The astounding video of the Princess of Wales— looking directly into the camera and appearing somewhat gaunt— came after her medical records were reportedly accessed by rogue hospital staff and weeks of conspiracy theories.

As I wrote recently about crisis communication, getting out all the facts immediately is the most effective way to fix a mess. She has done that now and deserves sympathy and privacy.

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All the Facts

Catherine, 42, said her “major abdominal” surgery in January was “successful, however tests after the operation found cancer had been present.” She said she has started "a course of preventive chemotherapy” treatments. Watch the video below:

She did not announce the type of cancer.

“This of course came as a huge shock and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family,” said the Princess of Wales, wearing her engagement ring and wedding band.

She explained her public absence was due to both recovering from surgery to start treatments and to explain everything to her children— George, Charlotte and Louis. Catherine said she told them in a way that was “appropriate” and reassured them “that I am going to be okay.”

Her father-in-law, King Charles, also has cancer. Poor Prince William has a young wife and father both going through tough treatments.

Kensington Palace originally said Kate would be out of public life until after Easter. She didn’t address the timeline in this video, but it will likely be longer.

“We hope that you’ll understand that as a family, we now need some time, space and privacy while I complete my treatment,” said the British princess.

Royal Rumors

Princess Catherine has been the subject of global gossip and conspiracy theories for her absence from public life. People guessed it was everything from being in a coma to plastic surgery to her husband cheating on her.

“Having William by my side is a great source of comfort and reassurance” she said, putting to bed the media stories of another woman.

The controversy over Kate’s absence hit a high when she admitted to photoshopping a family photo that the wire services killed for being manipulated.

Then she— or the PR team from Kensington Palace— sent her out in a car with William but only showed the side of her face. This increased the conspiracy theories.

Last weekend, William and Catherine were seen in a grainy video at a local market. It seemed like a PR stunt, even though the person who took the video declared he didn’t know the rumors and just happened to see them (see the newspaper covers in the photo above.)

The New Kate

I wrote that many found it odd that Catherine has been a spokeswoman for various important issues but kept her medical diagnosis a secret. She has turned that around by declaring that she is thinking of all those whose lives have been affected by cancer.

“For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone,” said the princess.

I understand that some of you say we all should have left her alone. But I think…

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Now, Princess Catherine has become the most hotly debated and gossiped about woman on earth. What went so wrong for the future queen of England?

Sudden Surgery

Kate’s first public show of weakness came when Kensington Palace announced on Jan. 17 that she had “planned” abdominal surgery the day before that would require two weeks in a hospital, followed by recovery through Easter.

(There is a possibility from this video tweet that Kate was actually rushed to the hospital on Dec. 28.)

This was shocking because it was so extremely out of character. Kate had always been athletic and was beloved for joining in sports (field hockey, sailing, running) at her public events. Her physical strength was on show after each of her three children were born. She did a photo op that same day, wearing heels and smiling.

She looked stunning at Christmas with her family (above) and just days later was too sick for public events for months.

The Mystery Illness

What were the possible medical reasons for such a lengthy hospital stay for a seemingly healthy, 42-year-old?

Kate said in a statement that it was her wish that “her personal medical information remains private.”

That didn’t stop the guessing but pushed it into anonymous Twitter/X accounts and friend group chats because no one wanted to call out a medical condition that could be embarrassing.

(The most common theory on social media was she had a resection of some sort and then a temporary colostomy bag. Nurses chimed in on Reddit to say those procedures matched the timing of the missing princess.)

Princess Catherine had become a spokeswoman for various important issues. So many asked why she wouldn’t use this opportunity to raise public awareness of whatever ailed her. 

It was glaring compared to King Charles, who announced the same day that he had to be hospitalized for an enlarged prostate. A spokesman said the king decided to tell the public about the surgery in advance in an effort to encourage other men to have their prostates checked.

Charles reportedly visited Kate as they were in the same hospital, but no photo was released. Prince William was seen just one time (above) driving to the hospital to visit her. Her children have not been seen publicly since Christmas.

The Lengthy Recovery

Kensington Palace finally said on Jan. 29 that Kate had left the hospital to return home to Windsor and was “making good progress.” But as February dragged on with no sightings of Kate — who was supposedly working from home— the gossip turned to bigger conspiracy theories.

A Spanish reporter said Kate was in a coma. The palace actually denied that.  Social media users wondered if Kate was dead.

Was she dropping out of the royal duties (like her mother-in-law Princess Diana did before) and leaving William? This theory is based on a longtime rumor that William had an affair with Kate’s friend Rose Hanbury.

Kate’s absence during all of February was in contrast to King Charles who was diagnosed with an unnamed type of cancer but has continued to attend some public events and share photos of meetings at home.

Many wondered why the princess was no longer up to the task of tax-payer-funded royal life anymore. Is she really that sick or is she hiding something?

Kate spent her entire adult life avoiding drama and controversy. Now she was in the center of a whirlwind of negative attention.

The Weird Car Photo

Over a month after she left the hospital, paparazzi got a photo of Kate being driven by her mother. The British press did not buy the photo because it wasn’t authorized by the palace— back when that lent credibility and favor. TMZ in the U.S. ran it on March 4.

Kate (above) had a puffy face and wasn’t that recognizable. Social media users said it was Pippa or a body double. The princess and her staff could have publicly ignored these wild theories, but instead, they gambled on a PR stunt that changed forever Kate’s perfect reputation. 

The Mother’s Day Photo

Kensington Palace released the photo of Kate and her children to news media on March 10, which was Mother’s Day in the U.K. At first, everyone was happy and relieved to see her again and looking healthy.

Catherine signed a note with the photo on social media. It said William, the Prince of Wales, took the photo. The palace told the media that the photo was taken within the past week. It seemed old Kate was back and the perfect family restored. 

But the excitement over seeing a seemingly healthy princess was short-lived as social media users pointed out the glaringly obvious photoshopping. The tweet at the top of my story shows all the photoshopping mistakes in the photo.

This was not about the type of editing we all do— blurring facial lines or fixing stray hairs. The majority of the edits are in the center of the photo which some think means Kate changed her own face for vanity reasons. That would make her complicit in a big lie. 

Also, Kate was not wearing her wedding or engagement rings, which she has never done in public in the past. That added to the theory that her marriage is on the rocks.

News Media Backlash

Just hours after the social media alarm bells, all the major wire services— AP, AFP, Reuters, AFP et al— issued a rare “photo kill” because Kate’s photo had been “manipulated.” This meant news outlets around the world had to pull the photo from their publications.

A photo kill is a rare journalism move that is only done when a photo has been altered in a way to be disinformation.

