Well, what do you think of the shot over the bow by Vanity Fair?
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/prince-harry-meghan-markle-cover-story-2025
One doesn't expect them to be "wild" about this story. And it is from the locals who perhaps really want to send a message to the couple about how their neighbors are viewed in a not positive light. Apparently unsigned notes are not dropped in the mailbox in that neighborhood any more (maybe Ring is a fear). I have not read it yet (apparently I now need a subscription) but perhaps the library has it.
However, the DM has some parts of it. And they dish.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14297853/Meghan-Markle-Harry-caregiver-reparenting-Montecito-claims-new-article.html
The DM has also had some prior articles clearly criticizing them in the showing up to hug and so on as the fires rage. Trauma Tourists and similar labels are being tossed in their directions. It wasn't like this (so public) at Uvalde that I remember. But I could be wrong.
What is interesting is that the articles are sticking more to them like oobleck. The articles start off with fresh news but now is starting to list all the other problematic history. This (trailing history as part of the print story) is becoming more and more of a trend.
So that's kind of new. Don't think it is "the" kraken but it comes off as a shift in the tide.
As a side note, think about what is a tourist (someone looking at something novel to their daily life, not at work, and possible on vacation or retired - not a steady job stopping their visit ... and transient - meaning not going to be there next week, next month or a year from now).
Hugs are nice but they do not put a roof over a family's head. Nor does it put food on their table. Or clothes on their back. Today. Tomorrow. Next week or even next month let alone a year from now. Make up is a nice thought but what if the kid hasn't eaten since yesterday? The sad me reads: the hotels and landlords are gouging families who are just trying to survive.
The cynical side notes that: the difference between real people trying to help and those who are cosplaying are that cosplayers show up with their camera. Apparently if there is not photo, there is no proof.
What is real help to these people in need?
Comments
Ho-down-lo
Forget about jelly
and sausage rolls
You should be serving
calligraphied scrolls
Switch off the lights
turn the lamps low
No one will know
your kids are a no-show…
Nevr Clevr
Channeling Diana
via private plane
Ghost-writing his mother
As ever, Insane…
Hypocrisy
All I see are bad eyebrows
and big teef
A vision bored
that beggars belief
Two cuningbirds
pecking family tree
Still.desperate to be known as
Royalty…
Al
Neither Harry or his wife seem to consider the disadvantage their children have to face when they become the prey of sick click media. Sooner or later their photographs will be public and all the hell will break out.
Well, consider and consider, they don't give a damn, do they?
The baroness has already started to use them for juicy dollars, hasn't she?
https://www.reddit.com/r/SaintMeghanMarkle/comments/1iuns4w/pretty_much_sums_up_meghan_markle_and_her/
CANNOT MAKE EVERYBODY HAPPY YOU ARE NOT A JAR OF NUTELLA” - a Tig quote. How profound! Earth shattering. ' “You’re probably wondering how I get all my crazy, brilliant ideas.' So, so modest with it.
I noticed labels of raspberry spread - not jam, then? - children's drawings, other Tig quotes. This DT article is not behind a paywall. You can read comments as well.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/21/the-not-so-secret-messages-behind-meghans-mood-board/
I believe it was Michelangelo who said it best: “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.” And so the great Renaissance Man was simply admired as a genius, Il Divino, “the divine one”, whose art was blessed with terribiltà – the quality of provoking terror, awe or a sense of the sublime in the viewer.
It could be argued (but it is best we debate it another day) that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is the 21st century’s answer to Michelangelo. Mononymous, multi-disciplined, great at decorating – they are effectively one and the same, just cruelly born in different times. M&M. Two peas, one pod. Peas two ways, if you will.
Yet when it comes to revealing their working, the masters diverge. Michelangelo was shy about his, hiding his labour to maintain his mystique. Meghan, on the other hand, is nothing if not generous, approachable and eager to connect. Now, as she slays her lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, and instantly resurrects it as As Ever, she has invited us into her mind palace with the publication on Instagram of a mood board.
“You’re probably wondering how I get all my crazy, brilliant ideas. Well, here’s a little peak behind the curtain,” is the key message of the artfully-arranged work. And it’s true. We really have been curious about what goes on in Meghan’s head for years.
Now we know: it’s mainly “Live, Laugh, Love”-style inspiration quotes, bits of old napkin, and print-outs of historic Instagram posts.
The Michelangelo of Montecito never misses, and here is another meta-masterpiece. If that’s not terribiltà, then, well, I’m not qualified to use the term. Now let us try, in vain, to analyse what Meghan could possibly be trying to tell us.
‘Did you know that I am good at calligraphy?’
In common with a drunk uncle at a wedding who can do the worm without spilling the open bottle of Peroni hidden in his trousers, Meghan has a hidden talent, and she is not about to let an opportunity pass without reminding the world of it.
Six years at an all-girls Catholic school meant handwriting practice, and “I’ve always had a propensity for getting the cursive down pretty well”, she told Esquire in an almost comically handwriting-focused interview from 2013.
