101: We Will Never Be Royals with Ade Olayinka

Hello! Welcome to episode 101 of I’d Rather Stay In. This week, our friend Ade is back and talking with us about the royal family.

Quick links

Episode transcript

Megan
Welcome to I’d rather stay in with your host Megan Myers and Stephie Predmore. This week we’re chatting with our friend Ade all about the royal family. Stay tuned.

Stephie
Do you love listening to I’d rather stay in and want to support the podcast? Well, now you can visit our website or the link in our Instagram profile and click Buy me a coffee or visit buy me a coffee.com slash IRSI podcast. For the price of a cup of coffee, you can help us cover the costs of creating this podcast. There are no monthly memberships and you could support us at whatever level you like whenever you like. Whether you buy us one coffee, many coffees or simply continue listening as always, we’re so grateful for your support

Hello, Megan.

Megan
Hello Stephie

Stephie
what’s up?

Megan
I have a story I would like to tell I already told you this story. Last night rice, however, oh god, it’s so funny. Okay, so last night, I went to the grocery store preparing for this big winter storm was was to get. And on the way home. I almost hit a raccoon running across the street by my house, which surprised me a lot. Um,

Stephie
weirdly, I actually saw one, like maybe a few blocks from your house the other day, so they must live around here where there’s like a nest or something. I

Megan
don’t know. Anyway, yeah, they must live around here. Because at the beginning of last year, at some point, there were raccoons like fighting in the tree in our front yard. So

Stephie
yeah, I’m sure there’s like some sort of dumpster that they’re obsessed with or something. Yeah, I

Megan
do live close to downtown. So that would make sense. Anyway, I was telling this to my husband. Yeah, I saw this big, huge raccoon, Lola. And he was like, oh, yeah, I was walking the dog. And I think I saw I saw something. But it wasn’t a raccoon, like have a long snout like, like, what is that called? An Aardvark? I was like, Excuse me, an Aardvark. And he’s like, no, no, it wasn’t bad. It was like, What is that one? And then Reese was like an anteater. And he’s like, Yeah, something like that. I was like, Are you sure? Because like those live in South America and Africa.

Stephie
We live in the middle of

Megan
like, I don’t, I don’t think and it’s like, well, what’s that animal from the jungle movie?

Stephie
Because the animal that makes it appearance in the jungle movie?

Megan
Yeah. And I was like, Are you sure it wasn’t a raccoon is like, well, it had a smell. And I’m like, well, the dog has a snout. So like, but also raccoons have snout. So did we it could be a raccoon.

Stephie
Okay. I actually do have a question that I never clarified yesterday. Okay. Did we figure out what the quote jungle movie was? Oh,

Megan
yes. So he said is look like the animal like maybe the animal from the jungle movie. And I said, The Lion King

apparently he thought he said yes, yes. He was thinking of the warthog from The Lion King. And I said and then I’m like, so you think it was a wild boar? And he’s like, yeah, it had a snout it looked. It was a pig. It looked piggish.

Stephie
Like, okay. Okay.

Megan
Yeah, I mean, I he’s very insistent that it was some sort of pig type animal. I asked him if he saw it today. And he’s like, we didn’t have time to look because we’re going so quickly in the rain and

Stephie
the common Illinois wart

Megan
hog. I, I don’t it had it’s a I’m sure it was either a raccoon or a possum

Stephie
like Yeah, I mean, the snout like a long nose definitely makes me think it was like maybe a possum or something. I mean, here are a few things that I can say with certainty.

Megan
It was it was not a word.

Stephie
It was also not a Aardvark or an anteater. I think we could cross all

Megan
I know these three things to be true.

Stephie
Pretty sure I crossed all three of those things off of the list. So I think we might have to like pay for him to have some sort of like, Animal class. I don’t know.

Megan
Like you okay, he was not a boy scout growing up. So maybe just isn’t he? You know, Boy Scout. Know how to how to it If I animals

Stephie
Yeah, we should probably find some sort of documentary on just like, middle you middle North America. Indigenous animals just watch that so you can learn what does and does not live Central Illinois in the middle of town.

Megan
Yes. What’s new in your world?

Stephie
Well, I haven’t seen any of those feral Illinois work hogs.

Megan
I mean, if you do see it, we will know that there is a problem. We will know there’s a problem. I will I will. I

Stephie
will personally apologize to Bob for making fun if I see the Warthog uh, honestly not much you know we’re about to get well support we’re supposed to get like shit on with snow in the next like 3648 hours so I’m gonna be actually lowkey disappointed if it does not turn out to be the storm that they’ve said it’s going to be only because I am fully prepared to have excuses to just not do really anything for the next two days. So oh no my kids home from school. Darren Ah, what a bummer she can’t go to daycare I need to go do something else. Oh yeah, pretty much pretty much that’s it so yeah, I know I’m not usually one that’s like yes snow but I mean if it’s gonna happen like it just needs to be nice to not flop

Megan
I mean my teenager already asked yesterday if he could have if I could make a 12 course breakfast on snow day so yeah,

Stephie
somehow that doesn’t surprise me about him. Like I just I get that sounds about right for Reese. But does he want to tell of course breakfast did he lay out his wishes and desires

Megan
No, he did not. Also he doesn’t break up Wake Up On days off until like noon anyway so wouldn’t even be breakfast

Stephie
Yeah, it would be dinner it’d be for dinner. Hey, you know who also eats 12 course meals I that’s the only transition I got guys. So we are going to talk about the Royals today. And as it so happens, we have a wonderful friend of the pod who is Royals obsessed and so our friend Ade is back. And she’s going to talk with us about everything Royal. Hey, what’s up?

Ade
Hi, friends. How are you?

Stephie
We are great. Did you have some things you wanted to say about the wild Illinois warthogs?

Ade
Look, I I really okay, here’s gonna be my only thing that I’ll say since I you know, I feel like we we’ve we’ve we’ve gotten a lot of commentary already. All I’ll say is it’s not relevant at all. Whenever I hear the word Aardvark, there’s an episode of Arthur that taught me how to spell the word Aardvark and whenever I hear it, I think a a, rd var K. R D Va. I honestly I that’s that’s my only commentary. I think I stay with you forever, forever and ever. It’ll be good. But yeah, I’m hyped to be here and to talk about some my another passion that I have.

Stephie
Yeah, well, it’s like I was telling you and our friend Kathleen, over the weekend like there’s the like 19 early 1990s animated Winnie the Pooh show? That was on Disney. Yeah, the theme song has lived rent free in my head for 25 years and now Eden is really into watching it on Disney plus, so it’s just like one of those things much like a RT

Ade
var K Yeah, pay dense paint.

Stephie
Never leave my brain. So we all have our things forever implanted forever implanted. Okay, so you really love the Royals. This is a thing that I’ve known about you for a very long time. Before we actually just get into chatting about the royal family. Can you tell us why you love the royal family like well, we love the topic of the royal family so much.

Ade
Yeah, so I mean, I don’t know Right? Like I think they’re just it’s just a generally interesting kind of thing that a lot of people have interest in right so like princesses and princes and royalty and I feel like in all fiction, books and even sometimes nonfiction like the things that make things interesting are that people have money or they have magic right or they have money in magic if you’re Harry Potter right so like, like they’re just it opens the world up to like so much Glitz glamour access to things so that I think that’s just inherently like something a lot of people are interested in and people that say that they’re not interested in it, love to like rail against it. So that means you’re also just interested in it right? Like, exactly. It’s like negative engagement on social media like it’s still engagement. So engagement and so I think that like, I don’t know, so there’s there’s that piece of it but then I think there’s also just like, like they have the same or similar into personal dramas and it’s like watching a soap opera right? In many ways. But the thing to remember and I think this has become like barely pertinent in recent years is that they are real people too. But it is a bit like watching a soap opera. And so there’s like the you know, the same interpersonal dramas and family dramas that we have they have but it’s like a fun story to follow.