The head of the AFP told the BBC on Wednesday that, “The previous kills we’ve had have been from the North Korean news agency or the Iranian news agency.” He also said Kensington Palace is no longer a trusted news source.

“The big issue here is one of trust and the lack of trust—or the falling trust—of the general public in institutions generally and in the media,” said the AFP’s Phil Chetwynd.

“And so it’s extremely important that a photo does represent, broadly, the reality that [it was taken in], and therefore it is not, in a sense, telling some kind of lie or some kind of false truth around an event that happens.”

The AP said the “image revealed inconsistencies” that included “the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand with the sleeve of her sweater.” (Read the full AP statement on its policies here.)

Kate’s Apology Mistakes

I’ve written in the past about my experiences in crisis communication. This is defined specifically as a way to deal with the media when your reputation and integrity are on the line. 

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The first thing to do is get out all the facts and information available. Catherine did not do this…

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When we heard ABC was making a spinoff with senior citizens, we thought it was a joke, then just a bad idea. But we love the surprisingly entertaining “The Golden Bachelor.” This show about people in their 60s and 70s falling in love and planning second marriages is a ratings hit.

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For those of you who missed my Oct. 25 newsletter about publishing paralysis, I explained why I had not written about this show. Your feedback in the comments convinced me to go ahead with four episodes left in the season, starting tonight.

Second Marriage

Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner is a handsome, 72-year-old, retired, midwestern, grieving widower who wants to get remarried.

“I yearn for a second chance in life to fall in love again,” Gerry said between tears on the premiere. “The person who can lay down beside you at night, not have to say anything, and you feel it. That’s love— that’s what I want.”

He was set up with two dozen women from 60 to 75 years old with the goal of proposing to the one with the final rose at the end of the season. Gerry has cut the field down to three women for the episode in their hometowns. (His name is pronounced GEAR-ee, not Jerry. He told Jimmy Kimmel it’s an Irish name.)

Gerry cries a lot over his first wife, Toni, who died six years ago. He starts crying within the first three minutes of the first episode when he’s asked about her death.

The Golden Bachelor (golden years, get it?) is shown standing on the balcony of his Indiana lake house which he bought for retirement right before Toni died. 

“Every time I look out on that lake, I think, this is her dream, this is what she deserves. Why am I standing here alone?” he said as he kissed her framed photo. “No one will ever replace Toni.”

Hot and Flashy

Gerry won’t replace Toni, but he’s quickly attracted to the women on the show who are all skinny, with mostly taut skin and decked in sexy clothes. Most of the women, in my opinion, likely had a little nip and tuck and genetically look significantly younger than their ages.

Leslie, a 64-year-old fitness instructor from Minneapolis, showed up in the beginning dressed as a stereotypical old lady in a long pink nightgown with short, curly, gray hair and using a walker.

Gerry asked her if she needed help getting out of the limo. Leslie then threw away the walker, pulled off the nightgown and showed a sexy, lace, strapless, mini dress and the body of a 25-year-old.

“The women are amazing. Everybody looks really, really good,” said Leslie. “We are all breaking the stereotypical view of what a senior looks like -- or acts like.”

She said she once dated Prince, who wrote the song “Sexy Dancer” about her. Leslie is actually looking for a third marriage because she is twice divorced.

Theresa Nist, a financial services professional from New Jersey, had her 70th birthday on the show. She arrived at the “Bachelor Mansion” in a black wrap dress and implied she was only wearing her birthday suit under it. She pulled the ties open, facing him.

Gerry stared straight down her body like a 17-year-old boy. We later saw she was covered in a nude-colored undergarment, but she clearly got his attention.

Later that night, Theresa changed into a gold, sequin gown with a plunging neckline.  Gerry gave her a cupcake with a “70” candle. He flirtingly asked her to help get off the icing after he took a bite. They started kissing and then made out like 20-somethings. 

“That was the best birthday gift ever,” said Teresa, who has been a widow for nine years. “It’s been such a long time since I had butterflies like this!”

Golden Rose Ratings

The old people have gotten huge ratings. The first episode had 11 million viewers, the highest for the franchise in two years. Ratings were even up for the target demographic of 18 to 49-year-olds, which are viewers young enough to be the stars’ children and grandchildren.

Since then, it’s still been the most popular show on Thursday nights with four million viewers. This is also impressive because we have spent two decades watching the show on Monday nights with group chats and watch parties. 

Grief and Hope

One reason for the popularity of the show is due to its cast’s wholesome hope that they can find romantic love after death or divorce and the bloom of youth. 

Ellen Goltzer, 71, told Gerry that she came on the show because her best friend Roberta Zaktzer, who had cancer, encouraged her. The series is dedicated to Roberta, who died in September. 

“I think we are capable at this age to do it, and I think everybody is entitled to love and be loved,” Ellen said to Gerry.

Nancy Hulkower, a beautiful blonde 60-year-old, fell sobbing after putting on a wedding dress for a costume skit in the second episode. 

Gerry comforted Nancy as she explained, "I haven't had a wedding dress on for 36 years, and it was when I married the love of my life.” Her husband Mark passed away 12 years earlier. 

(Nancy decided to leave the show after injuring herself playing pickleball. She is from Alexandria, VA, which is a D.C. suburb. I’d love to interview her if anyone knows her?)

Right reasons

The show is also loved by fans because the cast is on for— as they say on the show— the right reasons. That means they sincerely want to fall in love and get remarried, not get famous and gain Instagram followers. The women become close friends and support one another, as opposed to being competitors.

Although Gerry cries to the other women about Toni a lot, he’s met with their own open grief for their deceased husbands. If Gerry proposes in the end, he and his second wife will have the ghosts of the first spouses in their marriage. 

Aging Reality

ABC deserves a lot of credit for showing old age as a part of life, rather than a terrible fate. Aging is hard, and they don’t try to hide it from the audience.

The first episode began in complete silence as Gerry put on his tuxedo shirt and tie. At 56 seconds, he put hearing aids in his ears and the audio began. Cat Stevens’s song plays: 

I listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul

Where I’ll end up well I think, only God really knows

It sounds hokey, but it was powerful. This is the best of reality TV.

At the end of the second episode, a contestant complained to producers that the “rose ceremony”— a long scene with the women standing was not appropriate. She looked directly into the camera and said: 

You have people in here 60, 70 and above.  Do the rose ceremony in chairs. They have chair yoga, chair exercise and chair aerobics. Chair rose ceremony.

SPOILER ALERT! Against my will, a friend told me who gets cut tonight. I am putting it below the payall so it doesn’t spoil anyone by accident. Stop reading here if you want to be surprised.

