Almost as soon as Oprah Winfrey’s sit-down with Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, aired last week, the vitriol came roaring like a hurricane.
Criticism has, of course, closely followed the couple since stepping down as senior royals last year, and while there has been much public support over the tell-all interview – in which Meghan, 39, said she had felt suicidal while pregnant but was denied mental health support, and that a senior member of the royal family had expressed concerns over the colour of her unborn baby’s skin – the visceral hatred has been difficult to miss. More specifically, the visceral hatred of Meghan.
Conservative commentators predictably led the charge. After Meghan admitted she “didn’t want to be alive any more”, Piers Morgan shot back on Good Morning Britain: “I don’t believe a word she said.” (He’s since left the breakfast show and is digging his heels in, repeatedly referring to Meghan’s “bullshit”.) Shortly after, US journalist Megyn Kelly said: “You can become a princess. You can live in a palace. You can [have] access to the crown jewels and still somehow find yourself a victim.”
And there have been the memes: a fake image of Queen Elizabeth brandishing a gun in an apparent desire for revenge over Meghan’s “bitching”; Meghan and Harry’s faces photoshopped onto each other’s bodies to indicate the prince isn’t “wearing the pants”.
Time and…