Stephie
I have in recent times, become like, cuz I didn’t like it was I didn’t like grew up being interested, like really following the royal family much at all. Other than like, When Princess Diana died, which obviously everyone like the whole world stopped at that. But I, like in recent years have become more interested. And like, there’s certain aspects like I love Harry and Megan, obviously. But the there’s just like, I really love the podcast, noble blood. And I think I’m just like, a little bit. A little bit. Like, I don’t want to say obsessed. I don’t know that that’s the right word. But I think it’s the dark side of royalty that I find the most fascinating, because yeah, there’s some just like, deeply dark things about just royal families across the world. And I like the very like the fact that in the Harry and Megan Oprah interview, like they kept referring to the royal family as the firm is so thick, the fact that they call them the first themselves, the firm is so fascinating to me, because they’re a family, but they’re also a business. And there’s something so I don’t know, like, it’s fascinating, but it’s also kind of dark and disturbing to me. And yes, for sure. Yeah. I don’t know, there’s something about it that I can’t I can’t put my finger on why I find it so interesting. But I don’t know. Megan, is there any particular place you want to start?

Megan
Well, I was just gonna add that one of the reasons why I think us in particular being Americans are so interested in it is because we don’t have a monarchy. And so, like, we just decide the monarchy. So for us to like, watch it from afar is kind of like that was part of our life in another worlds kind of situation, like Canada still is very invested in the monarchy. I have Canadian friends who like celebrate all the things related to the monarchy. And I’m like, this is interesting. Because we’re otherwise very similar. Um, so I think it’s just like that aspect of it, where it’s kind of mysterious to us. And we don’t really understand it, because it’s not part of our world.

Ade
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, when you don’t have to pay for them makes it a lot easier to like, enjoy it.

Stephie
Fair, absolutely. Fair. Um, so let’s start with let’s start with, let’s actually start with talking about why they call the family the firm.

Ade
Yeah. Like, I mean, I’ll, I’ll go disclaimer, right, that, like everything I know, and everything, probably we all know, we learned from somewhere. And it might not be an accurate representation of what somebody else thinks or what they think themselves, but like, to the best of my knowledge, they call themselves the firm because of exactly what you said, right? They are an institution and a business and an employer, and, you know, all of those things, as much as they are a family. And so, like, it is, I think, to their credit, but also like, I guess maybe they should they think they think what they do is jobs, right? They’re going out and they’re working on a daily basis for I mean, somewhat for a salary, but mostly because it’s weird. It’s like their job, but it’s also expected of them, right? So it’s like not really like they have a choice, especially if you’re in the the upper echelon of the royal family. And so I think like, to an extent like they, they probably just, they, it’s it’s important for them, I would think for my mental health to like separate maybe not even mental health just for like, just like the way like it’s just a way of like thinking about your family being also your employer, right, like I think I think it it makes sense and in some ways, like I’m sure the Kardashians feel that way about their empire and anyone who’s in the business of selling your family as the thing that you make money off of has to In some way, have that like ability to separate the employee employment part of themselves from the family part of themselves.

Stephie
Yeah, I often have to remind myself that the Queen was so young when she took the throne. Yeah, like she was really very young. And so because sometimes I’m like, don’t you ever just want to just like, be like, grandma, or like to set like, don’t you just ever want to just, I don’t know, not be the queen. But yeah, but I have to remind myself, she was so young when this was thrust upon her. And she doesn’t really know anything else.

Ade
And I’m 100% sure she wants that frequently. Right? Like, right. Like, I think that’s really it’s probably a human or it’s really human thing to want. But like, she doesn’t, like I, it’s hard to imagine what her mindset must be. Because all of us have had some element of agency and what we are and what we become and what our job is, whether, you know, it’s a series of fate that led us there, or it’s all our own choices, like whatever, right? But we’ve we’ve always had options, or the choice or whatever. That’s not like, I think it’s almost impossible to imagine to like, put ourselves in their shoes in that way. Because, like, there’s just no, there’s no real comparison, right? Like all the rest of us, kind of, I mean, I guess you can walk away but like, not really. Right, like so. I think it’s, I just I have found what I when I ponder it. I can’t imagine it. And there’s some element of like, sympathy I have for that. Like the inability to, like, even imagine another thing you could do with your life without huge fallout from like the world, like, right,

Stephie
well, right. Because like, she is the ruler of so many. Yeah, countries, basically. I mean, yes. And that was decided for her. Like, what years old? Like, when she was six or something. It was decided for her like, Yeah, it’s weird and sad. I mean, there’s not that many monarchies left in the world. Yeah. So yeah, it is. It is kind of interesting to think about, like, if she were to just be like, and never mind. Like, it’s not like they’re just gonna be like, Yeah, well, you know what, maybe mana. Maybe a monarchy isn’t like really the bus. Maybe we should just like not have that anymore. Although I have often I have found myself wondering frequently lately. How much longer we think that, like, the royal family will be able to continue in the way that it is. Oh, yeah,

Ade
for sure. For sure.

Megan
I feel like it. I honestly feel like it won’t be for very much longer.

Ade
My brother is like, convinced that a like knock on wood. I don’t know. I just don’t want to like be the one to say lazy but like Dyson, like he’s just like, my brother’s like she’s not gonna make it very much longer because she really did love her husband. I mean, she’s very old. She’s very old. She really loved her husband and her family’s like falling apart. Right? So like, yeah, there’s all of that. And that’s got to be a lot. But I think and I’m convinced that if if William makes it to King it will be amazing. Like I mean truly though, it just seems it’s like there’s a lot of goodwill towards the Queen even even like me who’s like has no investment in this. I mean, I guess I’m like, more interested in positively. I have positive association to the royal family more than like the average person I think. But like even me, I’m like, Yeah, I have mad respect for the queen as a person for the most part, right? Like I I really like sympathize with her as, as a person that you know, doing all the things I just described and I empathize with her as like a woman power like she’s like, kind of like a role model in some ways. But then like, I don’t feel that way towards Charles at all. I’m not sure anyway. And I like William for me like yeah, I grew up thinking he was kind of hot but then a you know, no offense to anyone who’s lost all their hair. And he like the whole Harry thing is played out right in the way that it has. So I think that there’s not a lot of goodwill left for like the next two in line for the throne. Georgia still looking adorable.

Stephie
I was gonna say like, if if somehow I feel like if somehow we get through William and then we make it to George like, I just feel like at some point in the next few generations, it’s gonna be like, This is not this is not the this is not it anymore. Yeah.

Megan
Yeah, it makes me wonder you know, because Barbados just what’s I don’t know what the word the term is, like, released there. They were getting released from their sovereignty or something like that. Yeah, they, they were able to leave the Commonwealth and it makes me wonder how many countries are actually left in the Commonwealth system and how many more will soon be leaving because it is an outdated system like it doesn’t make sense for some lady In England to be, you know, quote unquote, kind of in control of these countries.

