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From fairytale princess love story to internet laughing stock: Meghan Markle’s meteoric rise and equally as impressive fall from grace.
Meghan Markle is a former actress-turned-influencer who is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. At his birth, Harry was third in line to the throne, behind his father Charles and elder brother William. These days, Harry is fifth behind William and his issue; Harry and Meghan currently reside in Montecito, California, along with their children Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex.
Phonebook:
Abbreviated pre-British Royal Family (BRF) bio:
Meghan was born on August 4 1981 to Emmy-winning lighting and photography director Thomas Markle Sr and his now ex-wife Doria Ragland. Doria was absent for a large portion of Meghan's early life, which may partially explain Meghan's seemingly primal drive for attention and adoration. Meghan was raised in Los Angeles, CA and later attended Northwestern University in Chicago. She enjoyed episodic, named roles in television shows from 2001-2010 such as General Hospital, CSI: NY, 90210, and Fringe before landing a permanent role in the Toronto-based tv show Suits as the paralegal Rachel Zane from 2011-2018. She also ran a lifestyle blog called The Tig from 2014-2017. Meghan married long-term boyfriend and film producer Trevor Engelson in 2011 but they soon split and then later divorced in 2014. She dated canadian celebrity chef Cory Vitiello from ~2014-2016.
The British Royal Family: plagued by scandal and general dumbassery in the 90's-2010s
Family tree included for people who aren't autistic about British Family Genealogy.
It is challenging to pinpoint what exactly makes Meghan a laughingstock now without contextualizing her image in the public eye against the BRF as a whole and as a beacon of PR herself during her courtship and early marriage to Harry. While, broadly speaking, Elizabeth II was a wildly popular monarch, her family was plagued by scandal which ended up reflecting poorly on her public perception throughout the 90s and into the 2010's. Scandals included the very public divorce of Diana and Charles, including public allegations of cheating from both sides, leaks of wire tapped, private, and very embarrassing conversations between Charles and his mistress-now-queen-consort Camilla (tampongate), Diana's scandalous interview with Martin Bashir, the divorce of Diana and Charles in 1996, and the sudden death of Diana in a car crash in 1997. Diana had been incredibly popular amongst the public and was extremely talented at courting the press, particularly in her later years; her charitable and personal outreach, including publicly shaking the hand of a dying AIDs patient, won her an enormous amount of respect even from the most staunch anti-monarchists; her styling, particularly the iconic revenge dress and her enormous sapphire engagement ring (now worn by Catherine) shaped trends to take fashion markets by storm; and her tragic, sudden death caused a period of mourning around the world and caused an uproar of theories that the BRF had actually conspired to have her killed.
Other scandals that continued to rock the royal family included the public 1996 divorce of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson after Sarah was photographed getting her toes sucked on by John Bryan, Fergie's later financial scandals, and Fergie's tacit acceptance back into the royal fold - she reconciled with Andrew and they continue to live together on Royal acommodations. In 2001 the Sophie tapes dropped archive, in which, among other things, Sophie alluded to using her position as a royal to influence customers to use her PR firm, causing her to resign the following year. The biggest damnation to the image of QEII herself, however, was from Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal. The extreme TL;DR is that during the 2010s and early 2020s, Andrew was implicated as a rapist, a pedophile, and a rapist pedophile through his associations with convicted sex offender and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. It has long been alleged that Andrew was QEII's favorite son; the extreme lengths that Buckingham palace went to protect Andrew from investigation as well as continuing to house him and his scandalous ex-wife served as testament to that fact but also wildly pissed off the public who were justifiably outraged by the testimony from victim Virginia Louise Guiffre. Of all the scandals brought forth by her dumb family, the intercession by QEII into this very public matter was an enormous blight on the general popularity she had enjoyed throughout her 7-decade reign as monarch.
Alright I'm going to tell on myself here, I think many of the blunders by the BRF can be easily explained by the fact that on the whole they are - particularly the men - not especially bright. They are extremely lucky William's kids got souped up with Catherine's half-decent brain. Pray that George takes after her. Actually on that note, the only two members of the BRF to really come into the 2020's almost entirely unscathed are Anne, Princess Royal and Catherine. Anne is generally regarded as being the "hardest working royal", annually making the largest number of public engagements of any other royal, topping 457 in the year 2024. Catherine, on the other hand, spent a decade being mercilessly hounded by the press and her phone was hacked on over 150 separate occasions. She participates in significantly fewer engagements but is generally regarded as being an excellent mother and adds a sense of approachability to the BRF due to her more unsophisticated upbringing. Catherine was born and raised an upper-middle class plebeian; in order to marry William her father was granted a coat of arms by the College of Arms in 2011. Despite rumors that her family intentionally orchestrated her college aspirations specifically to unite her with William, the couple by and large seem to genuinely enjoy each other's company and their fierce protection of their children is generally met with approval.
Abbreviated Pre-Meghan Harry Bio
While the world was busy getting shocked by the general sluttery and 3/4 divorce record of QEII's kids (Anne also divorced in 1992), Prince Harry was busy doing puberty and young adulthood in the most princely way possible. PARTY! He partied in a nazi costume (2005). He partied naked with strippers and a dominatrix in Vegas (2012). He fought the paps outside nightclubs (constantly). This is just scratching the surface; Harry was having a FANTASTIC time, and so was the press (aside from the ones who got punched). The BRF spent a great deal of energy rehabilitating Harry's image in the public eye. His larger transgressions - particularly the Nazi costume - managed to get largely overtaken by the narrative that Harry was a fun-loving good ol' boy who just had a few happy accidents in his youth - go on, sit down and have a beer with him, he's great. A large part of Harry's image rehab involved an extensive military career including multiple deployments to Afghanistan, an active war zone, from 2007-2014. As part of his genuine passion for the mililtary, in 2014 Harry launched Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style sporting event for injured servicemen and women. This is one of his most successful ventures and he continues to host the Invictus games annually to this day.
In between dressing up like a nazi and pretending to kill brown people in the middle east, Harry dated. His penchant for beautiful blondes was well-known and his longest relationships were with Chelsy Davy (2004-2011) and Cressida Bonas (2012-2014), both pictured below. While Harry had other girlfriends, he was largely single outside those two relationships and was considered the most eligible bachelor by multiple tabloids throughout the early 2010s. It was pretty much assumed that he'd probably land some beautiful titled lady from, if not the UK, then certainly one of the other commonwealth countries.
When Harry MetSally Rachel Meghan
The exact circumstances of Meghan and Harry meeting are somewhat murky and it is unclear to close observers whether her relationship with Cory Vitiello was actually over when the royal couple sparked their romance. In various interviews, Harry and Meghan have stated they met when Harry saw Meghan on Instagram; at other times they say they were set up by a friend for a blind date at Soho House on Dean Street in London in July 2016. Other rumors pin their meeting to be in early 2016 at Soho House in Toronto, when Meghan was definitely still with Cory. Whatever the circumstances, the press broke news of their courtship in early November of that year. Their engagement was announced on November 27, 2017 and they later married to great fanfare in May 2018.
The image of the BRF during Meghan's brief tenure as royal: The courtship and marriage of Meghan and Harry was an enormous boon to the image of the BRF amongst the public, particularly progressives (and Americans, but who cares what they think about the BRF tbh); the family, plagued for years by scandals that can only be explained by unfettered dumbassery, was practically gifted free PR. This was especially helpful to mitigate growing grumblings amongst lefties about colonialism, stolen jewels from former colonies, classism, wealth inequality, elitism, etc. Was the BRF racist? Black Princess. Was the BRF classist? Poverty Princess (ehh). Was the BRF elitist? Untitled Princess. Meghan was, ironically, simply by the circumstances of her birth, the perfect foil for growing negative sentiment around the BRF. She was, as a result, a very popular talking point amongst the public. The public seemed to desperately want Meghan and Catherine, who was also quite popular, to be the besties of their dreams and the pair made a number of appearances together throughout Meghan's short tenure as royal.
However, Meghan's introduction into the royal fold was not without controversy and she was still met with a great deal of (retrospectively, well-deserved) skepticism from the public in the UK. While she was initially favored by a nearly two-to-one margin, she did not enjoy the wild popularity of Catherine. Why?
Racism? I don’t think we can talk about racism among European nobility without first mentioning Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath, who is the first black marchioness in British royal history [but not the first black noblewoman, that honor belongs to Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804) or, less likely, to Queen Charlotte (1744-1818.) whose African ancestry is largely disputed by historians]. Emma’s marriage to Ceawlin Thynn in 2013 was famously boycotted by his parents, the 7th Marquess and Marchioness of Bath, who were concerned that her ethnicity would taint their family tree. I definitely recommend looking that family up as the 7th Marquess of Bath was a total coomer and housed his “wifelets”/harem on his property and painted various rooms in his castle to represent his favorite pages from the kama sutra. There are other interesting parallels between Emma Thynn and Meghan Markle, but that’s beyond the scope of this post and Emma is actually likeable. Anyways, back to Meghan and racism, on a separate occasion Princess Michael of Kent wore a blackamoor brooch to a lunch with Meghan; many Markle fans believe this brooch was worn intentionally to snub Meghan. Blackamoor brooches were popular in the 17th and 18th century and are these days considered by many to be akin to blackface. source archive
Timing? In my personal opinion, the largest impediment to Meghan's popularity was nothing more than... time. Going from dating to marriage of "the most eligible bachelor in the world" in less than two years was a huge adjustment for public perception. By contrast, William and Catherine had dated for ten years before they finally tied the knot. Catherine had the opportunity to slowly cultivate her personal style and learn how to be a public figure, and managed to do so in the era before significant social media scrutiny; instagram was only created in the year before she married William; Facebook was created in 2004 but took years to turn into the social behemoth it is today; tiktok was created (as douyin) in 2016; Twitter was created in 2006, about two years after William and Catherine's then-two-year relationship became public. Meghan raged about negative press, but Catherine had experienced similar skepticism and was hounded by the press in the decade leading up to her marriage to William. Retrospectively, it is interesting to wonder whether Meghan could have achieved Catherine's or even just her own husband's level of popularity had she simply played the long game or just done things by the book. Regardless, contrary to what she evidently had hoped, Meghan's abrupt departure from the royal family CRATERED her public perception and it continues to decrease to this day.
Wild About Harry
In September of 2017, Meghan gave an exclusive interview to Vanity Fair, detailing her relationship with Harry. This move was unprecedented and reportedly perturbed the Royal Family, who preferred to keep their private lives generally more discreet than stooping to in-depth personal interviews. Meghan later accused the magazine of being, you guessed it, RACIST, because the headline allegedly hailed the song “I’m just Wild About Harry” which was performed by Judy Garland in blackface (pictured below). In her biography about the royal family, Valentine Low alleges this was an oversight and the title was more about Harry.