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By sharing this story publicly for the first time, I hope to give you insights into a complex man I cared about after he openly shared his life story and struggles with addiction and mental health.

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The One With the Celebrity

I was with a bunch of reporters waiting outside the House chamber to get into a so-called backgrounder on tax policy when Matthew Perry walked nearby. He looked older and was unshaven but still familiar from his role as Chandler Bing on “Friends.”

I was on the phone with a CNN producer and quickly cradled the phone on my left shoulder and held out my hand.

”Matthew Perry, I just wanted to meet you,” I said. 

He shook my hand. “Nice to meet you too,” he said in the distinctive voice from TV. He smiled and kept walking with four other men. 

I was shaking with excitement. “I just met Matthew Perry,” I told the producer on the phone.

“Really? From ‘Friends’?” She asked. “What’s he doing there?”

“I don’t know, but that was so cool.” I found out later he was on Capitol Hill to lobby for drug courts. (This Daily Mail story was the day after our date.)

The One with the Meet Cute at the Capitol

A few minutes later, I saw Matthew Perry looking at me from around the corner. I made eye contact. He started walking toward me, so I headed to meet him to get out of earshot of the other reporters. 

“I'm in town for a few days. I don't know if you're married, but if not, would you like to go to dinner?” he asked, shyly. 

“Yes, I mean, no, I’m not married, and I’d like that,” I said, smiling big. 

“Great! Can I have your number?” he asked. 

I dug into my bag for a business card so fast that I spilled a bunch of stuff on the floor. “Here!” I said.

“Can’t give that to me fast enough, huh?”he teased. I was embarrassed that I was acting like such a fangirl. He took my card, thanked me and left.

I walked back and a female reporter asked, “Did you just talk to Matthew Perry?” 

“Yeah, I just wanted to meet him,” I replied. I didn’t tell her that he asked me on a date because I assumed I’d never hear from him again.

Also, I didn’t want to have more gossip about my love life back then. I’d been through that in a very public way because of my ex-fiance who I also met in the Capitol. (Read that story here.)

The One with The Dating Rules

About an hour later, I was writing on deadline in the press gallery and got a call from a 310 area code.

“This is Emily,” I said carefully and quietly because I was sitting shoulder to shoulder with other print reporters. 

“Hi Emily, It’s Matthew Perry,” he said. 

“Oh, hi, hi!” (He told me later that his friends called him “Matty” but I never thought of him as anything other than MatthewPerry.)

“You sound surprised,” he said. “We just met in the hall. You gave me your card.”

“Yes I know, I just didn't expect you to call,” I said. I was too stunned to act nonchalant.

“Do you not want me to call?” he asked. 

I said I did and was just focused on writing.

“I wanted to see if there’s any chance you’re free for dinner tonight?”

Back then, I read and followed “The Rules” book that said never go on a date with a man within three days of his asking. I quickly decided to break the rules for the one-in-a-million chance that my number one celebrity crush suddenly appeared in the Capitol and asked me out on a date.

“I just may have to do a hit on CNN after work, so it would be after that,” I said. 

“Are you a CNN anchor?” he asked.

“Oh no, I write for The Washington Times, I just do CNN and some TV about my stories. Can I tell you the timing in a couple hours?” 

“Sure! But I’d like to see you on CNN. That would be really cool” he said. 

“It’s really not. TV Emily is the same as regular Emily,” I said. 

“I’m very different on TV,” he said seriously.

The One With the Collar

The CNN producer called and said my segment got bumped for breaking news. I was relieved because that meant I had time to change before dinner.

I drove home fast and started to redo my makeup when he called again.

“Hey, I just need a few minutes to put on comfortable clothes,” I told him. I was planning on jeans and a black top. 

“Comfortable?” he asked. 

“What…is that wrong?”

“Well, that's all?” I was suddenly nervous about going on a date with such a big celebrity. I didn’t have the wardrobe or lifestyle.

“Oh, I can dress up then,” I said. 

“Let's figure out what I'm going to wear,” he said. I thought he was kidding. I asked what he had on already.

“I've got on a t-shirt and sweater and jeans,” he said

“Oh, no collar?” I asked

“What do you mean a collar?”  

“Well, I think a man should always go out in a collar.”

“I think I have a polo shirt, I could wear that with the khakis.”

I realized this wasn’t banter. He was insecure and indecisive and needed my guidance. I also ask for advice on everything, so this was going to be hard.

“That sounds fine,” I told him.

“No it won’t work because it doesn't go with the one jacket I have,” he said.

I was starting to think we would never actually go on a date because it was getting late and he was clearly slow walking it. I told him to just stay in what he was wearing.

“No, no, I'll wear what I had on when we met but just not the tie,” he finally said. He had been wearing a black jacket when we met. You can see in the photos in this story that he wore that same jacket for both days on the Hill.

My image of the perfect boyfriend from “Friends” was blurring.

“That sounds perfect,” I replied. I now see his delaying tactics as anxiety.

The One With the Spaghetti Strips

“So what are you going to wear?” he asked.

“What do you want me to wear?” I sounded flirtatious but was exasperated.

This time he told me to wear whatever I wanted.

“We've been through this, and we're going to be on the phone all night at this rate. What do you like?”

“Maybe a black dress,” he said.

“Fine, anything else?”

“Do you have one with those spaghetti strips?”

Strips. I laughed so hard that I had to put down the phone. 

“STRAPS, spaghetti straps, not strips,” I finally said, still laughing. I loved that he didn’t know that term. That made him seem like a normal guy.

Coincidentally, I had just bought a dress that exactly fit that description from Forever 21 for like $12. It was short, and I felt like it might look slutty, so I put a longer, black trench coat over it that I kept on all night.

He called a fourth time to ask where to go to dinner, but I told him I’d meet at his hotel and decide. I drove to the DuPont Hotel, valet parked my car and walked into the bar. He was sitting by himself in the middle of a busy scene.

“Hi,” I said, sitting on the stool next to him. 

“Wow, you look fantastic,” he said.

“It’s the spaghetti strips,” I said smiling and pulled down the coat collar to show my shoulder. 

“You look amazing,” he said kindly. Of course, I knew he dated movie stars like Julia Roberts and Neve Campbell. I was way out of my league. But he seemed genuine, which made me feel more confident.

“I like your collar shirt,” I said, laughing. He was heavier than normal. His hair was messy, and he hadn’t shaven. But his blue eyes sparkled when he smiled, and he was still handsome. I liked his boyishness. 

The One Where the Cracks Show

“What would you like to drink?” he asked. I knew he was an addict and seemed to be sober, so I wasn’t sure what to do.

“What are you having?” I asked. 