Ade
I mean, the Commonwealth is still pretty large. Like, I think that there are more than 50 countries in the Commonwealth,

Stephie
according to Wikipedia in his 54 Member States. Yeah. And like,

Ade
there’s there’s like all there’s all this like pomp and circumstance that happens around the Commonwealth. There’s the Commonwealth Games, which like I kind of follow, because Nigeria still participates. There’s, there’s like all kinds of things wrapped up in being in the Commonwealth. And I do think that there’s some sense of like, weird community, I shouldn’t call it weird. Like, it’s just something that I’m loosely affiliated to, as a Nigerian citizen. And so that’s actually

Megan
like, a question that I had for you. So like, as someone whose family is from Nigeria, and is part of the Commonwealth, like, do you? Like, why do you feel like that loyalty? When like, I don’t know, I feel I feel weird

Ade
about it. I think that’s what these these like Goodwill things are for, right? Like, there’s no real reason to feel affiliated with this country that’s mostly brought harm to re entry. But like, you know, there’s a sense of, like, ingroup, outgroup thing, right? Like we have, we have Nash international sporting events, they have leadership summits, they have, like, all these things that are meant to, like, reinforce this idea. So it’s, it’s like, like, Barbados, leaving is a surprise, not because it’s a surprise that you’d want to leave. But it’s a surprise, because like, it’s always been that way. And we found a new steady state and like, you know, it doesn’t feel like you’re actually being harmed. I don’t think they pay any money to the UK, like, you know what I mean? Like, it’s just, it’s like, you get a lot of, like, in group things without having to pay anything. I mean,

Megan
do you like, it’s just the UK, like, provide a lot of benefits to the countries then if the countries are not, you know, pain in, I don’t like aside from these, like, you know, feel good events, like, it makes me feel like a pizza party.

Ade
I’m like, trade agreements, I think there’s some, like, general, like, you know, like, just general, like, open. It’s not like not like the EU, but kind of like the EU, right? Like, there’s like, there’s like community. And then there’s also like, actual potential financial benefits that come from it. It’s not quite as strong as like France, the way that France treats their former colonies. And they like do all like they offer automatic citizenship and stuff like that. But there are benefits that I don’t know exactly what they are. So forgive me, I can’t like speak to all but like, there are like, benefits. Ish, what people might term as benefits to being in the Commonwealth. For for citizens of nations that are part of the Commonwealth. But I don’t think it’s like enough that it will. It would prevent people from being totally fine. If and when the British people decide to be done with the royal family. I think people would be like, well spent while it lasted. But mostly not fun.

Stephie
I mean, I think we can’t totally discount just like being, like, comfortable and okay with the status quo. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I’m sure even for a small country, that that, you know, choosing to leave the Commonwealth is just like a huge, huge undertaking. Right. So, I don’t know, it’s a, I’m sure that there’s there’s a lot that goes into that, obviously. But there’s also I don’t know, there’s also sort of a well, it’s not doing anything bad for us. So. Okay, so,

Ade
and I do think people like I mean, I guess I’m, I’m one to talk, right, since I’m also obsessed with the Olympics. But there’s also like this. I think people do place value on things like I mean, I keep saying the Commonwealth Games, but that’s the first thing that comes to mind. Like it is the Commonwealth Games are huge deal to a lot of people. It’s like a mini Olympics, right? And so, like, things like that, like people just have like fondness and nostalgia. And I think that like, it is harder to break those bonds than people think that it is. But it’s also like, once it’s done, people wonder why it was so hard. I think the other the flip side,

Megan
yeah. Yeah, yeah, just makes me think of like, you know, if another if another country. I mean, granted, the Commonwealth was built up over centuries. But it makes me think if another country like tomorrow suddenly was like, we’re gonna be under control of 50 other countries. Not really in control, but like sort of in control and everyone’s gonna be okay with it. Like that concept just feels really strange to me. Yeah. So I do think yeah, like the status quo thing. Like he’s just always been like that as is really, probably more the driving factor than almost anything else. And I bet I don’t know. If they have to use like the monarchies image on their stuff like money and they do not have to,

Stephie
they do not have to Okay. I think some countries do. Right?

Megan
Because, obviously, like a whole other expense if you’re trying to extract yourself, but

Stephie
yeah, I think like I think there are certain I think there are certain countries like Canada and stuff that are maybe more closely tied than others but that’s my understand. That was my that was my best understanding. That’s all you’re gonna get out of?

Ade
Yeah, like like South Africa, like Nigeria, like we I mean, Australia doesn’t have them on their money India is still part of the Commonwealth definitely doesn’t have them on their money. So I think it’s it really vary like membership with the Commonwealth is, you know, what, I should go read about it, because it is a loosely tied group of nations under like, what banner is essentially just like, under the UK, but like, in many different forms.

Megan
Yeah. That’s interesting.

Stephie
Fascinating,

Megan
so you think that the monarchy will be possibly somewhat dissolved when when Charles enters,

Ade
it’s just, it’s hard. It’s hard for me. Like the monochrome the monarchy lives on goodwill. It’s like, like, I think, you know, as much as we like, and enjoy some people, at least, the royal family from the US, it’s hard to like, like, I think of my friend’s parents who are there like they really love the queen. It’s not clear to me that, like the division between people who are monarchists and people who love the queen is not always clear. And I think it remains to be seen, we’ll see what happens when she pass away, right? Like, there will be an outpouring of goodwill, probably towards the royal family, if and when not, if it will happen, when it happens, when should live forever. And like, who knows, like maybe they’ll be able to, like, convert that into, you know, enough goodwill to keep them going for long enough to get past all the scandal. But it’s hard. It’s hard to imagine that right now, given where the royal family is with the Harry Megan situation, the Prince Andrew situation, the constant like back and forth about whether they’re worth the tax money, even though like it’s, I mean, they do get money from the people, but there’s also just like a lot of money they get from their own estates that they own. So it’s like really this interesting thing where like, it’s kind of like foreign aid, or like any other thing, people just assume more money goes to it from their pockets and actually does. But anyway, that was a that was a an aside, I just think it’d be hard. It’s hard for me to imagine how they have enough goodwill to keep going for very long, in the exact same arrangement, who knows, maybe they’ll find a new arrangement that allows them to continue to exist, while not really having some of the political not not political, that’s not the right word, the social force that they do, because they do play an actual role in in governance in the UK, it’s possible that they’ll make them step back and Boris will just Boris or whoever the future prime minister in will, is will step up or they’ll get a president like who knows, right? Like, who knows what structure they would come up with. But I think there’s, it’s hard to imagine them can existing in the same way that they exist, because there’s not gonna be enough goodwill, and because the people don’t want to pay for them anymore. So I don’t know. It’s possible. Like I just the flip side of that is like, like I started saying, you know, a lot of people really love the monarchy in the UK in particular, right? There are a lot of people who just like, I like my, I’m thinking of a couple of my friend’s parents. They’re just like hardcore royalists, like everything we think about Megan and Harry. Like, they don’t think that they’re like Megan and Harry abandon the nation, right, like, so like, there are people who are out there that are really on a different mindset than me, but I just I think the changing tides are are coming for the royal family sooner rather than later.

Megan
Okay, well, let’s talk about Harry and Megan. Yes. So like, first, my very first interject,

Stephie
I’ve been on Wikipedia, rabbit hole on the Commonwealth and then the Commonwealth countries. And I just need to like read you guys, the Queen’s official title she has. They’re different for all of the Commonwealth realms. But in the United Kingdom, it is Elizabeth the Second by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland, and of her other realms and territories queen, head of the Commonwealth, defender of the faith.

Ade
It’s a great title, lot of words. So great title, defender of the faith, that’s my favorite part.

Stephie
Yes. And that’s fine. All of them actually, because I’m looking at I was like comparing because they’re it’s similar. across the different Commonwealth realms. There’s 15 of them currently. So it vary slightly, but only a handful of them have defender of the faith at the end. Anyway,

Megan
I assume that’s because those are not Protestant countries.

