Vanity Fair’s Sussex cover story was timed perfectly as an attempt to derail multiple projects and appearances for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. While VF couldn’t have organized the cover story just to hurt Meghan’s Netflix show – the show’s original release date was only confirmed on New Year’s Day – the magazine was looking to hurt the Sussexes ahead of Harry’s London trial against News Group Newspapers, a trial which starts this week. I believe that the VF story was also an attempt to hurt the Sussexes in advance of the Invictus Games in Canada next month. It just makes me so sad and anxious – Harry and Meghan escaped with their lives more than five years ago, and there’s still such a very obvious transatlantic agenda to harm them and attack every single part of their lives.
Speaking of, the British media isn’t sure when Harry will arrive in London for the trial, but I have every confidence that they’ve prepared a full smear campaign which will drop as soon as they get eyes on him in London. The Daily Beast provided a small preview, with “friends of Prince William told The Daily Beast he had absolutely no intention of meeting with his brother, whom he has not forgiven for publicly betraying him in his memoir, Spare.” Buckingham Palace has also been doing some soft briefings about how Harry refused an invitation to stay in royal accommodations while he’s in London. Those two storylines – Harry snubs Charles, William refuses to see Harry – will be front and center as soon as they see Harry outside the courthouse. Meanwhile, the Daily Beast tied the Vanity Fair story to Harry’s trial, because they are absolutely connected:
The brutal Harry and Meghan divorce allegations in this week’s bombshell Vanity Fair article have made “a bad time worse” for the couple, an old friend of Harry’s who still lives in the U.K. has told The Daily Beast. The storied publication made an astonishing claim that a member of Meghan’s team spoke to publishers regarding her writing a book about divorce if she were to split from Harry.
The friend, who remains in contact with both William and Harry, despite the brothers’ bitter feud, told The Daily Beast: “The Vanity Fair divorce story seemed very unfair. There was a book but there wasn’t a book, she was planning for life after divorce, but they are totally in love. What? There was not a shred of evidence.”
The article, by Anna Peele, alleged that “a rumor” has circulated in “the book world” that “Meghan’s team had a conversation with a publishing house to gauge interest” in a book about “a post-Harry divorce.” Peele says that the unidentified person allegedly acting for Meghan made it clear that the couple were not getting divorced, but was seeking to know, if such a divorce did happen, “would this publisher theoretically be interested in a book that took place in its aftermath?”
The friend told The Daily Beast, noting that Meghan’s new cooking show has been ridiculed and postponed, and that Harry has a grueling court case coming up (more on which below): “Things aren’t easy for them right now. Vanity Fair have succeeded in making a bad time worse.”
Harry and Meghan did not comment to Vanity Fair, and have not responded to inquiries this week from the Daily Beast about the article.
“Vanity Fair have succeeded in making a bad time worse.” Almost like that was the goal, to make Harry and Meghan feel under siege yet again. Even some Derangers seem to think that the monarchy had a hand in the VF piece and that, as always, people are trying to get to Harry by attacking Meghan. It wouldn’t surprise me, just as it wouldn’t surprise me if the explicit goal of Vanity Fair was pushing a very specific narrative about Harry being dumb and childish and controlled by Meghan… just before Harry is cross-examined by NGN’s lawyers.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.