Wedding drama rumors
There was, allegedly, an absolute shitton of drama around the wedding. The incomplete list includes:
- Meghan wanted to wear the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara, but was denied, allegedly, due to possible negative implications about ties to Russia. Notably, Princess Eugenie wore it for her wedding instead. I personally believe that the tiara was already granted to Eugenie, who was a blood princess and higher on the pecking order than Meghan. There's certain protocols over tiara sharing and pecking order that I won't get into here.
- Meghan sabotaged any reasonable ability to get Charlotte's dress fitted properly, leading to Chartotte’s dress being ill-fitted and the hemline visibly askew; disagreements became so tense that Catherine (who was less than a month postpartum with Louis) had to more or less give up on fixing things. Allegedly, Charlotte cried. Later events are disputed; according to sources close to Catherine, Catherine later tried to mend fences and brought Meghan a bouquet of flowers only to cry when Meghan slammed a door in her face; According to Meghan, the flowers were an apology for making the wedding difficult, and Meghan cried. A picture of Charlotte in her ill-fitted flower girl dress is included below.
- Meghan refused to let the flower girls wear socks or tights, so they had to wear stiff dress shoes with no protection on their feet (see photo immediately above)
- Meghan was difficult to work with for fitting of her Dior dress, leading it to be visibly oversized and boxy in the bust and arms
- Meghan and Harry wanted to walk down the red carpet through the church but were denied as that carpet is reserved exclusively to immediate heirs to the throne; they were offered the navy blue carpet such as that walked by Princess Eugenie but declined, eventually opting for no carpet at all. Pictures of red (Prince William) blue (Princess Eugenie) and no carpet (Harry and Meghan) shown, respectively, below:
- Meghan excluded the overwhelming majority of her family from her wedding except for her mother Doria Ragland; Meghan estranged herself from Thomas Markle in the year before and did not invite her siblings
- Instead of family, Meghan invited celebrities who she didn’t know such as George and Amal Clooney and Oprah Winfrey; other celebrities who were invited but did not attend were, allegedly, Reese Witherspoon, Barack and Michelle Obama, and Jennifer Aniston. [Many celebrities are excluded from this list either because they are/were friends with Markle (Priyanka Chopra, Serena williams) or the Royal family (The Beckhams, Elton John)].
Bullying Rumors
In October 2018, Sussex Communications Secretary Jason Knauf emailed Prince William’s private secretary alleging that Meghan was bullying staff members. This email was leaked to The Times in 2021 and reads, in part: “'I am very concerned that the Duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year. The treatment of X was totally unacceptable. The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights. She is bullying Y and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behaviour towards Y.'” On a separate instance, Meghan was allegedly so rude to a gardener that Queen Elizabeth summoned Meghan to tell her to knock it the fuck off. Meghan has always vehemently denied these rumors, but rapid staff turnover continues to haunt her current ventures as her current charitable foundation, Archewell, churned through a stunning 18 staff members between 2020 and 2024.
Source archive
Miscellaneous happenings while in the royal fold:
Frogmore Cottage: For a brief time following their wedding, Meghan and Harry enjoyed being elevated to nearly the same celebrity as William and Catherine, famously being called the Fab Four. Both couples resided for a time at Kensington palace, with William and Catherine occupying the palatial 22-room apartment 1a, and Harry and Meghan occupying the more humble Nottingham Cottage. However, due to alleged souring of the relationships between the two couples, Meghan and Harry were later moved to the grace-and-favour home Frogmore Cottage, a 5000 sq ft home on the grounds of Windsor castle. A funny rumor has emerged that Meghan agreed to be moved to the more humble Frogmore Cottage because she thought they were going to be moved to to the grandiose Frogmore House where Meghan and Harry had enjoyed their wedding reception. Shown below are the exteriors (out of date) of Kensington palace, Frogmore House, and Frogmore Cottage. source archive
Name Stealing: While it isn’t required to ask permission for naming their children in the British Royal Family, families customarily ask the reigning monarch to opine on the names. In the case of their issue, Meghan and Harry declined to do so. Instead, they named their firstborn son Archie, which had allegedly been either Prince George’s nickname, or possibly his security name. Upon the birth of their daughter in the states, Harry and Meghan named her Lilibet, a fond nickname used by dear friends of QEII that arose since she could not say her own name when she was very little. Meghan and Harry allege that QEII had given them her blessing to use the nickname; a previous palace staffer says that, on the contrary, QEII was furious that such a dear and private part of her identity had been used without her consideration. source archive / source archive
Meghan was known in the royal family to intentionally stick a giant middle finger to etiquette. Request that everybody wears blue and cream? Meghan shows up in olive. Ask Meghan to wear a hat? Refusal. Hair down, blowing in the wind for good measure. Meghan attends wimbledon? Fuck the dress code, I'm a casual American. BLUE JEANS! Pictures of these incidents below:
Clearing the bleachers at Wimbledon: At the same Wimbledon where she showed up in skinny blue jeans and a cuban hat on July 9 2019, Meghan unceremoniously cleared the bleachers at Wimbledon so she could have "security" and demanded nobody be permitted to take pictures of her, a move that was severely criticized by the public and really underscored her overall sense of entitlement; no other royal demanded such exclusive treatment. In order to help navigate the PR through this serious blunder, Catherine and her sister Pippa were dutifully trotted out with Meghan 4 days later on July 13, this time with Meghan wearing a more appropriate skirt; the bleachers were not cleared, not even for the then-Princess of Cambridge.
Do you even parent your child? Alright lets just cut to the chase - July 2019 sucked ass for Meghan. There were definitely a lot of blunders throughout her 18 month stint as a royal but for whatever reason its the July 2019 ones that I remember best. On July 10 2019, the day after she was a complete asshole at Wimbeldon, Meghan showed up to a polo match with Catherine and both of their young families in tow. Archie was 2 months old at the time, and pictures of their appearance raised serious questions over whether Meghan ever actually parented their children or if they were raised exclusively by nannies, as Meghan held her 9-week-old like... this:
What the fuck is her left arm DOING? Why do they both look so uncomfortable? I'm all for giving new moms some grace but that is seriously some "bordlerine-estranged aunt's first visit"-level discomfort.
Diana Cosplay: Sometimes people wear similar clothes. Sometimes, it’s… weirder. Decide for yourself whether Meghan’s clothing choices are nothing, sweet homages, or weird as fuck. Bonus Catherine cosplays included in frame 3.
On that same note, royal biographer Angela Levin alleges that Meghan intentionally wore Diana’s favorite perfume the night she met Harry. Definitely fucking WEIRD.
Meghan and Harry skipped the line: after announcing they would exit as senior royals but before leaving entirely, Meghan and Harry attended a few more functions as working royals, including the 2020 commonwealth service where Meghan was every bit the picture of the grinch in a monstrous green Emilia Wickstead frock. As a bit of context, the order in which the royal family leaves a venue is extremely regimented and proceeds in order of decreasing importance. At the service, Meghan and Harry were sat at the far end of the second row, meaning that upon exiting they should have followed the Wessexes. Instead, Meghan and Harry wove through the row of chairs in front of them to ensure they would exit behind William and Catherine, who had pointedly ignored them throughout the ceremony. If anybody has higher resolution footage or pictures of them busting through the chairs, please share. The pictures below show, in order, Meghan and Harry seated at the ceremony at the far end of the row, then cutting through the chairs, and finally they are immediately behind William and Catherine in the precession. Everybody looks absolutely miserable other than Meghan, who appears pleased as hell.
Ok, fucking Finally. MEGXIT!!!
On January 8, 2020, Meghan and Harry announced on their instagram page that they intended to: step back as senior members of the British Royal Family; split their time between the UK and North America; become financially independent, and only represent the monarchy on a reduced basis.
This bomb was evidently dropped without consulting anybody else in the royal family, as an emergency meeting was convened only five days later, now known as the Sandringham Summit. An agreement was announced on January 18th, the details including that Meghan and Harry were to leave, but they would not represent QEII or the family in any capacity and while they would retain the right to the styling “Royal Highness” they would not use it in any capacity. Furthermore, Harry would relinquish his military appointments, they would now be required to pay rent to retain Frogmore Cottage, and their royal patronages were revoked. Later, Harry and Meghan agreed to cease use of the styling “Sussex Royal”. Refusing to allow royals to work as royals and as private citizens is not without precedent, as the British Royal family had been burned almost exactly two decades before. In 2001 Sophie, Countess of Wessex, was secretly recorded in a sting operation by a newspaper discussing sensitive topics such as blasting Charles and Camilla as well as stating "[They'll say] 'Oh, gosh, they've employed the Countess of Wessex's PR company". She resigned from her job the following year and joined her husband Edward as full-time working royals. source archive
Following Megxit, Harry and Meghan briefly relocated to Canada before staying for a few months in one of Tyler Perry’s homes in Beverly Hills. Ultimately they settled on a 16-bedroom, $14.5M home in montecito, CA which is just outside Santa Barbara and about 2 hours north of downtown Los Angeles. This area is popular amongst other celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Ariana Grande, Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Oprah with Meghan and Harry
Oprah with Meghan and Harry is an 85-minute television special hosted by Oprah released on March 7, 2021. This interview was an enormous bombshell that reverberated throughout royal and celebrity circles for months after. Reception of this special was extremely polarizing, averaging 5/10 on IMDB; on google the special rates at 2.3/5 with nearly all of the ratings being either 1 or 5. Meghan and Harry accused the royal family of silencing Meghan and insufficiently preparing her for life as a royal. They also accused the royal family of confiscating Meghan’s personal documents and credit cards. They rehashed the falling out between Meghan and Catherine leading up to Meghan’s wedding. Meghan stated that she felt suicidal while in the royal family and was prevented from seeking care. Meghan and Harry also complained about insufficient security, both while in the family and post-Megxit. Finally, Meghan and Harry stated that a family member had inappropriately speculated about Archie’s skin color while Meghan was pregnant; Oprah later issued a statement that the comment had not come from QEII or Prince Phillip.
The veracity of many claims in the Oprah interview has come under intense scrutiny. Namely, Meghan and Harry said that Archie was denied the title of Prince upon his birth, but in fact due to the 1917 letters patent Archie could only be granted the subsidiary title of Earl of Dumbarton and was not entitled to the title of Prince until he was the child of the son of a monarch. Indeed once Charles ascended the throne in 2022, Archie (and lilibet) were granted the titles Prince and Princess, respectively. As for the confiscation of personal documents such as her passport, this was, according to royal commentators, standard security procedures and Meghan would have had access to them at any time; and besides, she traveled internationally extensively after she and Harry married for both leisure and for royal visits.
Post-Megxit income streams (not exhaustive)
In order to maintain their lifestyle, Meghan and Harry need a stream of income; the ten-odd million they inherited from Diana and any support from Charles was soon to dry up. They did not inherit any money when QEII died, as her only bequests included personal items; the overwhelming majority of her assets were transferred to Charles as part of his royal inheritance. The annual property tax on their home alone is probably around $100,000 on top of all the other expensive bills associated with palatial estates. Beyond cost of living, Meghan herself is also expensive to maintain and continues to casually wear expensive designer clothes.