Ade
I guess I got Anglican But it went yeah, a challenge,

Stephie
I guess. Anyway, continue and continue.

Megan
I was gonna start start off with the, the idea that you were saying with royalists thinking that Harry and Megan abandoned the country, etc. Which is crazy to me for multiple reasons, but mainly because Harry will never be the king. Like, yeah, he he doesn’t need to be there. He’s the extra, like, he should be able to live his life. Yeah,

Ade
I mean, kind of like, like, I mean, again, like, it’s, it’s this thing, where like, I think that we don’t, it’s hard for us growing up here to like understand the way things really work and the way people really view them. And so like, Well, I agree with you, in like a human sense, like, look like he’s not required to be there for a job like, William, there’s Charles, there’s William, there’s his three children now all ahead of him, right? It’s hard to imagine a scenario where he ends up on the throne. And if he did, it would be super tragic, right? So like, it’s not even something we want, necessarily, right? So like, why can’t they just let him live. And I think the thing is, like, people feel an ownership over them, whether that’s right or wrong. And it’s, I don’t know, if it’s for me as an American, to have an opinion on that. I mean, I do but like, you know, like, it’s, it’s like, it’s, it’s, it’s, I can’t understand what it’s like to be a British citizen and have her be my queen and this be my royal family, I don’t understand what it means to have a royal family. You know, in Nigeria, there is still like local and kind of some national issue level royalty. And like, even the way my parents who’ve been in the US more than 30 years talk about royalty from their area, like there’s a different way of thinking about those people and like the reverence that you pay to them, and the duty that you have to them that they have to the people. It’s not like elected officials. And so it’s a really different mindset. And people have watched him grow up and loved him. And, you know, seen him go through his tough years, and come out on the other side. And I think people really just wanted him to marry some like delightful, sweet, like white woman who from nobility or maybe not, right, cuz he’s like, he’s like a rebel. But like, you know, probably not maybe not nobility, but like Kate not nobility, but like, super rich and like, well trained and went to the best schools still, and somebody who would be there to like, for them to fall over and be happy for him over. And when that didn’t happen. I think people felt right or wrong, robbed by that, what they expected. And then also, I think people felt very accused by Harry and Megan, like the people. I mean, I just finished listen to the princes of the press. And I just finished listening to the podcast about Harry and Megan. So like, a lot of this is also really driven by media narratives. And by expectations that the press had and and how they wrote about them, but like, I do think that people feel accused and disappointed by what’s happened with Harry and? And it would, it would, it would, it’s almost impossible to think of a scenario where things get better for them in the UK with this current with like the with like a slightly older generation with people in their like 50s and above, like people are mad, I let me say, let me specify and say like, mostly older white people are really a

Stephie
very specific subset. Yes, actually, you touched on something that is really interesting to me that I that I want to talk about. Because you mentioned the press, and the press was driving a lot of this and the press in the UK, like, I mean, they were they’re the worst or the worst. Absolutely, like they were a driving force for so much of the issues like of the public image of Diana. And like how her story played out, they were obviously played a huge role for you know, Harry and Megan and pitting them against wilin K, and just like so many of these things. So can you talk a little bit about that?

Ade
Yeah, um, so I think anybody who’s who’s super interested, you should find this documentary that the BBC just released, which is interesting, because the BBC is like very much not in favor with the royal family right now. But the BBC just released this really interesting documentary called The princes and the press. And then there was an accompanying podcast, I think called Harry Megan in the media, but I’m not sure by the same people. And it’s really interesting. And it really gives like a great look not just into like their the royal families interaction with the press, specifically, William Kate, Harry and Megan, but also just kind of like how the British tabloids work. And I learned a lot. I did not know a lot of that, even though I know like the general like, they’re more aggressive. They’re, you know, they have different standards. I learned a lot about how it works. And so I think the first thing to say is that like, yes, that this goes all the way back to like Diana, and, like Harry, and William, but I think Harry ver, in particular, has like very a lot of trauma is wrapped up in the idea of engaging with the press, right? And, rightly so rightly so, for. I assume everyone that listens already knows this, but like, you know, his mom died when he was, I think very much 1213 He was very young. And he walked behind the casket, his mom’s casket through like a public publicly, like they walk through the streets of London, and he was walking behind his mom’s casket. And this is something that he reflects on as super traumatic for him, right. And if you see the video of it, it’s like, it’s so depressing and sad to look at. But like it’s a very vivid memory for him and something that he and also all the memories before that with like the press chasing his mom, and he was there, right? He was like in the car as a kid like, and they’d be chasing his mom, it’s it’s almost unfathomable to think of somebody like her driving without security today, but like that was the case, right? She was like out on the streets, Princess Diana, with no security with our kids in the car, like sitting in the back with their seatbelts while like she couldn’t drive because she was surrounded by press right? So these are his memories. This is what he associates with the press. And so he grows up, knowing that like the press killed his mom, and he just has like unresolved trauma, right? And he gets married, and he sees the same thing happening to his wife and he steps away. And like what do I mean, when I say the same thing happening to his wife? I think this was like really the core of the question. So I’m finally getting to that. When I say like, but I say that, like they were harassing his wife, at least from from their perspective. And what they would argue is that like from very early in their relationship, actually not I was gonna say in their marriage, but in their relationship. There were interestingly worded stories that I think most black women would say we’re racialized stories about Megan Markel, who’s a mixed race American woman. And to the point where Harry did something that the royal family I don’t think has ever done, which was like a released a statement early in his relationship. It’s how most people find out he was dating her actually. Like saying, like, leave my girlfriend alone, and stop being racist, basically. And which was like unprecedented for him to release a statement like that. I think he released it through clarens house, which is his dad’s office. And it was like, it was a huge deal. And there was a little bit of like, people toning it down. But like, that was like the first instance where the press was like, we were being nice to her, and you came after us. Like we weren’t, we were saying like, Oh, my God, look at this beautiful mixed race woman who’s going to like thicken the bloodlines of the royal family. And like, which like, is a racist thing to say? Like,

Stephie
they were like, there’s nothing problematic with that at all.

Ade
You I like, I really, I just really want people to like listen to this, because they interview the people who write who wrote some of these stories, like some of the most incendiary ones. And she’s like, Yeah, like, I really thought I was complimenting her. And like, now I know that. You shouldn’t say that. But like, I mean, can’t they see that I was trying to be nice. And you’re like, that’s not really acknowledging what you did was harmful. That’s just being like, Oh, I get that people are mad about it, but like, can’t they see that? I was trying to be nice anyway. So let’s be nicer. I mean, really, like she’s like, she really feels that way. This will that particular, thicken the bloodlines woman. She was like I said how pretty she was in the same article, but of course, they wouldn’t read that. Like they don’t read the part where I said she was beautiful, and has great fashion. Anyway, so. So that was like the beginning. And I’d say like it toned down until a few months after the wedding. When a few things happened. A few months after the wedding. There was a story about Kate and Megan. That was really kind of like I think the beginning of the end for them. Where the story was that Megan made Kate cry during wedding preparations. And it was like poor postnatal Kate who just had Louie at the time, like was in tears because Megan like, you know, made her cry. And then there was another story, where like, Harry like Megan Megan wanted this one tiara, but like they wouldn’t give it to her and then Harry and she and Megan Harry and Megan storm through the the Buckingham Palace demanding that like Megan wants what Megan gets? And that’s like not at all how the story went down depending on who you ask. Right? So like, like it there just begins this narrative of like Megan is just like in it for the money in it for the fame really demanding like later really late in the in the timeline, I think really, after they left actually right before the Oprah interview. So almost a year after they left. There was a story that came out about like how Megan was a bully. So like it’s really it really like deteriorated from like, oh, like, this is like, you know, lightly race racist, racist associated, or some might say racist comments about Megan, to all the way till to the point where we’re like she’s just a bad person, and weaved into that are really invasive things weaved into that are some really like invasive things where they like reach out to her father, they reach out to her half sister, none of whom have like, good things to say. So for for a variety of reasons. People might argue. So yeah, I think like they’ve just they, they felt like they were being bombarded from every side with negative stories that were not fair. And that they were not allowed to defend themselves because of the way that the firm like we talked about earlier, right? This is not just a family, it is an institution, because of the way that the firm works. They were not allowed to defend themselves. And yeah, they’re the presses. They have just a very antagonistic relationship with the press that I find to be. Like, just really a fascinating study in like privacy for celebrities. I think I hadn’t really thought that much about celebrity privacy before this, like what do people deserve? What do all of us deserve? And I think this story has been interesting for a lot of people, not just not just the not just the Royals, but for a lot of celebrities. And even even some, like lay people in the UK have been, have been claimants on the shoots that the that Harry and Megan have filed against newspapers. There have been also just like regular people that have been part of these suits, for similar reasons because of similar tactics, similar lies, similar things that have happened. So yeah, I think it’s really interesting, kind of antagonistic. relationship with the press. That’s like playing out, both in kind of the court of public opinion, but also in like, literal court in the UK.

