Inbred Rich People: The Royalty Thread

[Deleted]

Jul 27, 2022 14:56:42 GMT greysfang said:

Jul 27, 2022 2:22:18 GMT sleuth said:

youtu.be/VKTHJp2fMzM

This is the The Body Language Guy, you might want to skip a good chuck but he shows the clip of this moment which will help with the context.

The Markle family have been beyond embarrassing and particularly bad for someone like Meghan who needs control over the narrative she was pushing. She had embellished her past and they knew the truth.

Samantha Markle has been telling the truth about Meghan but she has done it in such a trashy way that she just looks like a bitter/twisted sister which made it easier for the Meghan to gain sympathy and her supporters to write Samantha off. I also suspect that some people even wrote Samantha off due to her appearance. She has Multiple Sclerosis uses a wheelchair, slurs her words, facial paralysis etc.. she is still an intelligent and well spoken lady who so far has been far more honest than Meghan.

I think Samantha might actually have a good chance at winning the defamation case.

How could Samantha be telling the truth about Megan when she doesn't even know her? They've seen each other less than a dozen times in their lives.

How can you say that with authority?

Younger half-siblings mostly say dismissive things like “I was an only child” while the teenager - having to spend weekends/weeks/all the time at “dads!” are usually well aware of every move their younger (half-)sibling makes.

[❤️ NickiDrea ❤️]

It is weird that anyone is making a big deal about this. I have two older half sisters (one who I am very close to now that we’re adults) and I also feel like I grew up as an only child. My sisters are over a decade older than me, one moved out when I was maybe 4 and the other when I was around 7. They both moved away and I didn’t see them much. So I grew up as an only child did, didn’t have to share anything, had all my parents’ attention, etc. Obviously I knew I had sisters but I didn’t KNOW them because we didn’t live together and I didn’t see them that often. They didn’t know anything about my life when I was a teen, for example, they were living their own lives.

Lots of people in my situation describe themselves as being raised as only children or feeling like only children. My childhood had more in common with someone’s who had no siblings than someone who grew up with siblings.

[no1novice]

Shit my sister is only 2 years older than I am; we have nothing in common & even my close friends are surprised to learn that I'm not an only child.

I can't believe that this is an issue for MM commentators; except I can because *everything* is an issue for some of them.


As for "Samantha" Markle - that is "Samantha Markle, also known as Samantha Grant (born Yvonne Marie Markle)" since she is about 16 years older than Meghan - Meghan is the only child of her mother, so probably was brought up as an only child. Both of her parents filed for bankruptcy at some point so comparative"poverty" is probably how it felt.

[kittylady]

My stepdad was the youngest by a long way, something like twelve or fourteen years gap between him and the next sibling and he always said that he felt like an only child too. By the time he was moving out of the baby/toddler stage and into proper childhood his siblings were working and dating and marrying and leaving home. They were more like aunts and uncles to him.

[trixie]

It's all so ridiculous, I don't even understand why Samantha Markle is suing Meghan, is it for defamation? Because Meghan didn't acknowledge her other than saying she was her half-sister on her father's side? Well, that's the truth, they didn't grow up together with the same mother or in the same household so sorry if she feels she's not being acknowledged properly but tough shit. She's a total dumbass for wasting her tabloid money on attorney fees for such a frivolous lawsuit, not sure what she's trying to gain unless she hopes Meghan will pay her off to go away. Good luck with that.

[no1novice]

She's not only a dumbass but unlikable by her own family. Apparently there are multiple family members that she is estrangned from includes her own children

[daphodil]

I have six half-siblings and one full. How I describe myself depends on the context. Since I never grew up in the same house with the six, I would say I was the oldest of two, but sometimes the second youngest of eight. Bringing up half sibs can extend a lot of conversations that I don't always want. Right now, I'm one of four surviving sibs. My full sib and I are estranged. So yeah, I change my narrative to suit my comfort.