Spotify: in 2020, Meghan and Harry signed an exclusive podcast deal with Spotify to the tune of $20M. This deal eventually crapped out “Archetypes”, a 12-episode podcast about stereotypes. On one episode, Meghan interviewed Mariah Carey about being a “diva”. Mariah called Meghan herself a diva, and Meghan was taken aback because apparently only Meghan is allowed to stereotype other people. After 11 similarly bland episodes, the Sussex-Spotify deal abnruptly ended in 2024 after the couple failed to meet productivity benchmarks. While it did briefly enjoy the #1 podcast spot on Spotify, this can retrospectively be identified as simple curiosity and hope for royal-tea. Bill Simmons, head of podcast innovation and monetisation at spotify, absolutely torched the couple on his podcast, stating, “I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation. ‘The Fucking Grifters.’ That’s the podcast we should have launched with them. I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories … Fuck them. The grifters.” source archive
Disney: Meghan signed a deal with Disney in 2020 to do a voiceover for their documentary about elephants. There was no additional work after that one documentary, but Harry did later spring on Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay at a red carpet event, asking them to give Meghan some voiceover work, lol, shown below.
Netflix: Meghan and Harry signed a $100M deal with Netflix to make a bunch of shows for them. Note that Meghan and Harry don’t pocket the full $100M, as part of that is intended to be used for production costs. As of this time, that amounts to approximately $3.4M per episode of whatever they’ve produced, including 6 episodes of Harry and Meghan, 5 episodes of Heart of Invictus, 5 episodes of polo, and 16 episodes (8 yet to be released) of With Love, Meghan. According to an insider, Netflix regrets the deal source archive
Post-Megxit controversies
Did Meghan and Harry ask for privacy? Contrary to broad perception, this is actually not straightforward. The media absolutely carried the narrative that Meghan and Harry left the royal fold because they wanted privacy, but when you go back and read their announcement, Meghan and Harry said they wanted to be independent, which is different. In their court filings, Meghan and Harry said they wanted security, which is also not privacy. According to a number of articles circulated in 2022, Meghan and Harry state that they never wanted privacy - they wanted control. This is mostly true, and I actually do agree that they absolutely do not want to be truly private because Meghan clearly desperately wants to be the center of attention. Anyways, the only place where they said they wanted privacy is in a segment of "Oprah with Meghan and Harry" that was not aired with the initial 85 minute interview that I briefly described above. In this unaired segment, Oprah asks, "Shouldn't there be this expectation [...] you're going to have to lose privacy [when you become a royal]?" Meghan explains that everybody has a basic right to privacy. She compares sharing one framed photo of your kids on your desk with coworkers, and the coworkers then requesting to see your entire private photo album with your kids essentially being a huge boundary violation. And frankly, I agree with her here; Catherine and William have similarly demanded reasonable privacy for their own children, beyond any that William and Harry were able to enjoy during their extremely public childhood. Anyhow, to Meghan's credit, up until about 3-4 months ago, we barely saw a whiff of Archie and Lilibet (which of course fanned the flames behind rumors that they do not exist). However, the narrative that Meghan and Harry want privacy remains pervasive in the media, dwarfing even the extremely credible claims that Meghan is such a bully that multiple people have resigned from their jobs because of her over the years. There are even conspiracy theories that the British Royal Family planted the privacy narrative in the media in order to help Meghan fall flat on her face. The privacy claim even spawned an entire episode of South park... source archive
The South Park episode: The Worldwide Privacy Tour first aired on February 15, 2023 and is season 26 Episode 2 of the American animated television series South Park. Summary. The episode received an overall favorable ~8.5/10 rating across various review platforms and further fanned the narrative that Harry and his "Instagram Loving Bitch Wife" were playing victim and pretending to want privacy when they actually want a great deal of attention. I really believe that this episode did indeed serve to seriously damage Meghan and Harry's reputation and it gets brought up frequently in the context of Meghan's sudden return to Instagram in 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8_5LDkZwY
Security Concerns: There was a big legal battle over security and who should pay for it, mostly spearheaded by Harry. I don't really want to get into the nitty gritty aside from mentioning that Harry wanted taxpayer-funded security while visiting the UK and he was denied. Here's an article about Harry losing. source archive
That weird fucking New York Car Chase: In May 2023, Harry and Meghan claim they were dogged by paps in NYC for two hours, leading to a life-threatening, high-speed car chase that sympathizers compare to the crash that killed Diana. By contrast, Mayor Eric Adams said while the photographers had been “reckless” he found it “hard to believe” there could have been a high-speed chase for two hours, not least because of the notorious traffic. Here's a reddit thread of skeptical New Yorkers roasting Meghan and Harry better than I ever could: source archive Pay-to-pap company Backgrid was sent a threatening letter by the Sussex legal team to release all footage that they captured from that night but clapped back, informing Harry in a sardonic response that they are not his royal subjects archive
Disaster Tourism and faux-royalty behavior: Meghan and Harry have tried to do a few royal-adjacent disaster tours in the US. This practice is common for royals in the UK such as when QEII and William visited the site of the Grenfell tower disaster in June of 2017, after the apartment had burned down, killing 72 victims. Notable disaster tourism carried out by Meghan include when she visited the site of the mass school shooting at Uvalde, Texas in May 2022 with her entire filming crew in tow, and when she visited the burn scars of the Palisades and Eaton fires in Jan 2025, later bragging on Instagram about using connections to get free merch from Billie Eilish to send to a particular teen victim who she had met while gawking at the empty husks of blackened homes.
A series of flops:
American Riviera Orchard [defunct]: In mid-2024, Meghan suddenly returned to Instagram with a bombshell announcement: she would be starting a company called American Riviera Orchard. It wasn't exactly clear what she intended this company... to... do... exactly, but soon after she began sending out samples of jam to various celebrities and influencers as part of a gift package along with, presumably, instructions, as many of the influencers inexplicably posted pictures of the jam sitting in a basket of lemons [Kris Jenner's gift is shown below]. However, Meghan was hoisted by her own petard when it was discovered that not only did she fail to secure a trademark beforehand, but a letter of protest was filed by Harry & David with the US Patent and Trademark office since her brand could be confused with their "Royal Riviera" Trademark. Furthermore, American Riviera Orchard's trademark was later rejected and then marked as abandoned since the USTPO determined that it was too close to "American Riviera", a common nickname for Santa Barbara. Meghan later unceremoniously ditched her plans for American Riviera Orchard, and instead created... archive
As ever: Claiming that "American Riviera Orchard" was too narrow in scope, Meghan abruptly pivoted to "As ever" - to the immediate backlash of established brand As Ever NYC as well as the Spanish town of Mallorca, which claims she stole their coat of arms for her company's brand logo. archive . On their website,A Sever As ever shows their upcoming product line which includes such sundries as raspberry spread, various teas, pastry mixes, and... dried flower sprinkles. How exciting! https://asever.com/ archive
The Disastrous Netflix Specials: We're going back in time a little bit, but I wanted to keep discussion of the content and reception of the Netflix specials in one spot. Following the $100M Netflix deal that was signed in 2020, the couple helped to create a number of flops. Harry & Meghan scored ~5/10 across various rankings sites; Heart of Invictus was received more favorably, with an 86% critical rating/78% audience on Rotten Tomatoes. Polo (2024), however, was a resounding flop and some referred to it as being "unintentionally hilarious". With Love, Meghan (2025), performed the worst of all the shows and, in my opinion, has turned an enormous fraction of average joes, including previous supporters, onto the Harry and Meghan hate train.
With Love, Meghan: With Love, Meghan has been Meghan and Harry's biggest flop, not least of all because it was the worst, but also because it was so broadly watched and covered by the media that it attracted an entire new flock of haters (and inspired me to finally make Meghan an official lolcow on Kiwifarms). The show was set to be released on January 15th 2025 but the date was postponed, allegedly due to the devastating fires in Los Angeles that same month; instead, it premiered 2 months later on March 8th. An interesting rumor has emerged that the show was postponed due to being utterly panned by test screeners and therefore needed more time on the cutting room floor; a separate rumor alleged that Meghan decided to address the rented show home in the show iteself due to the media already making fun of her inauthenticity. Indeed, she references the show home multiple times in the first episode.
The show has well and truly been absolutely beaten to death by youtubers and the mainstream media alike, so I'll just cover a few of Meghan's greatest hits:
- Meghan said she kept bees, then immediately asked her hired beekeeper how long bees live for
- Meghan mixed entire dropperfulls of essential oils into bath salts which is very dangerous without a carrier oil, as the essential oils - which are immiscible with water - can separate, pool, and cause topical irritation or even burns if used in the bath. She also didn't measure anything and ended up dumping various ingredients haphazardly into the enormous jar that she had prepared.
- Meghan popped popcorn on the cob and then was filmed putting the popcorn in a bag, with bags of microwave popcorn visible on the counter.
- Meghan decanted pretzels from a plastic bag into a different plastic bag - tied with a bow. How fancy!
All of this stupid shit, by the way was just from the first episode.
Meghan also hastily corrected alleged good friend Mindy Kaling after referring to her as 'Meghan Markle', stating, "You know I'm Sussex now," and going off on a tangent about family values and shared names etc. Kaling, who notably is a single mother by choice, simply responded "Now I know, and I love it" archive In a later episode, Meghan sneered at a chef she was working with for listening to speed metal while he cooks.
Even fan forums previously dedicated to worshipping the ground Meghan steps on carried reviews that were markedly less enthusiastic; on /r/popculturechat, comments were locked for insufficiently blaming Markle's failures on... RACISM source archive ; on /r/fauxmoi, where reddit users are instantly banned if they have ever previously participated in /r/saintmeghanmarkle, the reviews were similarly unenthusiastic. source archive. Broadly, fans who "still like her" feel that she is out of touch given the current financial climate in the United States/globally; the overall show feels twee and a decade late; the show covers things that are popular on tiktok reels, why bother watching a 33 minute show when you can go through 30x the content in that same time? Regardless of how people feel personally, the show has almost universally been regarded as a giant flop, and more lols are guaranteed when the next 8 episodes drop this coming fall.
WHY has Meghan remained so controversial post-BRF?
Meghan has many talents; one of them is her ability to tap into and absolutely detonate levels of seethium the likes of which few have ever seen with respect to a royal. People even managed to almost forget about certified nonce Prince Andrew. WHY is Meghan so controversial? In brief, many fans of Meghan say that people take issue with her for little more than racism. I don’t agree with this narrow of a take, but I did discuss racism previously, particularly that provably experienced by Marchioness Emma Thynn and the blackamoor brooch incident. Anyhow, moving on.