Megan
I think actually, I don’t think that Harry and Megan are the only ones that have the royal family who have sued the papers Willy Kate says several times, yeah, Kate has, I think, will probably I think he might have as well. And I’m, it’s interesting to see that like, the difference between the two were like, it’s a big deal when Harry and Megan do it. But it hasn’t been as much of a big deal, I think because I know for for Kate and William, because I know that in one of the cases that was recently ruled in favor of Harry Megan, I think like the paper just like started to do it again anyway, like immediately after? I know they don’t, they don’t seem to care. It’s really the sells papers, I guess. I don’t know.

Ade
So like one of the things that came up in the podcast goes into that what really surprised me is like, there were people in the press that were surprised by some of the things that came out of the Harry Megan suit, like some of the tactics that were being taken. Because there there had been previously some really big cases about phone tapping in the UK, which probably most of us at least know tangentially about. Because like a girl who had gone missing like a just a regular teenage girl had gone missing. And it turned out that the press had been phone tapping her phone after she went missing and not and deleted listening to her messages where people were desperately looking for her and deleting those messages. So my daughter could come in, and look, it became this huge story. And the British courts like really laid the hammer down on what the press could do. And it turned out that they will everyone was like, this isn’t happening more. It’s not okay. Like, really public opinion. And the courts were against the press. And it’s it’s so interesting now, in like the age of Harry and Megan that everyone’s like, no, like, they’re asking for it by being famous. It’s like no, no, we already resolved this. Like what the press is doing isn’t okay, like it’s actually not okay. And it’s easy for you to forget that because you don’t like Harry and Megan, because you feel offended by Harry and Megan, like, or or whatever, because maybe because you’re racist. I don’t know. But But like, certainly like, I think you’re gonna actly right that like, these things have come up before from other channels and everyone can see objectively that like, what’s happening isn’t right. And And honestly, it’s been bad and bad enough that it shocked even people in the media, some of the things that have come out, which is wild. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that’s why they keep winning, right? Because like, these, these news, these news agencies are like, objectively in the wrong. And so who knows, man like, I don’t I don’t I think that like as long as we have media, and as long as there’s like an insatiable demand for stories and to fill the 24 hour news cycle, like no matter what happens, we’ll continue to see phone tapping and hiring private investigators and all kinds of things. Right, like, like, it’s not going away. And I think the bigger question is, like, how it’s not so much about the legality of things, but it’s about how public opinion plays out. And that’s, that’s the real fight that like, I think Harry and Megan are fighting. Obviously, they’ll keep doing the court battles, but like the fight that Carrie and Megan are doing the fight that even that they have within the firm is a family versus family. I mean, there there was a there there are some stories about like, William and Kate versus like Charles and Camilla not in court, but like in public opinion, how getting their stories out first being like the most liked one. It’s super matters, even against the Queen, right? Like everyone’s in a fight for good press. And everyone’s in a fight to be liked. Because that’s how that’s how the Royals live. Right? They live on public opinion. So it’s really interesting, and I think makes it hard to be a family probably.

Stephie
Yeah. Yeah. Again, like, sometimes you just like, can your family just be a family? No. Yeah.

Megan
I mean, at least everybody has like their own giant castles they can go live in and separate for the weekend off.

Ade
I would argue that like, I mean, yeah, probably is like a nice it probably is better to like not be fighting with your family for for press. But like, I mean, can can a family just be a family? I mean, even that’s messy. Right. Like, I don’t know, like, we all have our battles. That’s true.

Megan
I want to ask about Prince Andrew. But mainly, I just want to, I just want to talk about the technical aspect of his title being stripped because it confuses me. Oh, interesting. Okay, because, yes, so like, he, he loses his titles. His he views loses the use of His Royal Highness, but

Stephie
like, he’s still he’s still called Prince.

Megan
He’s still a prince. I guess because you’re born a prince. You can’t not be a prince. But it seems like he still has like everything else.

Ade
So kinda. Yeah. Um, but also No, it’s almost the same thing. It’s confusing with Harry and Megan. It’s like, you see, like, whenever I whenever I see anything about them online, people are like, they’re not the Duke and Duchess. No, they are like that. That is actually like,

Megan
we follow the same lady on on Tik Tok. Yeah.

Ade
Basically, like, yeah, it is like, he will continue to Harry will always be a Prince Andrew will always be a prince, they will continue to be the Dukes of their respective places. But what they let go of so like, okay, the way that the jobs work for royal people, is that the Queen? Okay, so in the US, we have a president. Right. The president is the head of our federal, like our central government, our national government for and so they run the government, but they also are the head of like the Oh, God, government and military. Also the military. That’s true. Yeah. But there’s like the the ceremonial piece like when foreign dignitaries come, they go to the White House, and they sit down with the President, right? So he plays, or she plays, hopefully one day, multiple roles in government, in the UK, their government government is such that the Prime Minister runs the government and the Queen run, she’s actually I think she is technically the head of the military. And she is the ceremonial head of their government. And some countries have presidents and prime ministers where the president is the head of like the ceremonial stuff in the Prime Minister’s head of the government, but in the UK, they have a monarchy for the ceremonial stuff and the Prime Minister and the the two houses for to run their government and so like, how how being the head of the ceremonial stuff means that you have tons of affiliations and responsibilities that you have to you have to go out there and like Christen ships and like, you know, be the head of some charity and like whatever right? The Queen has hundreds of them And she doles them out to the different members of the royal family like to keep essentially until like run on her behalf. That’s what it means to be in service of Her Majesty, right. So Harry, like Harry had some from the time that he was like eight, you know, like when when you grow up as a royal, you eventually come to an age where they give you some of your own, you know, charities or whatever, and you go and that is your job, you are out there working on behalf of the Queen and the Queen keep some, but you do many of them. And so it’s a huge deal to be in service of that her majesty, not every like that’s what it means to be an upper echelon of royal right, like, not every royal gets to have patronages they’re called for the queen. And so Harry and Megan gave back their patronages that they didn’t want to nor did their patronages want to give them up, which I think is really interesting. That’s super fascinating. But on the on the on the Andrew front, he gave back his patronages. And so then they also give back their military, their honorary military title. So Harry has the one that he earned because he actually served in the military. So he gets to keep those but he had to give back as honorary military titles that the Queen bestowed upon him. That’s the same thing that’s happened with Andrew, they stripped him of his patronages and they stripped him of any honorary titles. But like, Duke is not honorary. Prince is not honorary. That is like literally their name.

