had spent years pilliorying her, and indeed was literally actively pursuing her when her car crashed, was sickening to many of us who may not wish any of them ill personally (with the possible exception of Andrew, given current revelations) for the accident of their birth, but don't have any time for royalty as an institution.

I remember when Harry and Meghan married. It was odd to see the enthusiasm among many US DUers for the royal family when feelings about them are very mixed and ambivalent among us in the UK. That the media turned on Meghan with ill-disguised racism wasn't really a surprise.

I think when Elizabeth finally dies or becomes so infirm she can no longer fulfil her duties, there will be a great recalibration of the role of royalty in the UK, perhaps on the model of some of the nordic countries, which think little or nothing of pomp and circumstance, and where their royals mix in public much like commoners.

[a la izquierda]

19. I'm American, my partner is English.

He hates the monarchy. I find it interesting, but really only from a historical perspective.

[unblock]

3. Dear me, a royal with a "snobby tone". Where's my fainting couch?

[LakeArenal]

7. Sounds like The Globe

[sandensea]

18. Typical half-brotherly rivalry

It happens.