“I’ve got club soda but get whatever you want,” he said. I asked for a glass of white wine. 

He said he had gotten out of rehab six months earlier and that the public didn’t know about it. He explained that one of the men in the group earlier that day was a “sober coach” who traveled with him. He told me the coach had been with him at the bar until I arrived. 

I asked if it bothered him if I drank wine, and he said not at all.

He wanted to talk about politics. He was liberal and interested in my more conservative views. He said that his mother (now Suzanne Morrison) had been the press secretary and very close to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

The conversation quickly veered into our personal lives. In hindsight, it was too fast to share such intimate topics because he seemed familiar from TV. We talked about our difficult relationships with our mothers. He told me about how he moved to the U.S. to live with his father.

We also talked about our love lives.  He said he hoped to have children before he was much older. I told him about the movie that was based on my broken engagement.

He said he had recently broken up with Lizzy Caplan, who he lived with for five years. He said she was nuts (all men say that), and they just finished couples therapy to negotiate the end.

He said he wanted to start over after the breakup, so he was selling all his houses and buying new ones. That seemed extreme, but I rented a one-bedroom apartment.

The One With Four Restaurants

As we talked, I felt people staring at us. Over the years in Wahington, I’d worked for many well-known political and media figures who got recognized in public. This was different. Everyone watched years of “Friends” episodes and felt the characters were their real friends. People stared at him like he couldn’t see back— like he was on their TV screens. 

He suggested we get a table and eat. But when we saw the options, it was clear we had to go somewhere less well-lit with more private tables.

Again, he asked me to make the decision. I said we’ll walk to the Palm because it’s just across the circle. He agreed, but once we got to the restaurant, he said he didn't want to go inside. I pointed at an Italian restaurant across the street, but he also didn’t like that one. I didn’t want to cut the date short, so I kept trying to please him.

“I know— Cafe Milano will be perfect. All the celebrities go there when they are in D.C. so they will know how to handle this,” I resolved. 

“No way, I’m not going anywhere with paparazzi,” he said.

I laughed at him and explained that there are no paparazzi in Washington. Still, he refused. We were standing on the street in the dark.

“Milano is the best,” I insisted. “I just saw George Clooney there.”

“Oh, well then that works. He’s a much bigger star than I am.” I was surprised by his humility.

The One at CVS Self-Checkout

We grabbed a regular cab that was nearby. As the taxi drove down M Street, MatthewPerry suddenly said, “I need something for my heartburn.” 

I didn’t know what that meant.

“I’m sorry, but I need Tums. Can we stop somewhere?” 

I told the cab driver to go to the nearest CVS. When we got there, MatthewPerry aimlessly walked along the brightly fluorescent-lit aisles looking for Tums. I found the bottle and followed him to the checkout. He stopped abruptly.

“What do you do here?”

“You don’t know how to use a self-checkout?” I asked.

“I’ve never seen this before,” he said 

I grabbed the Tums from him, scanned it, took his credit card and paid for it. I led us outside and got another cab. 

“Sorry about that. My assistant does my errands,” he said. I read that he died while his assistant was out getting him a new iPhone and glasses. 

“When you have a certain amount of money, that’s how it works,” he said. I was fascinated.  He explained how he had multiple assistants around the clock and could call to get the most simple errands for him. He explained all this in the most down-to-earth manner. He was like an observer on the inside of a strange world.

The One at Cafe Milano with Nancy Pelosi

As we walked into the restaurant and to the front desk, one girl looked up and started laughing. I moved in front of him. I had become protective of him. I asked for a table for two somewhere private.

The girl kept staring at MatthewPerry and laughing.

They took us past the bar to the back of the restaurant. I pointed out that Rep. Nancy Pelosi was at the next table. She didn’t notice him.

The One With the Insecurity

I can’t remember what we ordered for dinner (veal maybe?), but we talked for hours.

He told me he desperately wanted to be a successful movie actor and was upset that he wasn’t. He talked about trying to get cast in movies but he was too well known as Chandler. He also was disappointed that the TV show “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” failed because it was the quality he wanted to do.

I no longer was enamored by his fame. He was struggling with even more insecurity than I was.

He wanted to practice his speech for the next day at dinner. He spoke about the advantages of sending addicts to rehab instead of jail through the drug courts. He tried to be funny but wasn’t. I suggested some better lines. He didn’t like that. 

“You're telling me how to be funny? I'm a professional comedic actor,” he said, pointedly.

“I'm usually the funny one,” I replied.

The One That Led to Putin

After several hours, we got another cab to go back to the hotel. When we got into the lobby, I said, I’d had a great time.

“You’re leaving?” he asked.

“Yes, thank you. I had a really fun night.” I replied.

“Just have one more drink. Come upstairs for one more drink,” he said. He grabbed my hand and jokingly pulled me toward the elevators. 

“No way, I’m not going upstairs.”

“Look, I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. Come upstairs and help me finish this speech and leave whenever you want.”

I gave in and said okay. He used his key card to get to a secured floor. My decision to go to Matthew Perry’s hotel room helped me professionally in the most unlikely way.

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Three years later, I exclusively reported that an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin died of mysterious circumstances at the Hotel DuPont. I was able to access the secure floor and get the only video of the possible crime scene because I had been there with Matthew Perry.

The One That Got Bad Press

Once inside his suite,

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A woke Substack writer used notes to insult and criticize my beloved grandmother, who died in 2012 at 100 years old. I was furious. I tried to block the writer but learned it doesn’t work retroactively. The debate revolved around the recent swimsuit cover photo featuring 81-year-old Martha Stewart.

Empowering Swimsuit Model

My point in the note above was that “Sports Illustrated” put Martha on the cover of its famous swimsuit issue was a commendable effort to promote positive perspectives on aging. Of course, it also aimed to attract attention through its shock value. Clearly this strategy worked. Stewart proudly announced Tuesday that her cover photo has gotten a staggering 10 billion impressions online within in a week of its release. (The issue features three other covers with younger women.)

Woke Reverse Ageism

Following my note on the bathing suit photo, "beauty journalist” Jessica DeFino restacked it to her subscribers and wrote: 

counterpoint: it doesn’t really count as celebrating an older woman if you’re celebrating her for still looking young and fuckable

I was taken aback by DeFino's unsolicited response and engaged in a back-and-forth exchange that quickly deteriorated.

Me: “I don't think she looks young, I think she looks good for her age.”

DeFino:

Looks good for her age is another way of saying Looks younger than people her age normally do. This is classic beauty culture rhetoric. Different language, same ideology.

Me: “It is a GOOD THING to look ‘good for your age’ because it means you are in good health, fit, agile, etc. Ask any primary doctor.”