Megan
Well, so the thing about Duke though, like that is a title that is conferred upon you by his but queen so how was it not honorary?

Ade
Like a like, they like it, they like a set, they like sign seals and like, it’s like, it basically becomes part of your identity. Like your, your,

Stephie
I don’t know, undo. It’s not like say, is that sort of like how you are you you have a PhD and you can’t and PhD,

Ade
I mean, like you could uh-PhD me and probably strip them up there. But like that is it doesn’t work in the same way that the patronages and the honorary middle military titles do it is it is something separate is like a separate like legal category that like gets enshrined in like law. You are like, I don’t know exactly how it works. But like it is, it is like a separate level of thing. And like I don’t know, fully. I’m also a bit like puzzled by the his royal Her Royal Highness thing. Because they don’t actually strip you of being in line for the throne. Because that’s not there’s like no way to do that. There’s no way to strip somebody of being in line for the throne. Harry is still sixth in line for the throne, regardless of what anyone has to say. Regardless of what he says, frankly, unless he gets there in abdicates, there’s like no way to like not be in line for the throne. So both of them are still technically in line for the throne in whatever order they fall in. But they don’t get called His or Her Royal Highness anymore, because they’re no longer working members of the royal family.

Megan
So do you think when Andrew is found guilty of these things, then they will go through the proceeding the legal mumbo jumbo of you know, I mean, they have to find a new Duke right like they can’t have a felon in jail. Right want to

Stephie
separate themselves to that degree?

Ade
I so I won’t even say rumor has it’s like well established that Andrew is his mom’s favorite. Yes, that is true. And and I also and also there are like empty dupe dumps and there are like, you know, like, there are like Sussex was open for years before Harry and Megan got it. Right. So I don’t I don’t think that they’ll strip it from him. I just think that if as long as the royal family is around, we won’t have any more Dukes of York. Which isn’t like I think it’ll die with him because nobody wants to be like, like, like whatever like you know, when I give people when they gave the Cambridge is their Cambridge is when they gave the sussexes the Sussex place like everyone like the stories were like, Oh, the last Duke of Sussex XYZ, like they wrote about the history of it, right? Like nobody wants to get like the Duke of York and be like the last Duke of York. Mellon, like York’s just gonna be F and empty. Like no dude for the rest of time, which maybe is fine with them.

Megan
So I had what I just had one more question then. So do you think there is a chance of I don’t even know how this would happen because it’s been it’s been so long but the Windsors have been in charge but would there be ever another family as the modern No? Easy answer? Never. Yeah, like impossible at this point.

Ade
It’s Mountbatten Windsor a bust like period right. There’s no going back. Like like we don’t like we don’t get we don’t get new royal families. That’s not a thing that happens anymore. I think yeah, there would have to be like Uh, uh, earth, an earth shattering like cosmic cataclysmic event where like societies were restructured, and then maybe, and then maybe we would get new royal families. It’s hard to imagine a scenario.

Stephie
Yeah. It seems like there would be no royal family before there would be a different royal family. Yeah,

Ade
I mean, even the fact this is like, only tangentially relevant to your question, but even the fact that like Prince Philip and his uncle were savvy and savvy enough, and the Queen was in love enough, and everybody was amenable to him adding Mountbatten to their like legal name that to like they’re at the house of Mountbatten Windsor. I mean, it’s technically still the House of Windsor, but like everyone knows, Mountbatten. The fact that that happened is a testament to like, how young she was, how much she loved her husband? And how much of kind of like, how, how much influence his his uncle had in the royal Yeah, wasn’t

Megan
it like a lot about tying it to other royal families,

Ade
it was 100%. Because Philip and his uncle didn’t want their name to die, and wanted to be like, like, they essentially, they took advantage of the fact that I shouldn’t say, I don’t mean this in a horrible way. I just mean, like, Philip was a very proud man. And he, I’m sure, if you watch the crown, I’m 100% Sure. But even if you don’t watch the crown like it, he struggled somewhat in the role of being second to his wife, because he also was born a royal and also, in many ways lived a life long, with filled with privilege, right. And so like, I think it was probably kind of hard for him. And like, one of the ways that he like, asserted his leadership of the family, and his masculinity was like, by getting his name into the royal family forever. And never. I don’t think that the royal family cared at all about mixing with other royal families. I think Phillip and his uncle cared 100% about their name being known forever.

Stephie
That’s so interesting.

Ade
Yeah, it’s I think, I Mountbatten, when the whole Mountbatten thing I think is is really interesting, and like, it would never, it would never, no matter how strong I mean, I guess that’s just part of being like, in a patriarchal society. But like, no matter how important the wife’s family was, that would never happen to a male heir to the throne. Never, it would never happen. Right? She loved her husband so much. Like, which is really sweet in some ways.

Stephie
Right? Like, when you like when you frame it, and that is very, very sweet. She

Ade
loved him so much. And I think from a very young age, and they were kind of like a, you know, youthful, like, their love stories, like, kind of sweet. It’s hard, because like, she was really young when she met him, but like, you know, like, their love stories, like kind of sweet. And I just don’t, I can’t think of another scenario where this would have happened. Like, it’s just like, she really loved him and wanted him to be happy. Yeah.

Megan
Okay, one more question. Yeah. But it’s only because you brought up the crown. What do you feel about the crown?

Ade
I really like it. I think it’s good entertainment. I think like everyone, everyone who watches things like the crown or like Apollo 13, or like anything that’s like, kind of history, but kind of not like just needs to remember that it’s not actually history. Like, don’t watch Hamilton. And think that just because, like of all the races and all the you know, rap, but just because like because very inaccurate actually, like, you know what I mean? Like, it’s it’s like, we nobody knows what the Queen said to Billy Graham. Was that a great scene? Absolutely. But like, we don’t, we don’t know. And so anyone who anybody who takes any of that with like any certain, like, you know, any form of like certainty, like, I know what the Queen felt when experience when her dad, like, we have no idea. But I think for like the general gist of of like their lives. Like I would say that. And you know, don’t beat me up over this. But I would say the one thing that I’ve really taken from the crown is a lot more empathy for Charles. Like, that’s one thing I would say, maybe it’s Josh, what’s his face his performance, but like, I think it’s a weird thing to be waiting your whole life for a job and have your mother and I think this is Jen, genuinely true. I think this is like a documented fact. His mom had a really hard time parenting him. Yeah, for a lot of reasons. Right. She was young when she was thrust into this role, and it was not easy for her. And she was she had she was having other children. They’re very different personality wise, like he I don’t think this is the kind of thing he would ever do at all. If he was free to choose what he wanted to do, though. This is not a well suited role to his personality. And frankly, when they look at each other they see, and you know, this is this is a guess. But it makes sense based on their roles in life, right? She sees the future person who will hold her job when she dies. And he sees the person that prevents him from starting his life until she dies. But also, it’s a mother son relationship. And I think I never, I never appreciated how FFP become when that’s your mother’s relationship. And like, that’s not an excuse for all the things that he’s done. But it’s certainly like, I think I and I also didn’t realize his relationship with his father, which was very, very tough. Because he’s also very different from him. And so, in many ways, he was abused as a child, right. Like, it’s hard to, it’s hard to look at him and not think that now,

Stephie
and I and I, and I think in recent years, like, I have just come to think of the, I won’t say, the royal family, I guess in this case, I’ll use the firm as the term that I’ll use as being abusive, like, it is a bit like growing up in that environment to me, I can’t not think of it as abusive, yeah, in so many ways. And, you know, kind of, as you were saying, like, some oil, you know, similarly, like, it also, again, this is not negate the terrible things that Charles did to, you know, in relation to Diana, but I think, you know, when someone dies, especially in such a tragic way, we sort of tend to forget any of their negative qualities, right. And Diana was not a perfect person. She was not a saint. Like, I mean, yes, she did. Really, she did some really great things and was beloved in so many ways, but like, she was also like, kind of Loki an asshole. Yeah, especially to Charles and so I think that

Ade
her and her stepmom. That story got me man, she pushed that old lady down the stairs.

