The four day alleged private trip to Columbia by the Harkles was full of all kinds of amusement, even for the bystanders. The backdrop was the Petronio Alvarez Music Festival (14-19 August 2024), but could anyone actually take the trip seriously? The trip was pegged as a private jaunt as the Vice President was a fan of the Harkles, and had invited them after watching the Netflix show, but once expenses were queried, the narrative changed claiming the visit was to encourage tourism to Columbia.
But what images did we have to promote tourism? We had bored school children being forced to sit next to TW, others were photographed with her clasping them to her padded lingerie, and a couple were picked to be photographed hand in hand at some meaningless event for a photo op. I doubt people would want to visit Columbia for that. There were a couple of scenes with a bit of salsa dancing, and a bang of the drums but nothing more. Did Columbia get bang for their buck, whatever the type of banging there was?
TW put on her usual act of clapping at anything, and waving at anything too, while The Claw emerged, and where it was over friendly at times with her host and the host’s partner. There was also a lot of sweat (it must have been hard work), so much staged hugging and hand holding with each other and children, and of course the outfit changes.
The host was the Vice President of Columbia, Francia Márquez, who was accompanied by her partner, Rafael Yerney Pinillo at nearly all the events. The VP obviously has time on her hands if she can host the Harkles for several days, and drag her partner around too. I believe the Columbians aren’t too fond of her and are questioning the government expenses around the visit. I would question whether the VP was on personal leave to take people around or whether she was actually working in an official capacity as it all looks a little blurry to me with the pseudo summits being hosted at the same time as the music festival that enabled Archewell to write off the visit for expense purposes.
There are multiple images of the VP looking less than happy, peeved even, and who can forget the video where she spots TW’s claws on her man as she moved quickly to ‘deal with things’. Did Márquez think she would become ‘besties’ with TW through the invite? Does Francia Márquez think she’ll get an invite to the Montecito mansion? What she got was a huge amount of negative press, with the world poking fun at her for being a fangirl, and nearly all non-posed images show her looking as if she had been slapped by a wet fish.
There was more amusement to be had when we saw TW’s make up running in the heat, her sweat stains on her clothes that she is supposed to be promoting, and her hair sticking to her clammy face. Harold fared no better with dirty shoes and a shirt full of sweat stains.
It was a case of how many faux pas could they drum up in a day, and how many children could they hug and pose with? From inappropriate outfits, to wearing a black bra under a white shirt when you are sweating heavily, to inappropriate contact with young children, and not to forget TW flirting with her host’s partner.
No expense was spared, or perhaps money had run out for the last supper that was held in a gym according to reports, and by the looks of things it looked like several school tables put together for the ‘banquet’ No budget left for a tablecloth and only enough cash for paper napkins as all the money went on security! Harold’s poor interpreter didn’t even get a glass of water.
No wonder more Harkle staff have left when they get treated so poorly, but then again, they only have themselves to blame as warnings have been out there in the public domain for years. Josh Kettler left after a matter of weeks and probably knew it wasn't going to work out, and Christine Weil Schirmer has finally left after 2 years of rumours that she was leaving. I wonder if former employees still get their BetterUp coaching for free as they probably need it?
From visiting one dangerous country, Harold plucked up the courage to fly to another dangerous country—the UK. This was to attend his mother’s brother-in-law’s memorial service on 29 August 2024, just prior to the anniversary of Diana’s death (31 August). Lord Robert Fellowes was an uncle via marriage and there are no indications that they were close, yet Harold never bothered to show up for his grandfather’s memorial service, so one wonders if the purpose had a dual function? Apparently, Harold stayed at Althorp, the home of another uncle (Uncle Charles) which was leaked as an exclusive from People magazine, where even the usually vocal Earl Spencer declined to comment. William also attended the service and onlookers verified that the brothers kept their distance and did not speak, none of which is a surprise.
There’s also no surprise that TW’s brand launch of American Riviera Orchard has been stalled, and the usual trademark application shenanigans repeat themselves. The old tactic of ‘forgetting’ to sign the application (this tactic was used for Archewell) means that the application can get an extension for ‘free’ while trying to register the trademark and being able to promote it while it isn’t even active (for a trademark application you must show that you are trading or have plans to trade within a year). However, this time there are more issues as the brand name is ‘descriptive’ and you cannot claim exclusive rights on a descriptive word, and there is the vagueness of ‘orchard’ because is she selling fruit (or jams) from orchards in the area as the brand suggests?
Was the soft launch months ago an attempt to attract interest from backers, but none were interested resulting in a delay? Spotify cancelled the Harkle contract and many assume Netflix is waiting for their contract to end with no eagerness to renew it. How many other companies have cancelled their association with the Harkles?
A source informed me that QVC had backed out of a collaboration with TW of royal inspired jewellery. This was due to the poor quality of the merchandise and are allegedly seeking compensation for losses. Again, it’s an abuse of the royal connection that TW and Harold are monetising each time they use the ducal title or run with their royal connections. With the world on the brink of war, no one has much interest in what the Harkles are doing, and what is the point of releasing ‘SPARE’ in paperback when you can get the hardback for pennies in a charity shop these days? Isn’t it another excuse for some PR and to play at being victims again, while attacking at the British Royal Family and the UK (again)?