DeFino: No. This response — which assumes health, fitness, and agility are and should be associated with one very specific aesthetic — is bursting with beauty culture conditioning. So is the medical system.

Me: “My grandmother, who died at 100, told people she was in her ‘mid-80s’ because she looked so good for her age. The reason is she got up early every morning and did an hour of exercise. She dieted her whole life so she maintained her weight. She also did her hair, dressed nicely and did her nails until the day she died — peacefully and happily. I walk in her footsteps and look good for my age.”

DeFino:

What a lovely memory of a woman who internalized systemic ageism in such a way that she felt the need to lie about her age to the end <3

I was furious. I reminded myself that I don’t fight with strangers on the internet. Instead, I blocked her. But the post stayed up and DeFino used my comments to write a whole newsletter on the debate. She ended her newsletter on her nasty judgment about my grandmother. (I’m not linking to it so just search her name in Substack if you want to read.)

‘Internalized systemic ageism’ — aka age is a number

While some may think living to 100 was an achievement, my grandmother thought it determined how people treated her. At her 100th birthday party, she told us to tell the restaurant waitstaff that she was turning 93* years old. We could only mention her age when they left the room.

Likewise, Martha told “The Today Show”:

I don't act my age, and I don't want to even think about my age.

Both women worked to appear younger, which also means being healthier. Like my grandmother, Martha says she exercises regularly (Pilates every other day) and diets (cut out carbs for months before this photo shoot.) They both obviously color their gray hair, do not dress age-appropriately and have extremely high self-esteem.

Martha has been posting more photos of herself in bathing suits since the cover landed. She told NBC about how she looks:

…there might be some physical defects in terms of the “ideal” woman, but I have nice legs, I have a good body, I have good skin. I might be a little fat here and there, but who cares? It looks good altogether, the package is good..

Plastic Surgery for Aging

The 10 billion views of Martha’s cover are mostly from all of us trying to figure out what plastic surgery she’s had done.

Martha denies any work. She told Variety:

I’ve had absolutely no plastic surgery whatsoever. I have very healthy, good hair. I drink green juice every day. I take my vitamins. I eat very healthfully. I have very good skin doctors. I’m very careful in the sun. I wear hats and I wear sunblock every single day.

I saw Martha in a facial spa in New York City years ago. I share the details with paid subscribers below.

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Plastic surgeons, however, say Martha has not been transparent about how her face looks so young. Dr. Alexander Z. Rivkin, M.D posted this side-by-side below and wrote that she clearly had a facelift, among other procedures. According to internet sleuths, Martha had work done by Dr. Andrew Jacono in New York City.

Martha is a natural beauty and her career started as a model. She’s famous for being beautiful, so investing in surgery to look younger makes sense for her career. It wouldn’t fit her brand to talk about getting work done. She’s always been unrelatable and created an image of perfection (except for the time in prison.)

Photoshop and Filters:

Martha is also being criticized for being heavily photoshopped “filtered’ in the photos. She told Variety:

They are incredibly accurate pictures. I was really pleased that there was not much airbrushing.

The truth is that all magazine photos are photoshopped (“airbrushed”), just as are all advertisements. This isn’t just a celebrity trick. Average women can’t pay for photoshop but social media posts are almost all filtered in some way. Facetune is an enormously popular app that takes away lines and wrinkles and can change the size of your body parts.

I highly doubt other 80-year-old women are looking at Martha’s photoshopped photos and thinking this is exactly how she looks in real life and feeling badly about themselves in comparison.

Looks Good for Her Age

I understand that people say that it feels like an insult when they are told that they look good for their age, rather than just looking good. I agree that it’s a slight because no one is telling a 25-year-old that she looks good for her age. 

But DeFino's attack on my viewpoint as being "one very specific aesthetic" is just woke, wordy shtick and wrong.

Looking younger is a good thing because it almost always signifies good physical health, mobility and an active engagement with life. It is not about conforming to narrow beauty standards but embracing the best of ourselves and celebrating overall well-being. As I said, most doctors would agree that they prefer patients who appear healthy and vibrant, regardless of their age.

When Martha learned that she would become the oldest person ever to grace the cover of "Sports Illustrated," her response was: "I don't think about age very much, but I thought that this is kind of historic."

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The system is set up so the rich and famous can promote themselves to multiple media outlets at the same time. Photographers, reporters, TV hosts stand in a rope line to get access to the celebrities. The actors field softball questions…

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It was shocking a year ago when Smith stormed on stage during the Oscars and physically assaulted Rock on live, global TV. We debated for days in the comments in this story whether “the slap” was real or staged and whether it was warranted over a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada.

Now Rock says the attack was real, the hit was hard, and it came from Smith misdirecting his anger at him instead of at Jada for cheating on him with a friend of their son.

Rock Solid

Rock ended the public debate over whether the fight was staged.

“People like, did it hurt? It still hurt. I got ‘Summertime’ playing in my ears,” he to said during the live show this weekend in Baltimore (which is Jada’s hometown.)

The Oscar host added,  “I know you can’t tell on camera. Will Smith is significantly bigger than me.” Rock noted that Smith played Mohammed Ali in a movie. 

“A lot of people are pissed, like why didn’t you do nothing back?” Rock explained. “Because I was raised, got it? Do you know what my parents taught me?  Don’t fight in front of white people.”

Slap Viral Video

The popularity of the Netflix show shows the fascination with the Rock/Smith fight remains high. I could’ve told you this over the past year because of the engagement with this Facebook post about it from March 2022.

It is the most popular video I have ever posted, with almost five million views. I still get comments from people debating whether Rock or Smith is to blame. Click below to see the viral post.

Jada’s Entanglement

The Netflix show is frustrating to watch because it does not allow for fast-forward or rewinding. You have to watch the whole hour from start to finish or not at all.

The part of Rock’s show about Smith is, of course, saved for the last 10 minutes. I had to hit pause and take notes for my quotes in this story, like this gem:

Everybody really knows I had nothing to do with that s—t. I do not have any entanglements...

His wife was f—ing her son’s friend.

“Entanglement” is a jab at Jada who used that term to describe her years-long affair with August Alsina. The singer, who is 20 years younger, reportedly met Jada through her kids in 2015. The Smiths have been married since 1997.

Airing the Affair

Rock said he normally wouldn’t talk about the Smiths’ marriage but “for some reason they put it on the internet.”

He’s referring to the July 2020 Facebook video "Red Table Talk” in which Jada interviews Will about their marriage. Will takes issue with Jada calling her affair an “entanglement” and makes her call it a “relationship.”