Stephie
Yeah, if you if anyone has not listened to the like Princess Diana series on the podcast you’re wrong about it’s excellent. I think there’s five episodes. And I think it does a really good job. I think that they did a really good job of portraying the fact that like, there were actually a lot of assholes in the situation. Like, it wasn’t just Charles like, it was not like, just the villain villain in that situation. Like she was not a perfect person in any way. But we forget about that, because she is the one that died so tragically, and so young, and to see her kids grew up and didn’t get to know her grandchildren and all of these really genuinely tragic things. And, you know, then Charles goes off. And then he marries Camilla, and we just decide that we’re gonna hate them. And that, yeah, Charles has done some really shitty stuff. But

Megan
I think it’s super interesting, though. Because when so when, I mean, maybe they did know all of this in the UK when when Diana died, I was like, 17. So I obviously did not know any of this stuff. But when he married Camilla, it was like a huge deal. And everyone automatically hated her. And then the more I learned about him, and Dan and their past and all these things, either, like, partially through the crown, partially through that podcast, partially through other things. But the fact that he was in love with Camilla, like that’s forever sorry, it’s trapped. And he wanted to marry her. Yeah, I don’t. It’s like all the things that could have been different. Yeah, it’s very sad. And it makes your right like, it does make me feel sympathetic toward him, even though he’s done a lot of horrible things.

Ade
Yeah, and I think I think that’s like, I don’t know. Maybe like too strong a statement, but maybe the Crown’s greatest contribution for me is like, wow, like, okay, like he’s not the only horrible person and not that I thought that before but like, it really gives you a perspective on what he has experienced. And I think just makes if anything, the Crown might help the royal family in that way. Like that because like I think in many ways, it doesn’t help them but like, that might be the one thing that like, Josh, Josh O’Connor Josh Connor, I don’t know which one but he just played that role masterfully and and also I think they wrote it masterfully like the there’s there are a couple episodes like the one where he goes to Wales. Oh my god, great episode. Well loved that episode. He just like you’re like yeah, go Charles. Like speak out. Be you never thought I found myself in the position. Interestingly, just a fun fact. Random fun fact that I heard the other day somewhere. I don’t know where that Camilla. She heard her Tech. Her real title is actually the the Princess of Wales. So she can’t she doesn’t use it. But like, you know, when Diana passed away, or when Diana and Charles got divorced, she kept the title Princess of Wales. And when he married Camilla, she took on that title, you know, as the wife of the Prince of Wales, but she doesn’t use it because of the controversy. And they, they basically said, like, when she, when they got married, they’re like, she won’t use that title. And also, when you know, when he ascends the throne, she will not be known as queen, she will just stay the Duchess of, of whatever, or she’ll stay, she’ll be like Princess something, I don’t know, they were gonna give her a special title. And they’ve like, removed that from the Clarence House website. So

Megan
I thought I thought that she wasn’t Princess and I thought that she was a real title just Duchess if you and that they were in a color like Royal Consort or something Google

Ade
Princess of Wales, you’ll see that the current title holder is Camilla, Duchess of Kent or Duchess of, oh, God, whatever, whatever. She’s the Dutch yourself. And, but she doesn’t go by that role, or by that title, specifically because of the Diana factor. Because it would be up there would probably be public outcry. They eased into that marriage, I think smart in a smart way. They really eased people in they were like, we get that that’s going to be controversial, but more power to them, right? These old people were like, We’re in love. We haven’t since the beginning of time. Like we’re gonna we’re gonna find a way to make it work. And I think she she is one of the I think she’s one of like, the workhorse Royals, she she just so many engagements, she and Princess Anne are the two that are out there, like all the time working doing, they take on so many patronages and I think she’s really worked her way into if not public grace, the public graces like into like, non negative public consciousness, which is way better place than she used to be.

Megan
No news is good news.

Ade
Yeah. In her case, for sure.

Megan
Yeah.

Stephie
So yeah, it’s so interesting. I also just like, I mean, like, I remember when they got married, and I was I think I was in high school when they got married. And I, my English teacher at the time, her husband was British. And so like, I think that was actually in my British literature class that I was in at the time. to of course, we were talking about it, but I just remember like, everyone talking about like, well, Camilla so ugly. And just like, being just so nasty about her. Yeah, because she wasn’t Diana.

Ade
My mom despises her. I don’t even know she loved I am and that but yeah, I mean, like, like, I think there’s a thing with people where they’re like, yeah, she’s the worst. She my mom literally say, I shouldn’t even say this. Let me not say it on air. Like my mom was like, the sweetest person but like when it caught like, there’s a there’s public consciousness around this marriage. This woman this relationship with good reason is not super positive. Right? More power to her.

Stephie
Yeah. Again, like, she’s just a person who fell in love with a guy and wants to be happy. And he does to I don’t know, again. He’s done some shitty, some super shitty stuff. But

Megan
as she she’s, she’s just she’s just a rich person standing in front of a prince asking her marry.

Ade
Trying to be queen. I’m

Stephie
not gonna reference to the Tampa conversation. Okay. So anything else we want to say?

Ade
I mean, no infinite thoughts about the royal family. I’ve got so many

Stephie
so many thoughts. And you have some accounts that you follow. So you mentioned you mentioned the the BBC documentary and that podcast which we’ll link to in our show notes. But do you have any other like accounts that you’d like to follow? I know that you do. Yeah. That talk about the Royals that you know, you kind of get your your scoop from Yeah,

Ade
um, so Elizabeth Holmes is like my number one recommendation here. She is a former presidential correspondent actually she used to be on like the the beat with the I think she followed Mitt Romney around on the on the campaign trail where she met her husband fun fact. But she has since transitioned into kind of royal commentary but also kind of fashion commentary and I think she just has this really interesting perspective on the Royals she says she’s really positive which I think is important and unique in the royal space. I think she is tries to be not positive but like fair to all members of the royal family. Not needlessly nasty. Yeah, she Not like Team Megan and Harry or team, William and Kate or team, whoever she’s just like, she just I think she really appreciates the concept of royalty. She really loves it. And she talks about it, I think in a really cool way. I also really like following Omid Scooby. Now he is in many ways one sided. He’s he wrote the book on Megan and Harry, like an A biography that they have since had to say that they cooperated with. So it’s like, in some ways they were involved. Don’t we don’t know how deep but they were. He also reports widely on the royal family, and I think has some good perspective, it’s hard to find people that just that are not mean about Megan and Harry and still report about everybody in the royal family. That’s like a hard thing to find. Kind of like it’s hard to find, like, I always am looking for like a no like a, like a no nonsense, conservative voice that I can like follow for like conservative perspectives, but like most of them are just insane people. It’s similarly hard to find somebody who’s just like reports on all royal things without being like an insane person. So I think those are the two that I would recommend. There are tons of other like I I’ve definitely fallen to Harry and Megan. And there are tons of other accounts that I follow that are much more like Megan and Harry focus, but I think those are the two that are relatively balanced. And also, they’re former news anchors. So they’re also good at just like reporting news better than than rest these counts.