Bad timing: Few things are funnier than the cosmically horrible timing that has plagued Harry and Meghan since they exited the royal family. Their abrupt departure in 2020 was immediately eclipsed by Covid, which ground any of their fresh-out-the-gate production plans to a screeching halt. Queen Elizabeth died in late 2022, which immediately drummed up sympathy for the Royal Family. QEII was a nonagenarian, yet since she had been the monarch of the BRF for 7 decades, and her own mother had lived past 100, it seemed as though Queen Elizabeth would be an eternal staple the monarchy. Furthermore, while protests did arise leading up to the Coronation of King Charles, the more humble nature of Charles' coronation seemed to somewhat mollify a public that had been building outrage over perceptions that the BRF were flagrant wasters of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. For example, Charles elected to largely reuse vestments from previous ceremonies than create new ones; they avoided using the crown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother for Camilla in order to avoid a diplomatic dispute over the controversial Koh-i-Noor diamond; peers in attendance were instructed to avoid wearing coronets; morning dress, lounge suits, and formal military uniform were recommended rather than archaic coronation robes. When William was created prince of Wales, the BRF avoided a formal investiture ceremony; Charles instead opted to simply acknowledge William as Prince of Wales in a speech and that was that. All of these seemingly humble gestures relative to historical grandiosity associated with royal happenings was more or less acceptable to the public, and Charles enjoyed a massive boost in favorability in 2022, that - while it has slowly decreased in the years since - continues on somewhat to this day (see chart). William is substantially more popular than his father and continues to hold a 75-80% favorability rating. A chart of Charles' favorability from 2019-2025, and a chart comparing a number of people from the British Royal Family incl. Harry and Meghan is included below source
In addition to dealing with the Queen's death, Charles and Catherine both were diagnosed with cancer in 2024. Catherine came under intense scrutiny due to her extremely private nature of her diagnosis; at first it was only announced that she had surgery and did NOT have cancer, but then after a long period of silence it was revealed she did have cancer. The media whipped up into an absolute fervor with divorce rumors, speculating on her health, even suggesting that William beat her, etc. In late 2024, Catherine announced she had finished her chemotherapy and was in remission. Her exact type of cancer has not been publicly disclosed, but my personal wild speculation is that she went in to get endometrial tissue removed (she received a diagnosis of endometriosis in 2020) and it was biopsied as part of a routine post-surgery examination. Anyhow, Catherine did eventually explain that her privacy surrounding her cancer and treatment was largely to protect her children from exposure to potentially scary media stories, and her overall popularity increased marginally from public sympathy over her illness.
Titles for me but not for thee: Meghan seems to have an almost pathological need to avoid acknowledging anybody as her potential superior; this may partially explain her departure from the BRF, as she was doomed to always be second to Catherine no matter what. Anyhow, Meghan almost always avoids formal titles. Prince Harry is simply "H"; Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was simply "H's Grandmother"; Catherine was always "Kate Middleton", etc. Perhaps this could be excused as nothing more than a foreign discomfort with titles and whatnot, except Meghan will not shut the fuck up about how she is The Duchess of Sussex. She slaps her title on absolutely everything; the most egregious and recent event at the time of writing this is when she was chatting with Mindy Kaling in With Love, Meghan and upon being referred to as "Meghan Markle" swiftly corrected Mindy and insisted it is "Meghan Sussex" now. Whether or not Meghan is entitled to the... title.. has become a matter of intense debate among internet autists. Here is my opinion that nobody asked for: I definitely thought it was strange when she insisted her name is Meghan Sussex but I actually disagree with some opinions, particularly that of Lord Mountbatten-Windsor, regarding whether it is entirely without precedent. I 'll include some examples: Prince Edward and his wife Sophie Rhys-Jones have forever been known shorthand as "the Wessexes" or Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex; I actually had no idea what her maiden name was until I looked it up right now because I only knew her as Sophie Wessex. I still refer to them as the Wessexes, although I believe they should now be referred to as the Edinburghs in casual discussions since they are now the duke/duchess of Edinburgh which supercedes their count/countess titles. Harry and William referred to themselves as Harry Wales/William Wales during their schooling since they were the sons of the incumbent Prince of Wales when they were born and while they were in school. Harry was actually born as "Prince Henry of Wales" not Henry Mountbatten-Windsor, and William was born Prince William of Wales as well. William's issue were born Prince George of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, and Prince Louis of Cambridge as that was their father's highest rank at the time of their birth. Since their father was created Prince of Wales in 2022, William's three children are now George/Charlotte/Louis of Wales. Archie and Lilibet would have been entitled to be born as Archie of Sussex and Lilibet of Sussex at the time of their births, but Harry and Meghan elected to break with tradition at the time and gave them the family surname Mountbatten-Windsor instead of Sussex due to their desire to have them grow up as private citizens at the time. However, it is not clear to me, and seems extremely hypocritical, why Harry and Meghan are now clinging to their duchy titleings and have evidently changed or intend to change the names of their children retroactively to reflect it. Harry and Meghan's titles have not changed so there is no precedent to change the names of their children, aside from creating them Prince/Princess when their grandfather acceded the throne. I believe this is also part of the reason that Harry and Meghan are losing popularity with many people; we common folk seem to feel as though Harry and Meghan are reneging on their decision to be normies and are inexplicably clinging to titles granted by the very institution they turned their backs on. In short, I do think Meghan is entitled to use the name Meghan Sussex and name her children the same, but it makes her look like a hypocritical asshole and is a weird thing to do retroactively.
Other reasons Meghan has so many haters: I personally believe that Meghan’s unpopularity simply boils down to her inauthenticity. From the birth of her children, to how Harry and Meghan met, to the estrangement of her family, it seems as though Meghan’s stories about her past are dynamic rather than factual. She can’t even seem to decide if she grew up exclusively on tv dinners or authentic farm-to-table California dining. People also seem to simultaneously raise Harry on a pedestal and infantilize him in the next breath; is he a decorated military veteran who has been cucked into submission by his Instagram-loving bitch wife, or is he a hopeless dumbfuck being led around on a leash, the only words he can drum up in his empty little head being "yes, dear"?. Either way, Harry has always been the more sympathetic of the two and so people who think the duo are doing wrong tend to set their sights on Meghan. Finally, there is significant "I could have done it better" sentiment. Yes, we all know - if you have to say you are better than a lolcow, you're an idiot; its a low bar to clear. But many royal watchers find it so hard to watch Meghan struggle and cling to the dregs of royalty while also insisting she has no part of it, when all she had to do was... nothing. If she could have simply been polite to staff, attended a few events every month, and humbled herself a little, she would get the continue to enjoy the trappings of a grace-and-favor home, her children would get to grow up near their cousins, and maybe she'd even get a tiara moment every couple of years. Damn girl, you fucked UP.
Meghan Markle’s Haters, themselves:
One of the funniest things about Meghan Markle is the giant group of people who really, really fucking hate Meghan Markle. The largest cohort that I am aware of is /r/saintmeghanmarkle, a subreddit founded in around 2021-2022 that boasts approximately 70,000 members as of March 2025. No detail is too small to snark over, and no story is too farfetched to wholeheartedly believe. If you want to spend hours laughing at a seven second gif of Meghan glaring at her mother with a few thousand of your best friends, you have found your people. With a community this large comes stories just as large; any time a long lapse between Meghan’s projects arises, the bored userbase spends hours combing through past footage and tabloid articles, seeking the tiniest morsel of lols or proof to substantiate their opinion that Meghan is a Giant Bitch. In all sincerity, their dedication to this cow is admirable, if occasionally unhinged. The most controversial theories proposed by this subreddit surround the Sussex children. Of these, the most benign are that Meghan used a surrogate for the children and wore a moon bump to fake her pregnancies. Some users, however, are completely convinced that one or both of the children do not exist at all.
Why on earth would such ridiculous scenarios arise? Well, to be quite frank, I think it is largely Meghan and Harry’s fault. In brief, there are typically certain protocols that occur when a royal baby is born, between who attends the birth, how the press are notified, and the “first glimpse” shots offered to the world. Meghan and Harry rebuffed these policies and more or less went rogue for the birth of Archie (Lilibet was born later in the United States). In his memoir Spare, Harry claims that they snuck off to Portland hospital and then returned to Frogmore Cottage within 2 hours of the birth. I’m going to editorialize a bit here, but that timeline itself is suspicious. Typical hospital policy in western countries is to retain the mother for at least 4 or preferably 6-24 hours following uncomplicated vaginal delivery; this is because the risk of postpartum hemorrhage, a potentially fatal birth complication for the mother, is highest during that time period. This risk is exacerbated with certain medical conditions - particularly advanced maternal age (over age 35; Meghan was 37 at delivery) - due to increased laxity of the uterus as the mother gets older. In addition, Meghan had an epidural, which typical slightly increases recovery time due to the time needed for the mother to regain sensation in her legs. archive
And now for some cheap laughs at Meghan's expense
Times that Meghan was upstaged by inanimate objects: On Christmas Day, 2019, while exiting the church, William found himself perilously close to Meghan. Rather than risk actually speaking to her, he proceeded to fuss with his scarf for practically an eternity until Catherine stepped between them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H01CTV3wgLg; At the funeral of QEII, Meghan's face was obscured by a candle for almost the entire service. You cannot convince me this was not on purpose and I will die on this hill; This next one is Harry instead of Meghan but still makes me lol: at the coronation of his father, which Meghan did not attend, Harry's face was obscured by an absolutely enormous feather in Anne, Princess Royal's hat. Lastly, Meghan tried to be the center of attention at an award ceremony for Harry's polo team but was blocked by the trophy. Why the HELL was she up there anyway? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DI4UlsZARI
Random faces Meghan has made that make me laugh:
[above; Meghan glaring at her mother for speaking out of turn; Meghan sneering at Chef Roy for enjoying speed metal, proclaiming, "that isn't very joy of cooking"]
Worst of Meghan's outfits: The see-through skirt, the inverted nipple Carolina Herrera gown, the £100,000 haute couture Dior maternity abaya
In Summary:
Meghan Markle was a no-name actress who captured hearts around the world by literally living out a fantasy fairytale where she was swept away by a royal Prince from a faraway kingdom. After being afforded every opportunity to succeed, she daringly spoke truth to power and left the royal fold to make her own way in the world with her besotted ginger cuck. With each new adventure our duchess embarks on, she manages to fuck up harder and harder and now, with the release of With Love, Meghan, she has managed to begin to malign some of her previously most ardent supporters.
Notable forums on and off site:
Kiwifarms UK royal family drama general thread in A&N
an 11,857 page thread on purseblog forums, jesus christ lol. the thread started in 2006 though, a decade before they met, and devolved from there
/r/saintmeghanmarkle, for markle detractors
/r/dlistedroyals for more of the same
/r/harryandmeghannetflix for sussex fans
thank you @neger psykolog @Carpe Jugulum @Cheesegirl78 @Meghan Sparkle the Second @Imp and @Krokodil Overdose for helping with resources and ideas to finish out this OP.