Rock said:

We all been cheated on. Everyone in here has been cheated on.

None of us have ever been interviewed by the person that cheated on us for television. None of us.

The Smiths insist they were separated during the period of Jada’s affair with Alsina.

Smith Blows

Rock said Smith was humiliated by other celebrities for going along with Jada’s public affair. “She hurt him way more than he hurt me,” he said.

“Everybody in the world called him a bitch. They called his wife a predator… And who’d he hit? Me. A n—-a he know he can beat. That some bitch ass s—t,” he told the audience, which appeared to be mostly female.

But Smith acted as if he hit Rock in defense of his wife. Remember, when he went back to his seat, he screamed: "Keep my wife's name out your f--ing mouth."

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Jada Started It

Those who defended Smith after the slap said Rock deserved it for making fun of Jada’s bald head…

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Walpole was outed when Harry wrote in his memoir “Spare” the specific details about the “older woman” (by two years) who took his virginity. I was thrust into the spotlight when The Street Journal and a Hollywood movie used my real name in stories about my former fiancee.

Exposed by Harry

Walpole, 40, has been “panicking” for the past month since Harry, 38, published his book which gave a detailed account of having sex with her in 2001.  The mother of two said she was embarrassed to have to tell her father about having the fling with the prince before he read it in the paper.

Harry was paid $20 million for a multi-book deal and the memoir has been a massive, global bestseller. 

“I kept this a secret for 21 years. I did it because Harry was a friend, regardless of whether he's a prince or not,” Walpole told The Daily Mail. “I didn't invite any of this attention, but I know the hunt would have kept going until people found me.”

The reason she waited a month is that she thought she “could hide and that it would blow over.” But as names of different women became public, she “realized that to make the speculation stop, I needed to tell the truth.” She finally decided to do two interviews with British papers. 

“He has brought it to my door by writing about it,” said Walpole, who works as a “digger” (excavator driver.) “I would never have spoken out if Harry hadn't. I'm not that sort of person. If I was going to talk about it, I could have done so a long time ago.”

Walpole said someone could have warned her it was coming, whether Harry or high-powered teams of lawyers and publicists. “If you're me, then you suddenly feel as if your world is getting a little bit smaller,” Walpole said. 

Like a virgin

In Harry’s 408-page book, the only* time he writes about having sex was the one time with Walpole (page 70): 

Inglorious episode, with an older woman. She liked horses, quite a lot, and treated me not unlike a young stallion.  Quick ride, after which she'd smacked my rump and sent me off to graze.  Among the many things about it that were wrong: It happened in a grassy field behind a busy pub. Obviously, someone had seen us. 

Walpole explained to The Sun that they had jumped over a wall to a field for the unexpected romp. But when they came back, the pub was closing so everyone was outside.

"My friends saw me and started laughing. I didn’t have my belt and it’s obvious when you come back a bit disheveled from a field,” she recalled. Harry was hiding from his security in a phone booth. 

Walpole said Harry could have respected her privacy by simply writing that he lost his virginity, without giving the specific details that identify her.

The prince also decided to add the tantalizing tidbit about “an older woman,” which created the media spectacle. Multiple, high-profile women who are significantly older have been asked by reporters if they were Harry’s “older woman”, and all denied it.

Spotlight on me

My stepfather called me one morning in 2006 to tell me I was on the front page of The Wall Street Journal with my ex-fiance. My stepdad was panicking and upset for me. He had helped me get through my heartbreak when Mike Scanlon called off our wedding four years earlier.

The headline was this: 

There was a dot matrix picture of me (below) in the center and above the fold of the newspaper. This was the first line: 

WASHINGTON -- The engagement of Emily Miller and Michael Scanlon was supposed to mark the coming out of a new Washington power couple.

I hadn’t told my stepdad that I might be in his morning newspaper because I thought I could kill it….

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To save the evening, I asked a handsome celebrity I didn’t know to go to a party after the formal dinner. I learned later that his name was Tom Brady, and he was a successful football quarterback.

Now as Brady announced his final retirement at 45 years old, I’m reminded of when I met him after he had won multiple Super Bowls but was not yet the GOAT.

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I saw a very tall, handsome man shaking hands and taking photos with fans among the tables after the 2004 White House Correspondents dinner had ended. He looked uncomfortable and somewhat lost.

The annual Washington press dinner has Hollywood celebrities that aren’t always A-list and easily recognizable (like Affleck), so I assumed the man in the tuxedo and tie was one of those D-listers. I walked over to him. 

“Hey, are you going to the Bloomberg afterparty?” I asked with my neck bent all the way back to see his face. I’m 5’2” and even in 3” heels, I came up to about his shoulders in the tuxedo. 

“I was supposed to, but I don’t know where to go,” he replied.

“It’s up the street at a house. Do you want to walk with me?” I asked. “I’m Emily.”

“Tom, and that’s great, thank you,” he replied. 

Party Crashers

I had an ulterior motive. There are always parties after the press dinner, but the one hosted by Bloomberg Media was the most exclusive. I have never been invited. I was finagling a way to get in as a guest. 

“Let’s go this way,” I said, directing Tom to the ballroom exits. People still stopped him for photos, but he looked happier that he had an escape now. 

We went outside, up the stairs, took an escalator and left out the front of the hotel doors. No one bothered him. We had about three blocks to walk to the mansion with the party. I was trying not to stumble in my heels. It was cold in a formal dress.  

As we got close, we could see the line to get into the party started about a block away from the house. There were clearly more people waiting in line than had been invited. I wasn’t sure my scam of getting in on his ticket would work. 

“Hey, you wait here in line a minute. I want to see something,” I ordered. 

“Okay,” Tom replied. 

I walked the length of the line and found a red carpet and a row of TV cameras and reporters interviewing the famous people who entered the party. No one was checking their names for tickets and guests. This would be my only way into the exclusive afterparty.  

“Is this where to bring the celebrity guests?” I asked a woman with a clipboard who seemed to be in charge. “I have one back in line.”

“Depends who it is,” she said. 

I didn’t know if my celebrity was red-carpet worthy, but I had gotten this far and figured I’d try. I went back to the line and found Tom. 

It’s Tom Brady

“Come with me, we’re going to the red carpet entrance,” I said.

“I don’t think I should do that. No one asked me to do it,” he replied. He wasn’t moving.

“I think it’s where you’re supposed to go,” I insisted. He looked at the people behind him in line. They hadn’t noticed him.

“I guess…” he said, following me slowly up the line to the red carpet. 

I walked directly to the woman with the clipboard. She looked over my head and exclaimed, “Tom Brady!” 

(This still meant nothing to me because I’ve never watched football. I know that I should have heard of him in general pop culture, but I hadn’t at this point.)