[waterslide]

Prince Charles accepted £1m from family of Osama bin Laden

Prince had meeting at Clarence House — and seven-figure donation from Saudis followed

Gabriel Pogrund and Charles Keidan
Saturday July 30 2022, 6.00pm BST, The Sunday Times

The Prince of Wales accepted a £1 million payment from the family of Osama bin Laden, The Sunday Times can reveal.

Prince Charles secured the money from Bakr bin Laden, the patriarch of the wealthy Saudi family, and his brother Shafiq. Both men are half-brothers of Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda who masterminded the September 11 attacks.

Charles, 73, had a meeting with Bakr, 76, at Clarence House in London on October 30, 2013, two years after Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan.

The future king agreed to the money despite the initial objections of advisers at Clarence House and the Prince of Wales Charitable Fund (PWCF), where the offering was donated.

According to sources, several of Charles’s advisers, including at least one trustee, pleaded with him in person to return the money.

One of his household staff said it would cause national outrage if the news leaked to the media. They told the prince that “it would not be good for anybody” if it emerged that he had accepted money from the family of the perpetrator of the worst terrorist attack in history.

A second adviser also urged the prince to return the money. They told the prince he would suffer serious reputational damage if his name appeared in the same sentence as the terrorist, who was responsible for the murder of 67 Britons alongside thousands of Americans on 9/11.

One source said: “The fact that a member of the highest level of the British establishment was choosing to broker deals with a name and a family that not only rang alarm bells, but abject horror around the world . . . why would you do this? What good reason is there to do this?”

They added: “I just didn’t feel any member of the British royal family should be involved in that sort of undertaking.”

Another palace insider said the “great fear” was that the payment would undermine Charles and the charity’s reputation, saying: “There are other sources of money in the world.”

However, Charles was said to have felt it would be too embarrassing to hand the money back to the brothers and feared that they would suspect the reason. It is understood that one household staff member believes they were “very vociferous” with the prince but were “shouted down”. Another adviser to Charles is said to have implored the prince to return the money. Their words caused “great” concern in the palace, but were apparently ignored.

One source said they remembered every second of a conversation in which Charles was told to hand the money back.

In response to inquiries, Sir Ian Cheshire, chairman of PWCF, said the donation was agreed “wholly” by the five trustees at the time. Those were: Dame Amelia Fawcett, a financier who chairs Kew Gardens; Sir Michael Rake, the former chairman of BT; John Varley, the former Barclays chief executive; Kenneth Wilson, an academic; and William Nye, then Charles’s principal private secretary. A source acknowledged that one trustee, identified as Varley, raised “sensible” concerns before a “full board decision” was made.

Asked when approval was given, a charity source said this took place after the funds were deposited in the PWCF’s bank account at Coutts, where they were allegedly placed on hold pending a later discussion. The source claimed this was consistent with Charity Commission rules. They would not say what these were.

A Clarence House source insisted that Charles’s aides were not dismayed by the bin Laden donation, that nobody was “shouted down” and that the decisions about whether or not to accept money fell within the remit of trustees.

There is no suggestion that either Bakr or Shafiq bin Laden has sponsored or been involved in acts of terrorism. As half brothers they are related to Osama bin Laden through their father: Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a Yemeni-born billionaire who became the wealthiest non-royal Saudi after founding the BinLadin Group, a Jeddah-based construction conglomerate. He died in a plane crash aged 59 in 1967, when Osama was 10 years old.

Bakr took over the company, but fell out of favour with the Saudi monarchy in 2015 after an accident at one of his projects resulted in the deaths of 100 people. Two years later, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, known as MBS, rounded up Bakr and two of his other brothers, Saad and Salah, during an anti-corruption drive and held in detention at the Ritz Carlton. Bakr was released last year.

The bin Laden family’s relationship with the prince’s charities has never previously been disclosed, and does not appear in public documents. Charities are not required to disclose their supporters.

The disclosures come a month after this newspaper revealed that Charles accepted a suitcase containing €1 million in cash from Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, also known as HBJ, the former prime minister of Qatar.