Meghan Markle is a former actress-turned-influencer who is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. At his birth, Harry was third in line to the throne, behind his father Charles and elder brother William. These days, Harry is fifth behind William and his issue; Harry and Meghan currently reside in Montecito, California, along with their children Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex.
Phonebook:
This private information is unavailable to guests due to policies enforced by third-parties.
Abbreviated pre-British Royal Family (BRF) bio:
Meghan was born on August 4 1981 to Emmy-winning lighting and photography director Thomas Markle Sr and his now ex-wife Doria Ragland. Doria was absent for a large portion of Meghan's early life, which may partially explain Meghan's seemingly primal drive for attention and adoration. Meghan was raised in Los Angeles, CA and later attended Northwestern University in Chicago. She enjoyed episodic, named roles in television shows from 2001-2010 such as General Hospital, CSI: NY, 90210, and Fringe before landing a permanent role in the Toronto-based tv show Suits as the paralegal Rachel Zane from 2011-2018. She also ran a lifestyle blog called The Tig from 2014-2017. Meghan married long-term boyfriend and film producer Trevor Engelson in 2011 but they soon split and then later divorced in 2014. She dated canadian celebrity chef Cory Vitiello from ~2014-2016.
The British Royal Family: plagued by scandal and general dumbassery in the 90's-2010s
Family tree included for people who aren't autistic about British Family Genealogy.
It is challenging to pinpoint what exactly makes Meghan a laughingstock now without contextualizing her image in the public eye against the BRF as a whole and as a beacon of PR herself during her courtship and early marriage to Harry. While, broadly speaking, Elizabeth II was a wildly popular monarch, her family was plagued by scandal which ended up reflecting poorly on her public perception throughout the 90s and into the 2010's. Scandals included the very public divorce of Diana and Charles, including public allegations of cheating from both sides, leaks of wire tapped, private, and very embarrassing conversations between Charles and his mistress-now-queen-consort Camilla (tampongate), Diana's scandalous interview with Martin Bashir, the divorce of Diana and Charles in 1996, and the sudden death of Diana in a car crash in 1997. Diana had been incredibly popular amongst the public and was extremely talented at courting the press, particularly in her later years; her charitable and personal outreach, including publicly shaking the hand of a dying AIDs patient, won her an enormous amount of respect even from the most staunch anti-monarchists; her styling, particularly the iconic revenge dress and her enormous sapphire engagement ring (now worn by Catherine) shaped trends to take fashion markets by storm; and her tragic, sudden death caused a period of mourning around the world and caused an uproar of theories that the BRF had actually conspired to have her killed.
Other scandals that continued to rock the royal family included the public 1996 divorce of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson after Sarah was photographed getting her toes sucked on by John Bryan, Fergie's later financial scandals, and Fergie's tacit acceptance back into the royal fold - she reconciled with Andrew and they continue to live together on Royal acommodations. In 2001 the Sophie tapes dropped archive, in which, among other things, Sophie alluded to using her position as a royal to influence customers to use her PR firm, causing her to resign the following year. The biggest damnation to the image of QEII herself, however, was from Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal. The extreme TL;DR is that during the 2010s and early 2020s, Andrew was implicated as a rapist, a pedophile, and a rapist pedophile through his associations with convicted sex offender and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. It has long been alleged that Andrew was QEII's favorite son; the extreme lengths that Buckingham palace went to protect Andrew from investigation as well as continuing to house him and his scandalous ex-wife served as testament to that fact but also wildly pissed off the public who were justifiably outraged by the testimony from victim Virginia Louise Guiffre. Of all the scandals brought forth by her dumb family, the intercession by QEII into this very public matter was an enormous blight on the general popularity she had enjoyed throughout her 7-decade reign as monarch.
Alright I'm going to tell on myself here, I think many of the blunders by the BRF can be easily explained by the fact that on the whole they are - particularly the men - not especially bright. They are extremely lucky William's kids got souped up with Catherine's half-decent brain. Pray that George takes after her. Actually on that note, the only two members of the BRF to really come into the 2020's almost entirely unscathed are Anne, Princess Royal and Catherine. Anne is generally regarded as being the "hardest working royal", annually making the largest number of public engagements of any other royal, topping 457 in the year 2024. Catherine, on the other hand, spent a decade being mercilessly hounded by the press and her phone was hacked on over 150 separate occasions. She participates in significantly fewer engagements but is generally regarded as being an excellent mother and adds a sense of approachability to the BRF due to her more unsophisticated upbringing. Catherine was born and raised an upper-middle class plebeian; in order to marry William her father was granted a coat of arms by the College of Arms in 2011. Despite rumors that her family intentionally orchestrated her college aspirations specifically to unite her with William, the couple by and large seem to genuinely enjoy each other's company and their fierce protection of their children is generally met with approval.
Abbreviated Pre-Meghan Harry Bio
While the world was busy getting shocked by the general sluttery and 3/4 divorce record of QEII's kids (Anne also divorced in 1992), Prince Harry was busy doing puberty and young adulthood in the most princely way possible. PARTY! He partied in a nazi costume (2005). He partied naked with strippers and a dominatrix in Vegas (2012). He fought the paps outside nightclubs (constantly). This is just scratching the surface; Harry was having a FANTASTIC time, and so was the press (aside from the ones who got punched). The BRF spent a great deal of energy rehabilitating Harry's image in the public eye. His larger transgressions - particularly the Nazi costume - managed to get largely overtaken by the narrative that Harry was a fun-loving good ol' boy who just had a few happy accidents in his youth - go on, sit down and have a beer with him, he's great. A large part of Harry's image rehab involved an extensive military career including multiple deployments to Afghanistan, an active war zone, from 2007-2014. As part of his genuine passion for the mililtary, in 2014 Harry launched Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style sporting event for injured servicemen and women. This is one of his most successful ventures and he continues to host the Invictus games annually to this day.
In between dressing up like a nazi and pretending to kill brown people in the middle east, Harry dated. His penchant for beautiful blondes was well-known and his longest relationships were with Chelsy Davy (2004-2011) and Cressida Bonas (2012-2014), both pictured below. While Harry had other girlfriends, he was largely single outside those two relationships and was considered the most eligible bachelor by multiple tabloids throughout the early 2010s. It was pretty much assumed that he'd probably land some beautiful titled lady from, if not the UK, then certainly one of the other commonwealth countries.
When Harry Met
The exact circumstances of Meghan and Harry meeting are somewhat murky and it is unclear to close observers whether her relationship with Cory Vitiello was actually over when the royal couple sparked their romance. In various interviews, Harry and Meghan have stated they met when Harry saw Meghan on Instagram; at other times they say they were set up by a friend for a blind date at Soho House on Dean Street in London in July 2016. Other rumors pin their meeting to be in early 2016 at Soho House in Toronto, when Meghan was definitely still with Cory. Whatever the circumstances, the press broke news of their courtship in early November of that year. Their engagement was announced on November 27, 2017 and they later married to great fanfare in May 2018.
The image of the BRF during Meghan's brief tenure as royal: The courtship and marriage of Meghan and Harry was an enormous boon to the image of the BRF amongst the public, particularly progressives (and Americans, but who cares what they think about the BRF tbh); the family, plagued for years by scandals that can only be explained by unfettered dumbassery, was practically gifted free PR. This was especially helpful to mitigate growing grumblings amongst lefties about colonialism, stolen jewels from former colonies, classism, wealth inequality, elitism, etc. Was the BRF racist? Black Princess. Was the BRF classist? Poverty Princess (ehh). Was the BRF elitist? Untitled Princess. Meghan was, ironically, simply by the circumstances of her birth, the perfect foil for growing negative sentiment around the BRF. She was, as a result, a very popular talking point amongst the public. The public seemed to desperately want Meghan and Catherine, who was also quite popular, to be the besties of their dreams and the pair made a number of appearances together throughout Meghan's short tenure as royal.
However, Meghan's introduction into the royal fold was not without controversy and she was still met with a great deal of (retrospectively, well-deserved) skepticism from the public in the UK. While she was initially favored by a nearly two-to-one margin, she did not enjoy the wild popularity of Catherine. Why?
Racism? I don’t think we can talk about racism among European nobility without first mentioning Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath, who is the first black marchioness in British royal history [but not the first black noblewoman, that honor belongs to Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804) or, less likely, to Queen Charlotte (1744-1818.) whose African ancestry is largely disputed by historians]. Emma’s marriage to Ceawlin Thynn in 2013 was famously boycotted by his parents, the 7th Marquess and Marchioness of Bath, who were concerned that her ethnicity would taint their family tree. I definitely recommend looking that family up as the 7th Marquess of Bath was a total coomer and housed his “wifelets”/harem on his property and painted various rooms in his castle to represent his favorite pages from the kama sutra. There are other interesting parallels between Emma Thynn and Meghan Markle, but that’s beyond the scope of this post and Emma is actually likeable. Anyways, back to Meghan and racism, on a separate occasion Princess Michael of Kent wore a blackamoor brooch to a lunch with Meghan; many Markle fans believe this brooch was worn intentionally to snub Meghan. Blackamoor brooches were popular in the 17th and 18th century and are these days considered by many to be akin to blackface. source archive
Timing? In my personal opinion, the largest impediment to Meghan's popularity was nothing more than... time. Going from dating to marriage of "the most eligible bachelor in the world" in less than two years was a huge adjustment for public perception. By contrast, William and Catherine had dated for ten years before they finally tied the knot. Catherine had the opportunity to slowly cultivate her personal style and learn how to be a public figure, and managed to do so in the era before significant social media scrutiny; instagram was only created in the year before she married William; Facebook was created in 2004 but took years to turn into the social behemoth it is today; tiktok was created (as douyin) in 2016; Twitter was created in 2006, about two years after William and Catherine's then-two-year relationship became public. Meghan raged about negative press, but Catherine had experienced similar skepticism and was hounded by the press in the decade leading up to her marriage to William. Retrospectively, it is interesting to wonder whether Meghan could have achieved Catherine's or even just her own husband's level of popularity had she simply played the long game or just done things by the book. Regardless, contrary to what she evidently had hoped, Meghan's abrupt departure from the royal family CRATERED her public perception and it continues to decrease to this day.
Wild About Harry
In September of 2017, Meghan gave an exclusive interview to Vanity Fair, detailing her relationship with Harry. This move was unprecedented and reportedly perturbed the Royal Family, who preferred to keep their private lives generally more discreet than stooping to in-depth personal interviews. Meghan later accused the magazine of being, you guessed it, RACIST, because the headline allegedly hailed the song “I’m just Wild About Harry” which was performed by Judy Garland in blackface (pictured below). In her biography about the royal family, Valentine Low alleges this was an oversight and the title was more about Harry.