I realized my chance of getting into the party depended on sticking with this man. So I pretended to be his publicist.  I had worked in TV news – behind the scenes — at NBC and ABC, so I knew how this system worked. 

Walking the red carpet with Tom Brady

I scanned the TV cameras which have stickers on the side with the name of the TV network or show. I walked over to “Entertainment Tonight” and asked: “Do you want Tom Brady?” The man said yes. 

“Tom, Tom, come here,” I yelled at him while camera bulbs went off all around us. He walked to me. “This is ‘Entertainment Tonight.’” 

The reporter immediately put his microphone up to Brady and started interviewing him, while I moved to the next camera. 

“Tom, I need you here with ‘Access Hollywood,’” I said. He followed my directions. 

We went all along the red carpet doing every interview.  At the end of the TV cameras, a bunch of still photographers stood close together. 

“Tom, I need you here,” I said pointing at a spot on the carpet in front of a step-and-repeat sign for Bloomberg. I backed out of the shot and let him pose. It took just a few seconds. Here’s one from that night:

“This way,” I said to Tom as I headed to a side door of the house. I was trying to figure out where they would ask for tickets. I didn’t see anyone outside.

He followed me. I opened the door and went in first. Inside the house, there was no one asking for tickets. I made it! 

Why is Tom Brady famous?

“Thank you so much for helping me,” Brady said as we entered the private party. “That was so nice of you. I really appreciate it."

“No problem,” I replied. “Let’s go get a drink.”

As we walked through the house, D.C. reporters who know me looked surprised and confused as Brady and I passed them. I didn’t want to risk any of them busting me for not being on the guest list, so I kept walking. 

We got two drinks at the bar and stood there alone. No one approached him yet. 

“So, why are you famous?” I asked, looking up as far as I could see his face…

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Even though the show is a little boring and there are no good reviews of it, I will watch the next three hours that drop on Thursday. The video teaser (below) has already infuriated me with the inaccuracies and entitlement.

So I am hate watching this series. And I’m not the only one.

“Harry and Meghan” is the second highest-rated show on Netflix. Millions of Americans have watched it. It is also a huge hit in the U.K. — double the ratings in one day (2.2 million) than “The Crown,” which is a much better and more accurate fictional show about the monarchy.

Why are millions hate watching this show? I’ll give you three reasons to understand the phenomenon.

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Why hate watch

First, we know from the Oprah interview, Meghan lies even when there is no reason for it. That’s typical behavior for a narcissist and enraging for moral people. It’s also riveting to watch her do it.

A second reason is it’s stunning to watch Harry declare openly on global TV that his own people — the British — are all racists, and that’s why they don’t like his wife.

Finally, the show is awesomely hateful in the lack of self-awareness by the couple who make the media out to be evildoers who violate their privacy while at the same time, they have multiple film crews in their home, video cameras in their cars, Facetime recorded in their beds and hours of selfie videos which they’ve sold to the highest bidder.

They don’t see the hypocrisy because they are so self-absorbed.

Why care

The reason we are defensive (and thus engaged in the show) about all this is Americans are affectionate toward the British royals.

We just watched Queen Elizabeth’s incredible 70-year reign and close alliance with the U.S. and don't want to see her grandson muck up her legacy. Harry and Meghan have done everything in their power to burn down the monarchy.

We felt especially protective of Prince Harry and Prine William since their mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a car crash. But all sympathy now goes only to William who has been deceived, treated cruelly, defamed and abandoned by his younger brother.

William and his wife Kate Middleton are much better liked than Meghan — even by Americans, which is telling. There seems very little chance now that the brothers could ever reconcile.

Racism against Meghan:

Harry claimed that Meghan was persecuted in a way the other royal wives were not because she’s half black. “The difference here is the racist element,” Harry declares. He also blames Blexit for Meghan’s victimhood. 

Meghan said people only made an issue of her race when she moved to the U.K. “But before that, most people didn't treat me like a black woman,” she claimed. (She said she was not subject to racism as a child like her mother because she’s lighter skin.)

They spend an enormous time on the show making the British Commonwealth, which was so important to Queen Elizabeth, as an “Empire 2.0” and essentially a modern-day slave trade. 

Piers Morgan has known Meghan and then got fired from his popular TV show almost two years ago for questioning her stories after the Oprah Winfrey special. I wrote this defense of Morgan at the time. 

This go round, Morgan said (watch below) angrily:

Let's be clear Britain's one of the most tolerant and multicultural nations in the world. We celebrated the glamorous modern flair of the new young royals. We eulogized the newly biracial monarchy as the fresh face of 21st-century Britain ...

Sadly millions of people around the world will watch this series, and they'll believe it. They'll believe the smears about Britain and our monarchy — that we're a bunch of bigoted and hateful people.

Pierce is probably right that there is a section of the viewing audience who believe the Netflix “experts” interviewed who supplied all kinds of evidence and history lessons to prove Meghan was a victim of racism. I doubt they read this far into my piece.

The lies:

Meghan is a pathological liar. She lies when she wants to appear better. She doesn’t cover up the past or try to make the new story fit with what she’s already said publicly on other TV interviews. She just lies on top of the lie and leaves the audience texting each other from our couches to try to answer the missing pieces. Meanwhile, Meg’s already on to her next tall tale.

A perfect example is that she says in the Netflix show that she always wore “muted colors” — like camel, white, brown — so that she would not wear the same shade as a “senior royal” and not try to stand out from the family. Then the internet cobbled together this collage: 

The fact is Meghan wore neutral colors before she met Harry and still prefers those shades now (she wore white just this week to get an anti-racism award.) 

Why the lie about the colors? She came up with the plan because it would make her look reasonable and modest and not the troublemaker she was to the royals.

Meghan’s family

Meghan’s niece, Ashleigh Hale, 37, is interviewed on the show. Ashleigh is the biological daughter of Meghan’s half-sister, Samantha Markle, who is always trashing her in the press. The niece said she was very close to Meghan before she met Harry, and the relationship was important to her on multiple levels.

That’s all changed, and the two seemingly don’t seem to see each other anymore.

Meghan said on Netflix that the palace would not let her invite Ashleigh to the wedding because of Samantha’s troublemaking. The Daily Mail reported, “Palace insiders rejected Meghan’s claims they advised her not to invite her niece to her wedding to Harry.”

Ashleigh, whose mother abandoned her and she was adopted by her grandparents, cried on the show over losing the relationship with Meghan. But Meg had long ago moved along until she needed Ashleigh to be the token allied family member from the Markle side on this show.