They will lead to new questions about the conduct and personal judgement of the prince. In the past, the prince’s spokesman has claimed that all of his charities “operate independently of the prince himself in relation to all decisions around fundraising” and that their trustees “are responsible for all operational and governance duties”. Charles has no official role within the PWCF, which claims to consult him from “time to time”.

Trustees have a legal and fiduciary obligation to maintain a charity’s independence and safeguard its reputation. They are also required to conduct due diligence on donations.

The Charity Commission brushed off calls to investigate the HBJ donations, even after Cheshire, filed a serious incident report. Cheshire also told the BBC it was unlikely they would have accepted the cash donations today because of anti money-laundering regulations.

The regulator justified its inaction by saying that PWCF gave ample assurances. The Commission is likely to face fresh calls to take action in light of the bin Laden disclosures. Its enforcement powers range from replacing trustees to dissolving a charity.

The PWCF dismissed any suggestions of poor management in relation to the suitcases of cash handed to Charles by HBJ. Cheshire recently told the Third Sector website: “It is disappointing that over 40 years of our charitable grants, totalling over £70 million to various good causes, should be overshadowed by unfounded suggestions of improper management.”

It is not the first time that Charles has been embroiled in a scandal involving Saudi donors.

Last year, The Sunday Times revealed he handed a CBE to another Jeddah-based Saudi businessman, Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Aides told Mahfouz’s representatives he would receive a “special friendship” and an honour if he gave millions in donations. The matter is at the centre of an investigation by the Metropolitan police. Charles, who had held undisclosed meetings with Mahfouz in London and Riyadh, denied any knowledge of the sale of the honour.

Nor is it the first instance in which the prince has been embroiled with the bin Laden family. He generated headlines after it emerged he had dined with Bakr to discuss the Islamic faith in October 2001, just two weeks after the 9/11 attack. According to an account of their initial meeting in 2000, the pair were introduced by Prince Khalid Al-Faisal Al-Saud, third of eight sons of the late King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, during a fundraising dinner for the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies, of which Charles is patron. He is widely reported to have inquired of Bakr: “What’s your brother up to these days?

The Sunday Times

It's not even the accepting money from a Bin Laden for me...it's ignoring the pleas of several advisors and staff not to take the money or subsequently return it.  But then, he claims he would be too "embarrassed" to give the money back. So that's what's too embarrassing?  Out of everything?  LOL OK.  

[sleuth]

Oof thats shady. Good luck for them to trying spin this around. Doesn’t look good at all.

[kittylady]

Jul 31, 2022 22:40:44 GMT sleuth said:

Oof thats shady. Good luck for them to trying spin this around. Doesn’t look good at all.

Don't worry. They'll find a 'source' to say that Meghan eats babies and smokes organically sourced crack and it'll all be brushed under the carpet.

[daphodil]

Wonder if that relates to the blind item posted about a bombshell that would destroy the royal family or some such. I thought it would have been photos of Wills getting it on with a lady friend.

[no1novice]

No because Charles has been cozy with the Saudis despite their human rights history for years.
They never withdrew from the Bin Laden family either & the extended family has a lot of real estate in London.

[kittylady]

Jul 31, 2022 23:27:15 GMT daphodil said:

Wonder if that relates to the blind item posted about a bombshell that would destroy the royal family or some such. I thought it would have been photos of Wills getting it on with a lady friend.

Was it posted here?

[chaz]

Half brother 20 years ago.... The bin laden's are a huge family, I'm not really sure every family connection is guilty of his actions and can't donate money.

[daphodil]

Jul 31, 2022 23:47:52 GMT kittylady said:

Jul 31, 2022 23:27:15 GMT daphodil said:

Wonder if that relates to the blind item posted about a bombshell that would destroy the royal family or some such. I thought it would have been photos of Wills getting it on with a lady friend.

Was it posted here?

Yeah, trying to remember which thread. BRB.