Wedding drama rumors
There was, allegedly, an absolute shitton of drama around the wedding. The incomplete list includes:
- Meghan wanted to wear the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara, but was denied, allegedly, due to possible negative implications about ties to Russia. Notably, Princess Eugenie wore it for her wedding instead. I personally believe that the tiara was already granted to Eugenie, who was a blood princess and higher on the pecking order than Meghan. There's certain protocols over tiara sharing and pecking order that I won't get into here.
- Meghan sabotaged any reasonable ability to get Charlotte's dress fitted properly, leading to Chartotte’s dress being ill-fitted and the hemline visibly askew; disagreements became so tense that Catherine (who was less than a month postpartum with Louis) had to more or less give up on fixing things. Allegedly, Charlotte cried. Later events are disputed; according to sources close to Catherine, Catherine later tried to mend fences and brought Meghan a bouquet of flowers only to cry when Meghan slammed a door in her face; According to Meghan, the flowers were an apology for making the wedding difficult, and Meghan cried. A picture of Charlotte in her ill-fitted flower girl dress is included below.
- Meghan refused to let the flower girls wear socks or tights, so they had to wear stiff dress shoes with no protection on their feet (see photo immediately above)
- Meghan was difficult to work with for fitting of her Dior dress, leading it to be visibly oversized and boxy in the bust and arms
- Meghan and Harry wanted to walk down the red carpet through the church but were denied as that carpet is reserved exclusively to immediate heirs to the throne; they were offered the navy blue carpet such as that walked by Princess Eugenie but declined, eventually opting for no carpet at all. Pictures of red (Prince William) blue (Princess Eugenie) and no carpet (Harry and Meghan) shown, respectively, below:
- Meghan excluded the overwhelming majority of her family from her wedding except for her mother Doria Ragland; Meghan estranged herself from Thomas Markle in the year before and did not invite her siblings
- Instead of family, Meghan invited celebrities who she didn’t know such as George and Amal Clooney and Oprah Winfrey; other celebrities who were invited but did not attend were, allegedly, Reese Witherspoon, Barack and Michelle Obama, and Jennifer Aniston. [Many celebrities are excluded from this list either because they are/were friends with Markle (Priyanka Chopra, Serena williams) or the Royal family (The Beckhams, Elton John)].
Bullying Rumors
In October 2018, Sussex Communications Secretary Jason Knauf emailed Prince William’s private secretary alleging that Meghan was bullying staff members. This email was leaked to The Times in 2021 and reads, in part: “'I am very concerned that the Duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year. The treatment of X was totally unacceptable. The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights. She is bullying Y and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behaviour towards Y.'” On a separate instance, Meghan was allegedly so rude to a gardener that Queen Elizabeth summoned Meghan to tell her to knock it the fuck off. Meghan has always vehemently denied these rumors, but rapid staff turnover continues to haunt her current ventures as her current charitable foundation, Archewell, churned through a stunning 18 staff members between 2020 and 2024.
Source archive
Miscellaneous happenings while in the royal fold:
Frogmore Cottage: For a brief time following their wedding, Meghan and Harry enjoyed being elevated to nearly the same celebrity as William and Catherine, famously being called the Fab Four. Both couples resided for a time at Kensington palace, with William and Catherine occupying the palatial 22-room apartment 1a, and Harry and Meghan occupying the more humble Nottingham Cottage. However, due to alleged souring of the relationships between the two couples, Meghan and Harry were later moved to the grace-and-favour home Frogmore Cottage, a 5000 sq ft home on the grounds of Windsor castle. A funny rumor has emerged that Meghan agreed to be moved to the more humble Frogmore Cottage because she thought they were going to be moved to to the grandiose Frogmore House where Meghan and Harry had enjoyed their wedding reception. Shown below are the exteriors (out of date) of Kensington palace, Frogmore House, and Frogmore Cottage. source archive
Name Stealing: While it isn’t required to ask permission for naming their children in the British Royal Family, families customarily ask the reigning monarch to opine on the names. In the case of their issue, Meghan and Harry declined to do so. Instead, they named their firstborn son Archie, which had allegedly been either Prince George’s nickname, or possibly his security name. Upon the birth of their daughter in the states, Harry and Meghan named her Lilibet, a fond nickname used by dear friends of QEII that arose since she could not say her own name when she was very little. Meghan and Harry allege that QEII had given them her blessing to use the nickname; a previous palace staffer says that, on the contrary, QEII was furious that such a dear and private part of her identity had been used without her consideration. source archive / source archive
Meghan was known in the royal family to intentionally stick a giant middle finger to etiquette. Request that everybody wears blue and cream? Meghan shows up in olive. Ask Meghan to wear a hat? Refusal. Hair down, blowing in the wind for good measure. Meghan attends wimbledon? Fuck the dress code, I'm a casual American. BLUE JEANS! Pictures of these incidents below:
Clearing the bleachers at Wimbledon: At the same Wimbledon where she showed up in skinny blue jeans and a cuban hat on July 9 2019, Meghan unceremoniously cleared the bleachers at Wimbledon so she could have "security" and demanded nobody be permitted to take pictures of her, a move that was severely criticized by the public and really underscored her overall sense of entitlement; no other royal demanded such exclusive treatment. In order to help navigate the PR through this serious blunder, Catherine and her sister Pippa were dutifully trotted out with Meghan 4 days later on July 13, this time with Meghan wearing a more appropriate skirt; the bleachers were not cleared, not even for the then-Princess of Cambridge.
Do you even parent your child? Alright lets just cut to the chase - July 2019 sucked ass for Meghan. There were definitely a lot of blunders throughout her 18 month stint as a royal but for whatever reason its the July 2019 ones that I remember best. On July 10 2019, the day after she was a complete asshole at Wimbeldon, Meghan showed up to a polo match with Catherine and both of their young families in tow. Archie was 2 months old at the time, and pictures of their appearance raised serious questions over whether Meghan ever actually parented their children or if they were raised exclusively by nannies, as Meghan held her 9-week-old like... this:
What the fuck is her left arm DOING? Why do they both look so uncomfortable? I'm all for giving new moms some grace but that is seriously some "bordlerine-estranged aunt's first visit"-level discomfort.
Diana Cosplay: Sometimes people wear similar clothes. Sometimes, it’s… weirder. Decide for yourself whether Meghan’s clothing choices are nothing, sweet homages, or weird as fuck. Bonus Catherine cosplays included in frame 3.
On that same note, royal biographer Angela Levin alleges that Meghan intentionally wore Diana’s favorite perfume the night she met Harry. Definitely fucking WEIRD.
Meghan and Harry skipped the line: after announcing they would exit as senior royals but before leaving entirely, Meghan and Harry attended a few more functions as working royals, including the 2020 commonwealth service where Meghan was every bit the picture of the grinch in a monstrous green Emilia Wickstead frock. As a bit of context, the order in which the royal family leaves a venue is extremely regimented and proceeds in order of decreasing importance. At the service, Meghan and Harry were sat at the far end of the second row, meaning that upon exiting they should have followed the Wessexes. Instead, Meghan and Harry wove through the row of chairs in front of them to ensure they would exit behind William and Catherine, who had pointedly ignored them throughout the ceremony. If anybody has higher resolution footage or pictures of them busting through the chairs, please share. The pictures below show, in order, Meghan and Harry seated at the ceremony at the far end of the row, then cutting through the chairs, and finally they are immediately behind William and Catherine in the precession. Everybody looks absolutely miserable other than Meghan, who appears pleased as hell.
Ok, fucking Finally. MEGXIT!!!
On January 8, 2020, Meghan and Harry announced on their instagram page that they intended to: step back as senior members of the British Royal Family; split their time between the UK and North America; become financially independent, and only represent the monarchy on a reduced basis.
This bomb was evidently dropped without consulting anybody else in the royal family, as an emergency meeting was convened only five days later, now known as the Sandringham Summit. An agreement was announced on January 18th, the details including that Meghan and Harry were to leave, but they would not represent QEII or the family in any capacity and while they would retain the right to the styling “Royal Highness” they would not use it in any capacity. Furthermore, Harry would relinquish his military appointments, they would now be required to pay rent to retain Frogmore Cottage, and their royal patronages were revoked. Later, Harry and Meghan agreed to cease use of the styling “Sussex Royal”. Refusing to allow royals to work as royals and as private citizens is not without precedent, as the British Royal family had been burned almost exactly two decades before. In 2001 Sophie, Countess of Wessex, was secretly recorded in a sting operation by a newspaper discussing sensitive topics such as blasting Charles and Camilla as well as stating "[They'll say] 'Oh, gosh, they've employed the Countess of Wessex's PR company". She resigned from her job the following year and joined her husband Edward as full-time working royals. source archive
Following Megxit, Harry and Meghan briefly relocated to Canada before staying for a few months in one of Tyler Perry’s homes in Beverly Hills. Ultimately they settled on a 16-bedroom, $14.5M home in montecito, CA which is just outside Santa Barbara and about 2 hours north of downtown Los Angeles. This area is popular amongst other celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Ariana Grande, Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Oprah with Meghan and Harry
Oprah with Meghan and Harry is an 85-minute television special hosted by Oprah released on March 7, 2021. This interview was an enormous bombshell that reverberated throughout royal and celebrity circles for months after. Reception of this special was extremely polarizing, averaging 5/10 on IMDB; on google the special rates at 2.3/5 with nearly all of the ratings being either 1 or 5. Meghan and Harry accused the royal family of silencing Meghan and insufficiently preparing her for life as a royal. They also accused the royal family of confiscating Meghan’s personal documents and credit cards. They rehashed the falling out between Meghan and Catherine leading up to Meghan’s wedding. Meghan stated that she felt suicidal while in the royal family and was prevented from seeking care. Meghan and Harry also complained about insufficient security, both while in the family and post-Megxit. Finally, Meghan and Harry stated that a family member had inappropriately speculated about Archie’s skin color while Meghan was pregnant; Oprah later issued a statement that the comment had not come from QEII or Prince Phillip.
The veracity of many claims in the Oprah interview has come under intense scrutiny. Namely, Meghan and Harry said that Archie was denied the title of Prince upon his birth, but in fact due to the 1917 letters patent Archie could only be granted the subsidiary title of Earl of Dumbarton and was not entitled to the title of Prince until he was the child of the son of a monarch. Indeed once Charles ascended the throne in 2022, Archie (and lilibet) were granted the titles Prince and Princess, respectively. As for the confiscation of personal documents such as her passport, this was, according to royal commentators, standard security procedures and Meghan would have had access to them at any time; and besides, she traveled internationally extensively after she and Harry married for both leisure and for royal visits.
Post-Megxit income streams (not exhaustive)
In order to maintain their lifestyle, Meghan and Harry need a stream of income; the ten-odd million they inherited from Diana and any support from Charles was soon to dry up. They did not inherit any money when QEII died, as her only bequests included personal items; the overwhelming majority of her assets were transferred to Charles as part of his royal inheritance. The annual property tax on their home alone is probably around $100,000 on top of all the other expensive bills associated with palatial estates. Beyond cost of living, Meghan herself is also expensive to maintain and continues to casually wear expensive designer clothes.