Meghan also had a long saga on why she doesn’t talk to her father, Thomas Markle, who raised her. She said she was a “daddy’s girl” but doesn’t explain why she didn’t mostly live with her mother, Doria Ragland.

A journalist would have asked Ragland that question and called Thomas for a response. But this is a Netflix reality show, so there is only one perspective given: Meghan is perfect.

Meet cute lie

Another weird lie was about how they met. The couple has always said that they were set up on a blind date and met at a club. Harry told Oprah: "It was definitely a setup—it was a blind date, for sure...I was beautifully surprised when I walked into that room and saw her...I was like, 'OK, well, I’m really gonna have to up my game!'" 

But on Netflix, Harry said he was randomly scrolling through Instagram and found a photo of Meghan with a Snapchat filter dog ears and reached out to a mutual friend about her. Meghan said she looked through Harry’s Instagram (they don’t explain how she got access to his private account to cyberstalk).

Then somehow they connected directly by phone to meet up for their first one-hour drink date. He was supposedly late, and she said she had somewhere else to be.

Meghan said on Netflix their 2017 engagement interview with the BBC’s Mishal Husain was “orchestrated” and “rehearsed.” Meg added: “We weren’t allowed to tell our story because they didn’t want [us to.”]

Husain this week that she recalled it was. “a day that was full of joy.” The BBC team spoke to Megan and Harry beforehand to discuss what they wanted to cover and “what they felt comfortable sharing.”

Once again, Meghan made up a grand lie for absolutely no reason, which is what makes it pathological. 

Selfie central

Harry and Meghan spend a big chunk of the Netflix show trashing the media and especially the royal reporters.

While they concede that they are literally paid to be public figures, they also act like the paparazzi have put them in physical danger, like his mother Princess Diana. There is no evidence of this whatsoever. 

The Netflix producers used videos and photos of the couple that shows they were planning to do this reality series as long as two years ago. They both recorded themselves in selfie mode and also show videos of them supposedly in private but both are visible. They probably had producers recording them for a long time.

Just look at the main photo used to promote the show, below. If they are in the kitchen of their private home on the palace grounds, who took the photo? 

Princess Diana

If you listen to Piers Morgan’s monologue above, you’ll hear he is most angry that Harry kept saying how much Meghan is like his mother, Princess Diana. He said they have the same “empathy”, “warmth” and “compassion.”

Morgan said he knew both women and “can say with absolute certainty, there’s nothing in common whatsoever.” 

Even worse, the legacy of his mother was shown to be wanting privacy for her children. Netflix showed that famous time when Diana put her hand over the lens of a photographer while skilling and told him “as a parent”, she just wanted to protect her children.

Now her youngest son is flaunting his toddler children on international TV for a buck.

One of those scenes shows Megahn holding their infant daughter and pointing at a framed photo of Diana on the wall. It struck me odd that they would use a formal portrait that was in magazines of Diana in a gown and tiara as the photo to put in their daughter’s room to recognize her grandmother.

Does Harry not have personal photos of his mother in California? Or did Netflix print the photo from the internet and stick it on the wall for that scripted scene? 

Keep watching

The next three hours of this unreality show are dropping on Thursday. According to the teasers, Harry will claim they left England because they were in threat for their lives. He calls the airplane “freedom flight” as if they were political hostages in a dictatorial regime.

Harry also claims the palace lied to protect his brother, Prince William. It’s ugly.

We’ll also get behind the scenes video of Harry and Meghan’s grand wedding. I am sure Meghan will have yet another new lie to share — like the one I wrote about in early 2021 in which the Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to come out and correct her.

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Divorce prediction

Piers Morgan hilariously calls them “reality TV stars who haven’t got the charisma to carry their own sob story.” But I think the show is interesting to watch because they are so full of themselves and we know this will not end well for them.

This relationship won’t last. It’s a fantasy. They will….

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But to quote her song that is on my Spotify running playlist: “Really Don’t Care.”

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Lovato has 138 million followers on Instagram where she now put the four pronouns you can use to talk about her: they/them/she/her.

Almost every media outet wrote a story in the past day about Lovato— who is a woman — saying that she wants to again be referred to as she/her.

This is newsworthy only because she had previously made news by saying she wants to be referred to as “they/them.”

She does not have multiple personality disorder.

She is not a conjoined twin.

She is just one woman who said, “I identifiy as nonbinary” in this video to her 54 million Twitter followers:

She said she was “officially” changing her pronouns to “they/them” because those best describe her “fluidity”, which had come as a “revelation” to her recently.

There is no government agency or court where you can “officially” change your pronouns. You can, however, officially change your name for a publicity stunt. The most well known is singer Kanye West had a California court officially change his name to “Ye”.

Back to Lovato, to understand the current pronoun change, we need to know what is “nonbinary.”

This is why you need me, an investigative reporter, on this important story. [Note the sarcasm.]

I went to the GLAAD website, which has a handy media reference guide for all these new terms we’re hearing. (I always wrote that GLAAD stood for Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, but aparently that changed at some point and now doesn’t stand for anything. It describes itself as “GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance.”)

Anway, GLAAD defines what Lovato calls herself as:

Nonbinary is a word used by people who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the binary gender categories of "man" and "woman."

As a woman who has written previously that I refuse to go along with the woke mob and pretend that anyone would not know that I’m female, I think this Lovato “news” is ridiculous.

She made this pronoun annoucement on the “Spout Podcast.” I didn’t listen to it. You can’t make me.

Instead I looked up the transcribed remarks on CNN’s story about it, which says:

they've "been feeling more feminine" recently and adopted their former pronouns.

“They” in the CNN story refers to one person, Lovato. Remember when CNN was a legit news source for breaking and international news?

I checked the Fox News story to be sure the quote was accurate. Fox refers to her as “she” or just “Lovato” and reports that the reason the singer changed her pronouns again is:

"Recently I've been feeling more feminine, so I've adopted she/her again."

See the difference in how Fox and CNN wrote that same line from the podcast?

But it really shouldn’t be a political partisan divide on referring to a woman as “she.”

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If you called me “him” or “they”, I wouldn’t know you were referring to me. Back when I first took a stand on pronouns,

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The people at 10 on the spectrum are the mostly female fans who stand in line outside the Fairfax, VA courthouse every morning to get one of the 100 tickets to sit inside the courtroom and watch the trial.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury has finally gone public to dispute Meghan Markle’s claim that he secr…

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Piers Morgan was canceled from his successful TV show in Britain because he dared to question Her Royal Highness Meghan Markle for accuracy and motives. For these sins, he is no longer on TV and is being investigated by the British government. The cancel culture which has been chipping away at free speech in America has crossed the pond.

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