As a young, aspiring actress, calligraphy became her job. She used to write Dolce & Gabbana’s celebrity correspondence. She even did the invitations for the wedding of 2013 “Sexist of the Year” winner Robin Thicke and his now ex-wife Paula Patton.
“What’s funny is I probably still have some calligraphy business cards floating out in the world and I can’t wait for someone to call me in a month or something, and say, ‘Can you do these for my son’s Bar Mitzvah?’” Meghan added, in the same interview. Always. Be Closing.
Photographs of Meghan’s notecards would inspire an article a month during her time as a working royal, and since then it’s appeared on jam labels, in Instagram posts, in the logo for American Riviera Orchard (RIP), in the title card for her delayed With Love, Meghan Netflix documentary, and now, of course, here. Twice, actually, as the jam labels are back.
It was once rumoured that Meghan is considering writing her own tell-all memoir after the success of her husband’s Spare. What the reports didn’t clarify is whether she’s doing it longhand. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Now, who needs an invite doing?
‘YOU. WILL. BE. HAPPY. OK?’
It is difficult to know exactly what As Ever will do, or sell, or promote, or be. But on the evidence of this board, which was definitely not hastily put together in retrospect for the benefit of Instagram, it will at least be positive.
So positive. Aggressively positive. Affirmations yelled, compliments screamed. Daily optimism attacks. Praise sprees. “HAPPINESS LOOKS GORGEOUS ON YOU”, one bellows. “NOT TO SPOIL THE ENDING FOR YOU, BUT EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK”, is in the style of a placard held by a street preacher outside a healthcare clinic.
“YOU CANNOT MAKE EVERYBODY HAPPY YOU ARE NOT A JAR OF NUTELLA” is Meghan as Don Draper, brainstorming slogans for her favourite hazelnut spread, perchance they follow her on Instagram and have an opening.
And then there’s, “STAY CLOSE TO PEOPLE WHO FEEL LIKE SUNSHINE”, which of course implies the Royal Family do not. Wait until Queen Camilla hears that she is not considered “like sunshine”. This will devastate her.
‘You would not believe the things I do with a carrot’
“Fresh farm eggs, carrots two ways, sweet treats.” That gorgeous calligraphy in the top left hand corner – it really is lovely handwriting – reads like a menu at the world’s most annoying restaurant, or perhaps a list of items you might leave out for Father Christmas if he’d got sober, gone bougie and started competing in Hyrox events.
The middle line stands out. In truth, I am scared of researching the term “Carrots Two Ways” at work in case it brings up some Prince Harry-themed AI pornography, but it might just be a Mick Hucknell-themed drag act.
This limits my ability to explain what she means, but having checked with the Food editor, there are at least three ways to cook a carrot, so which two has Meghan chosen? The only way to find out is to engage further with As Ever. We may never know, then.
‘Ta, love – I have been endorsed by the brightest and best’
In the centre of the board we have a note. “Love you Meghan,” it reads, “GREAT MENU!” There is a heart, and a doodle of a cat, or batman. It is then signed “TA”.
Assuming that is not British slang for “thank you” and is instead somebody’s initials, we are left to investigate who could have provided such an important piece of validation.
Here are the only three theories I’m entertaining:
1) Tim Allen, aka Buzz Lightyear
We know Meghan’s keen to do more voice acting work for Disney, because Prince Harry was caught asking Disney CEO Bob Iger if he’d consider Meghan for voice acting work. Well, who better to learn from than Buzz himself? Having said that, if Allen doesn’t sign off all notes, “To infinity, and beyond!” he might as well not bother.
2) Tony Adams, aka Mr Arsenal
You could do far worse than cook for the man Paul Merson would have run through a brick wall for. Who knows, maybe Strictly made him more celeb-y. Perhaps Archie’s really into 90s Premier League videos on YouTube. It’s not impossible.
3) The Territorial Army, aka the Army Reserve
I dunno, maybe she did a Mess dinner for them, or something? Let’s not rule it out.
‘Imagine Instagram but… 3D?’
Even taking in all of the above, you’re probably still reeling from the idea that Meghan has posted, on Instagram, a photograph of a print-out of old Instagram posts.
One picture is even a photograph of Meghan taking a photograph for her Instagram. Another is an old post flipped left-to-right and repurposed. A third is Meghan in her storied hat era.
If the moodboard itself wasn’t a throwback – one third late-noughties Tumblr devotee, one part Zodiac killer, one part fridge door – this is Meghan reinventing photography.
Or perhaps inventing it for the first time, but… again? It’s influencer Inception. It’s the kind of thing only the most singular mind could comprehend, and if your reaction is anything other than silent awe, well you don’t deserve her.
It is good to see that she is moving smoothly into her middle aged years with leaving her face look as it is now with a big nose and huge forehead in her instagram posts. Leaving vanity behind is very becoming in her age, I think. Maybe it is a sign of developing emotional maturity? One can always hope.