Spotify: in 2020, Meghan and Harry signed an exclusive podcast deal with Spotify to the tune of $20M. This deal eventually crapped out “Archetypes”, a 12-episode podcast about stereotypes. On one episode, Meghan interviewed Mariah Carey about being a “diva”. Mariah called Meghan herself a diva, and Meghan was taken aback because apparently only Meghan is allowed to stereotype other people. After 11 similarly bland episodes, the Sussex-Spotify deal abnruptly ended in 2024 after the couple failed to meet productivity benchmarks. While it did briefly enjoy the #1 podcast spot on Spotify, this can retrospectively be identified as simple curiosity and hope for royal-tea. Bill Simmons, head of podcast innovation and monetisation at spotify, absolutely torched the couple on his podcast, stating, “I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation. ‘The Fucking Grifters.’ That’s the podcast we should have launched with them. I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories … Fuck them. The grifters.” source archive
Disney: Meghan signed a deal with Disney in 2020 to do a voiceover for their documentary about elephants. There was no additional work after that one documentary, but Harry did later spring on Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay at a red carpet event, asking them to give Meghan some voiceover work, lol, shown below.
Netflix: Meghan and Harry signed a $100M deal with Netflix to make a bunch of shows for them. Note that Meghan and Harry don’t pocket the full $100M, as part of that is intended to be used for production costs. As of this time, that amounts to approximately $3.4M per episode of whatever they’ve produced, including 6 episodes of Harry and Meghan, 5 episodes of Heart of Invictus, 5 episodes of polo, and 16 episodes (8 yet to be released) of With Love, Meghan. According to an insider, Netflix regrets the deal source archive
Post-Megxit controversies
Did Meghan and Harry ask for privacy? Contrary to broad perception, this is actually not straightforward. The media absolutely carried the narrative that Meghan and Harry left the royal fold because they wanted privacy, but when you go back and read their announcement, Meghan and Harry said they wanted to be independent, which is different. In their court filings, Meghan and Harry said they wanted security, which is also not privacy. According to a number of articles circulated in 2022, Meghan and Harry state that they never wanted privacy - they wanted control. This is mostly true, and I actually do agree that they absolutely do not want to be truly private because Meghan clearly desperately wants to be the center of attention. Anyways, the only place where they said they wanted privacy is in a segment of "Oprah with Meghan and Harry" that was not aired with the initial 85 minute interview that I briefly described above. In this unaired segment, Oprah asks, "Shouldn't there be this expectation [...] you're going to have to lose privacy [when you become a royal]?" Meghan explains that everybody has a basic right to privacy. She compares sharing one framed photo of your kids on your desk with coworkers, and the coworkers then requesting to see your entire private photo album with your kids essentially being a huge boundary violation. And frankly, I agree with her here; Catherine and William have similarly demanded reasonable privacy for their own children, beyond any that William and Harry were able to enjoy during their extremely public childhood. Anyhow, to Meghan's credit, up until about 3-4 months ago, we barely saw a whiff of Archie and Lilibet (which of course fanned the flames behind rumors that they do not exist). However, the narrative that Meghan and Harry want privacy remains pervasive in the media, dwarfing even the extremely credible claims that Meghan is such a bully that multiple people have resigned from their jobs because of her over the years. There are even conspiracy theories that the British Royal Family planted the privacy narrative in the media in order to help Meghan fall flat on her face. The privacy claim even spawned an entire episode of South park... source archive
The South Park episode: The Worldwide Privacy Tour first aired on February 15, 2023 and is season 26 Episode 2 of the American animated television series South Park. Summary. The episode received an overall favorable ~8.5/10 rating across various review platforms and further fanned the narrative that Harry and his "Instagram Loving Bitch Wife" were playing victim and pretending to want privacy when they actually want a great deal of attention. I really believe that this episode did indeed serve to seriously damage Meghan and Harry's reputation and it gets brought up frequently in the context of Meghan's sudden return to Instagram in 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8_5LDkZwY
Security Concerns: There was a big legal battle over security and who should pay for it, mostly spearheaded by Harry. I don't really want to get into the nitty gritty aside from mentioning that Harry wanted taxpayer-funded security while visiting the UK and he was denied. Here's an article about Harry losing. source archive
That weird fucking New York Car Chase: In May 2023, Harry and Meghan claim they were dogged by paps in NYC for two hours, leading to a life-threatening, high-speed car chase that sympathizers compare to the crash that killed Diana. By contrast, Mayor Eric Adams said while the photographers had been “reckless” he found it “hard to believe” there could have been a high-speed chase for two hours, not least because of the notorious traffic. Here's a reddit thread of skeptical New Yorkers roasting Meghan and Harry better than I ever could: source archive Pay-to-pap company Backgrid was sent a threatening letter by the Sussex legal team to release all footage that they captured from that night but clapped back, informing Harry in a sardonic response that they are not his royal subjects archive
Disaster Tourism and faux-royalty behavior: Meghan and Harry have tried to do a few royal-adjacent disaster tours in the US. This practice is common for royals in the UK such as when QEII and William visited the site of the Grenfell tower disaster in June of 2017, after the apartment had burned down, killing 72 victims. Notable disaster tourism carried out by Meghan include when she visited the site of the mass school shooting at Uvalde, Texas in May 2022 with her entire filming crew in tow, and when she visited the burn scars of the Palisades and Eaton fires in Jan 2025, later bragging on Instagram about using connections to get free merch from Billie Eilish to send to a particular teen victim who she had met while gawking at the empty husks of blackened homes.
A series of flops:
American Riviera Orchard [defunct]: In mid-2024, Meghan suddenly returned to Instagram with a bombshell announcement: she would be starting a company called American Riviera Orchard. It wasn't exactly clear what she intended this company... to... do... exactly, but soon after she began sending out samples of jam to various celebrities and influencers as part of a gift package along with, presumably, instructions, as many of the influencers inexplicably posted pictures of the jam sitting in a basket of lemons [Kris Jenner's gift is shown below]. However, Meghan was hoisted by her own petard when it was discovered that not only did she fail to secure a trademark beforehand, but a letter of protest was filed by Harry & David with the US Patent and Trademark office since her brand could be confused with their "Royal Riviera" Trademark. Furthermore, American Riviera Orchard's trademark was later rejected and then marked as abandoned since the USTPO determined that it was too close to "American Riviera", a common nickname for Santa Barbara. Meghan later unceremoniously ditched her plans for American Riviera Orchard, and instead created... archive
As ever: Claiming that "American Riviera Orchard" was too narrow in scope, Meghan abruptly pivoted to "As ever" - to the immediate backlash of established brand As Ever NYC as well as the Spanish town of Mallorca, which claims she stole their coat of arms for her company's brand logo. archive . On their website,
The Disastrous Netflix Specials: We're going back in time a little bit, but I wanted to keep discussion of the content and reception of the Netflix specials in one spot. Following the $100M Netflix deal that was signed in 2020, the couple helped to create a number of flops. Harry & Meghan scored ~5/10 across various rankings sites; Heart of Invictus was received more favorably, with an 86% critical rating/78% audience on Rotten Tomatoes. Polo (2024), however, was a resounding flop and some referred to it as being "unintentionally hilarious". With Love, Meghan (2025), performed the worst of all the shows and, in my opinion, has turned an enormous fraction of average joes, including previous supporters, onto the Harry and Meghan hate train.
With Love, Meghan: With Love, Meghan has been Meghan and Harry's biggest flop, not least of all because it was the worst, but also because it was so broadly watched and covered by the media that it attracted an entire new flock of haters (and inspired me to finally make Meghan an official lolcow on Kiwifarms). The show was set to be released on January 15th 2025 but the date was postponed, allegedly due to the devastating fires in Los Angeles that same month; instead, it premiered 2 months later on March 8th. An interesting rumor has emerged that the show was postponed due to being utterly panned by test screeners and therefore needed more time on the cutting room floor; a separate rumor alleged that Meghan decided to address the rented show home in the show iteself due to the media already making fun of her inauthenticity. Indeed, she references the show home multiple times in the first episode.
The show has well and truly been absolutely beaten to death by youtubers and the mainstream media alike, so I'll just cover a few of Meghan's greatest hits:
- Meghan said she kept bees, then immediately asked her hired beekeeper how long bees live for
- Meghan mixed entire dropperfulls of essential oils into bath salts which is very dangerous without a carrier oil, as the essential oils - which are immiscible with water - can separate, pool, and cause topical irritation or even burns if used in the bath. She also didn't measure anything and ended up dumping various ingredients haphazardly into the enormous jar that she had prepared.
- Meghan popped popcorn on the cob and then was filmed putting the popcorn in a bag, with bags of microwave popcorn visible on the counter.
- Meghan decanted pretzels from a plastic bag into a different plastic bag - tied with a bow. How fancy!
All of this stupid shit, by the way was just from the first episode.
Meghan also hastily corrected alleged good friend Mindy Kaling after referring to her as 'Meghan Markle', stating, "You know I'm Sussex now," and going off on a tangent about family values and shared names etc. Kaling, who notably is a single mother by choice, simply responded "Now I know, and I love it" archive In a later episode, Meghan sneered at a chef she was working with for listening to speed metal while he cooks.
Even fan forums previously dedicated to worshipping the ground Meghan steps on carried reviews that were markedly less enthusiastic; on /r/popculturechat, comments were locked for insufficiently blaming Markle's failures on... RACISM source archive ; on /r/fauxmoi, where reddit users are instantly banned if they have ever previously participated in /r/saintmeghanmarkle, the reviews were similarly unenthusiastic. source archive. Broadly, fans who "still like her" feel that she is out of touch given the current financial climate in the United States/globally; the overall show feels twee and a decade late; the show covers things that are popular on tiktok reels, why bother watching a 33 minute show when you can go through 30x the content in that same time? Regardless of how people feel personally, the show has almost universally been regarded as a giant flop, and more lols are guaranteed when the next 8 episodes drop this coming fall.
WHY has Meghan remained so controversial post-BRF?
Meghan has many talents; one of them is her ability to tap into and absolutely detonate levels of seethium the likes of which few have ever seen with respect to a royal. People even managed to almost forget about certified nonce Prince Andrew. WHY is Meghan so controversial? In brief, many fans of Meghan say that people take issue with her for little more than racism. I don’t agree with this narrow of a take, but I did discuss racism previously, particularly that provably experienced by Marchioness Emma Thynn and the blackamoor brooch incident. Anyhow, moving on.