Stephie
Awesome. We will make sure to tag those in the show notes.

Ade
I’m glad I’m glad and all you can always follow me. I don’t talk about them that much. But when I do when I do it several Instagram slides.

Stephie
I was gonna say when you do there’s like a chunk. It’ll be for like a day.

Ade
I feel so strongly about them. I don’t know if that’s yeah, no, it’s true. I feel strongly about everything. So I guess I feel strongly about them to

Stephie
you know, you don’t go halfway. You don’t half ass anything. You whole last thing.

Ade
Oh, man, I put together a whole thing on Wordle today. And then I was like at eight. Nobody wants to read this. I had like finished putting it together. And I was like I deleted all of it. Like no, no, no,

Megan
you can put it on Twitter. People love to read that stuff on Twitter is

Ade
actually a series of screenshots of tweets. And I was like walking back, walk it back. Just just put the announcement up and walk away.

What’s bringing us joy?

Stephie
Good. Okay, well, on that note, what is bringing you joy this week? Oh, oh, I

Ade
forgot. Did you guys do this? Oh, goodness. What are you a noob? Yes. So, um, you know, what the this, you know, risk of sounding repetitive, because this is what I talked about last time was on your pod, the Olympics, the Winter Olympics start this week. They start on Friday. And I’m really, really excited. I think it’ll be an interesting year. They’re in China. And they’re in Beijing. And there’s a few reasons that it’ll be interesting. There’s like a lot of interesting conversation to be had around. Censorship that’s happening already. With international news agencies. There’s a lot of there are several new sports and that are being competed contested for the first time. And then also climate change. Like there’s just there, they have to make a lot of snow to make this happen. Beijing doesn’t get that much snow nor the the areas around it. So they’re making a lot of snow. And I think it’ll be interesting to see how the weather impacts everything. Say, I mean, all, that’s always a big question. Given the way that the Olympics are being spread around the world now, like, if you’re going to keep the Winter Olympics in February, there are only so many places you can do the Winter Olympics, right? Like you can’t do in Australia. So I think it’s, it’s, um, it’s gonna be in a really interesting games. I’m looking forward to it.

Megan
Is it true, I can’t remember if this was if this happened, or they watched it back or whatever, but it was it. They weren’t sending any correspondence over. So the

Ade
US did, the US and several other countries actually are doing what they’re calling a diplomatic boycott. Which means that they’re not sending dignitaries. So like, usually, like, you know, the First Lady will go visit. And, you know, maybe the Secretary of State will go visit. They’re not sending like any dignitaries. What’s interesting is like, they’re still seeing all the athletes. So you know, they wanted to give athletes a chance to still compete, which I think is, in many ways a good thing. But means that like, totally takes the force out of the boycott. But also, they’re sending a ton of security and the US government had to apply for all the security. And this ended up being a huge like news story in China because they were like they said they were gonna boycott. But look at the US government. They’re still sending dignitaries, but it’s like, no, they’re sending like the NSA. Like it’s like it is it is interesting, like the way it’s being perceived. So yeah,

Megan
there I thought I thought actually, the NBC said they weren’t going to be sending people because

Ade
they would never do that. They’re there. They’re there.

Megan
That’s what I thought like that would how would they even report it like that? That wouldn’t be lost would be like they’d get a broadcast and you’d like do to Skype?

Ade
I don’t even know, I don’t know how they make that work. I mean, they, I don’t know how many, how many, like how big the force of NBC and the other news agencies will be. Certainly it’s gonna be smaller than normal.

Megan
For us, it’s definitely smaller last time, and I already

Ade
know they’re not going to make that much money, right. Like, I can’t like the level of investments just not going to be that high this year.

Megan
I mean, even though I follow you, I keep forgetting that’s happening. So it’s

Ade
I’m ready. I’m ready. I mean, I’m, I don’t know, I’m bit worried. I think it’s gonna be a tough Olympics, but I’m ready.

Stephie
It’ll be very interesting. Megan, what’s bringing you joy?

Megan
Cheesecake.

Stephie
Yes.

Megan
So I do some work for our friend, do writing and recipe testing and stuff. And I tested her cheesecake recipe for her last week. And I don’t make cheese cakes a lot, to be honest. But weirdly, I was thinking about cheesecake that day. And then you asked me to make this cheesecake. And I was like, I was like, can you make some course. And it turned out perfectly. And my husband and I are the only ones who like cheesecake in this house. So I was we’ve been very slowly like working our way through it, but it’s been a really nice like treat. And I was very proud of myself for how well it turned out.

Stephie
It looks perfect. It did look totally perfect. Very proud of you.

Megan
Good job. What’s bringing you joy Stephie

Stephie
I’m so Tiktok has yet again led to a drain in my bank account this time through bras. Um, so I am very excited I saw I was I had a Tiktok from parade come up in my for you page. And I’ve gotten their like their underwear ads before. But this was like specifically about basically like how their bralettes are great for all sizes, including big boobs. So you I fell down the rabbit hole there. And they actually do have like really interesting sizing that actually accommodates like smaller, like smaller ribcage size and like bigger cup sizes like but still is a brawler, it’s not like an actual like underwire bra. So I ordered a couple of those. And then last night in a slightly more roundabout fashion. I found this company called Hey, mavens, and they are based out of Nashville, and they hand make all of their like bras and underwear and these really fun patterns and colors. And they are like parade is very size inclusive. But hey, mavens is like super size inclusive. So they go from like extra extra small to 10 XL. And I just like was really enjoying their Instagram feed, like just the different bodies that are represented was is amazing. And so I ended up ordering some stuff from them, too. So I’m very excited about this, I will report back a promise I sleeves, I will give everyone a report back on what I find with both of these companies and their bras and how they fit my big boobs.

Megan
I have been getting that parade one like 1000 times in my feed. So I hope it works out for you because they are super annoying to me. They’re very aggressive. How big is their

Stephie
budget? Because like I feel like every woman got to be huge on the planet has gotten well. And I mentioned it I mentioned it like on a work call that like I got this ad and I was like all right, well, I’m gonna give it a try. And every there’s like five of us on the call and everything across like, probably like a 10 year age gap. And 10 or 12 year age gap between all five of us. And all of us were have been targeted by their ads consistently. So they’re, they’re going hard. Yeah, but also I don’t know. So I mean, I like the fact that their stuff is like the parade stuff is supposed to be like more sustainably produced. I was reading about that last night. Like, obviously we are not going to like Shop our way to a healthier planet, but also but also like we do need new bras and new underwear at some point. And so if we have to buy these things, we might as well do so in a slightly more sustainable manner. Yeah, or and or support like small, you know, makers, shops, whatever. You guys know how I feel about that. So yeah, we’ll see. I shall report back on my findings on the bras. Yay.

Next week’s episode

Megan
Yay. Well, next week, we’ll be back. We don’t know what we’re talking about. But we’ll talk about something and you’ll be here.

Stephie
That’s right. We’ll come back with with a fun new episode next week and until then, leave us a review on Apple podcasts and listen to us on your favorite platform. You can also follow us on social media at irsipodcast or send us an email at idratherstayinpodcast@gmail.com We’d love to hear from you. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

I'd Rather Stay In

The podcast for cozy introverts

Support the Pod

Listen & Subscribe

101: We Will Never Be Royals with Ade Olayinka

Quick links

Episode transcript

What’s bringing us joy?

Next week’s episode

Leave a Reply Cancel reply