Bad timing: Few things are funnier than the cosmically horrible timing that has plagued Harry and Meghan since they exited the royal family. Their abrupt departure in 2020 was immediately eclipsed by Covid, which ground any of their fresh-out-the-gate production plans to a screeching halt. Queen Elizabeth died in late 2022, which immediately drummed up sympathy for the Royal Family. QEII was a nonagenarian, yet since she had been the monarch of the BRF for 7 decades, and her own mother had lived past 100, it seemed as though Queen Elizabeth would be an eternal staple the monarchy. Furthermore, while protests did arise leading up to the Coronation of King Charles, the more humble nature of Charles' coronation seemed to somewhat mollify a public that had been building outrage over perceptions that the BRF were flagrant wasters of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. For example, Charles elected to largely reuse vestments from previous ceremonies than create new ones; they avoided using the crown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother for Camilla in order to avoid a diplomatic dispute over the controversial Koh-i-Noor diamond; peers in attendance were instructed to avoid wearing coronets; morning dress, lounge suits, and formal military uniform were recommended rather than archaic coronation robes. When William was created prince of Wales, the BRF avoided a formal investiture ceremony; Charles instead opted to simply acknowledge William as Prince of Wales in a speech and that was that. All of these seemingly humble gestures relative to historical grandiosity associated with royal happenings was more or less acceptable to the public, and Charles enjoyed a massive boost in favorability in 2022, that - while it has slowly decreased in the years since - continues on somewhat to this day (see chart). William is substantially more popular than his father and continues to hold a 75-80% favorability rating. A chart of Charles' favorability from 2019-2025, and a chart comparing a number of people from the British Royal Family incl. Harry and Meghan is included below source
In addition to dealing with the Queen's death, Charles and Catherine both were diagnosed with cancer in 2024. Catherine came under intense scrutiny due to her extremely private nature of her diagnosis; at first it was only announced that she had surgery and did NOT have cancer, but then after a long period of silence it was revealed she did have cancer. The media whipped up into an absolute fervor with divorce rumors, speculating on her health, even suggesting that William beat her, etc. In late 2024, Catherine announced she had finished her chemotherapy and was in remission. Her exact type of cancer has not been publicly disclosed, but my personal wild speculation is that she went in to get endometrial tissue removed (she received a diagnosis of endometriosis in 2020) and it was biopsied as part of a routine post-surgery examination. Anyhow, Catherine did eventually explain that her privacy surrounding her cancer and treatment was largely to protect her children from exposure to potentially scary media stories, and her overall popularity increased marginally from public sympathy over her illness.
Titles for me but not for thee: Meghan seems to have an almost pathological need to avoid acknowledging anybody as her potential superior; this may partially explain her departure from the BRF, as she was doomed to always be second to Catherine no matter what. Anyhow, Meghan almost always avoids formal titles. Prince Harry is simply "H"; Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was simply "H's Grandmother"; Catherine was always "Kate Middleton", etc. Perhaps this could be excused as nothing more than a foreign discomfort with titles and whatnot, except Meghan will not shut the fuck up about how she is The Duchess of Sussex. She slaps her title on absolutely everything; the most egregious and recent event at the time of writing this is when she was chatting with Mindy Kaling in With Love, Meghan and upon being referred to as "Meghan Markle" swiftly corrected Mindy and insisted it is "Meghan Sussex" now. Whether or not Meghan is entitled to the... title.. has become a matter of intense debate among internet autists. Here is my opinion that nobody asked for: I definitely thought it was strange when she insisted her name is Meghan Sussex but I actually disagree with some opinions, particularly that of Lord Mountbatten-Windsor, regarding whether it is entirely without precedent. I 'll include some examples: Prince Edward and his wife Sophie Rhys-Jones have forever been known shorthand as "the Wessexes" or Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex; I actually had no idea what her maiden name was until I looked it up right now because I only knew her as Sophie Wessex. I still refer to them as the Wessexes, although I believe they should now be referred to as the Edinburghs in casual discussions since they are now the duke/duchess of Edinburgh which supercedes their count/countess titles. Harry and William referred to themselves as Harry Wales/William Wales during their schooling since they were the sons of the incumbent Prince of Wales when they were born and while they were in school. Harry was actually born as "Prince Henry of Wales" not Henry Mountbatten-Windsor, and William was born Prince William of Wales as well. William's issue were born Prince George of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, and Prince Louis of Cambridge as that was their father's highest rank at the time of their birth. Since their father was created Prince of Wales in 2022, William's three children are now George/Charlotte/Louis of Wales. Archie and Lilibet would have been entitled to be born as Archie of Sussex and Lilibet of Sussex at the time of their births, but Harry and Meghan elected to break with tradition at the time and gave them the family surname Mountbatten-Windsor instead of Sussex due to their desire to have them grow up as private citizens at the time. However, it is not clear to me, and seems extremely hypocritical, why Harry and Meghan are now clinging to their duchy titleings and have evidently changed or intend to change the names of their children retroactively to reflect it. Harry and Meghan's titles have not changed so there is no precedent to change the names of their children, aside from creating them Prince/Princess when their grandfather acceded the throne. I believe this is also part of the reason that Harry and Meghan are losing popularity with many people; we common folk seem to feel as though Harry and Meghan are reneging on their decision to be normies and are inexplicably clinging to titles granted by the very institution they turned their backs on. In short, I do think Meghan is entitled to use the name Meghan Sussex and name her children the same, but it makes her look like a hypocritical asshole and is a weird thing to do retroactively.
Other reasons Meghan has so many haters: I personally believe that Meghan’s unpopularity simply boils down to her inauthenticity. From the birth of her children, to how Harry and Meghan met, to the estrangement of her family, it seems as though Meghan’s stories about her past are dynamic rather than factual. She can’t even seem to decide if she grew up exclusively on tv dinners or authentic farm-to-table California dining. People also seem to simultaneously raise Harry on a pedestal and infantilize him in the next breath; is he a decorated military veteran who has been cucked into submission by his Instagram-loving bitch wife, or is he a hopeless dumbfuck being led around on a leash, the only words he can drum up in his empty little head being "yes, dear"?. Either way, Harry has always been the more sympathetic of the two and so people who think the duo are doing wrong tend to set their sights on Meghan. Finally, there is significant "I could have done it better" sentiment. Yes, we all know - if you have to say you are better than a lolcow, you're an idiot; its a low bar to clear. But many royal watchers find it so hard to watch Meghan struggle and cling to the dregs of royalty while also insisting she has no part of it, when all she had to do was... nothing. If she could have simply been polite to staff, attended a few events every month, and humbled herself a little, she would get the continue to enjoy the trappings of a grace-and-favor home, her children would get to grow up near their cousins, and maybe she'd even get a tiara moment every couple of years. Damn girl, you fucked UP.
Meghan Markle’s Haters, themselves:
One of the funniest things about Meghan Markle is the giant group of people who really, really fucking hate Meghan Markle. The largest cohort that I am aware of is /r/saintmeghanmarkle, a subreddit founded in around 2021-2022 that boasts approximately 70,000 members as of March 2025. No detail is too small to snark over, and no story is too farfetched to wholeheartedly believe. If you want to spend hours laughing at a seven second gif of Meghan glaring at her mother with a few thousand of your best friends, you have found your people. With a community this large comes stories just as large; any time a long lapse between Meghan’s projects arises, the bored userbase spends hours combing through past footage and tabloid articles, seeking the tiniest morsel of lols or proof to substantiate their opinion that Meghan is a Giant Bitch. In all sincerity, their dedication to this cow is admirable, if occasionally unhinged. The most controversial theories proposed by this subreddit surround the Sussex children. Of these, the most benign are that Meghan used a surrogate for the children and wore a moon bump to fake her pregnancies. Some users, however, are completely convinced that one or both of the children do not exist at all.
Why on earth would such ridiculous scenarios arise? Well, to be quite frank, I think it is largely Meghan and Harry’s fault. In brief, there are typically certain protocols that occur when a royal baby is born, between who attends the birth, how the press are notified, and the “first glimpse” shots offered to the world. Meghan and Harry rebuffed these policies and more or less went rogue for the birth of Archie (Lilibet was born later in the United States). In his memoir Spare, Harry claims that they snuck off to Portland hospital and then returned to Frogmore Cottage within 2 hours of the birth. I’m going to editorialize a bit here, but that timeline itself is suspicious. Typical hospital policy in western countries is to retain the mother for at least 4 or preferably 6-24 hours following uncomplicated vaginal delivery; this is because the risk of postpartum hemorrhage, a potentially fatal birth complication for the mother, is highest during that time period. This risk is exacerbated with certain medical conditions - particularly advanced maternal age (over age 35; Meghan was 37 at delivery) - due to increased laxity of the uterus as the mother gets older. In addition, Meghan had an epidural, which typical slightly increases recovery time due to the time needed for the mother to regain sensation in her legs. archive
And now for some cheap laughs at Meghan's expense
Times that Meghan was upstaged by inanimate objects: On Christmas Day, 2019, while exiting the church, William found himself perilously close to Meghan. Rather than risk actually speaking to her, he proceeded to fuss with his scarf for practically an eternity until Catherine stepped between them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H01CTV3wgLg; At the funeral of QEII, Meghan's face was obscured by a candle for almost the entire service. You cannot convince me this was not on purpose and I will die on this hill; This next one is Harry instead of Meghan but still makes me lol: at the coronation of his father, which Meghan did not attend, Harry's face was obscured by an absolutely enormous feather in Anne, Princess Royal's hat. Lastly, Meghan tried to be the center of attention at an award ceremony for Harry's polo team but was blocked by the trophy. Why the HELL was she up there anyway? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DI4UlsZARI
Random faces Meghan has made that make me laugh:
[above; Meghan glaring at her mother for speaking out of turn; Meghan sneering at Chef Roy for enjoying speed metal, proclaiming, "that isn't very joy of cooking"]
Worst of Meghan's outfits: The see-through skirt, the inverted nipple Carolina Herrera gown, the £100,000 haute couture Dior maternity abaya
In Summary:
Meghan Markle was a no-name actress who captured hearts around the world by literally living out a fantasy fairytale where she was swept away by a royal Prince from a faraway kingdom. After being afforded every opportunity to succeed, she daringly spoke truth to power and left the royal fold to make her own way in the world with her besotted ginger cuck. With each new adventure our duchess embarks on, she manages to fuck up harder and harder and now, with the release of With Love, Meghan, she has managed to begin to malign some of her previously most ardent supporters.
Notable forums on and off site:
Kiwifarms UK royal family drama general thread in A&N
an 11,857 page thread on purseblog forums, jesus christ lol. the thread started in 2006 though, a decade before they met, and devolved from there
/r/saintmeghanmarkle, for markle detractors
/r/dlistedroyals for more of the same
/r/harryandmeghannetflix for sussex fans
thank you @neger psykolog @Carpe Jugulum @Cheesegirl78 @Meghan Sparkle the Second @Imp and @Krokodil Overdose for helping with resources and ideas to finish out this OP.
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