‘WHY are you watching her show?’: Can we just leave Meghan Markle alone already?
Okay, look. I understand that Meghan Markle (otherwise known as Meghan, Duchess of Sussex) is royalty and royalty as a concept sucks. But at the same time, the hate leveled towards her for simply existing as a celebrity is ridiculous.
She’s the favorite punching bag of a certain genre of white middle-class British men, and it feels so sexist and racist. It has for years. Markle has just released her new Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, and the hate has only increased. The show is completely inoffensive, yet Daily Mail readers and GB News watchers keep finding new things to slam Markle for.
For a start, Markle revealed in the show (to her friend Mindy Kaling, no less) that she prefers to be called “Sussex” rather than Markle. Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, were granted the titles of “Duke and Duchess of Sussex” by Queen Elizabeth when they were married in 2018. Markle acknowledging the name “Sussex” surely honors the title and the royal family, but the army of haters won’t stand for it. They insist she’s being disrespectful somehow, even though the royals have used their titles as surnames before and probably will do so in the future.
The trolls abusing Markle frequently bring up her biracial identity as a negative. “Could someone remind this delusional narcissist that she is a middle class, bi-racial girl from the suburbs of LA that failed in Hollywood,” wrote one particularly nasty Markle hate blog. Others are convinced that the Duchess is “lying” or “conning” her audience somehow by … doing what, exactly? Making a cute lifestyle show? And where is this “narcissist” coming from? Markle started as a TV celebrity and is still a TV celebrity. Celebrities make TV shows, it’s what they do.
It says a lot about the current state of Britain that in a world where alleged sexual predator Prince Andrew exists, Meghan Markle is the country’s hate figure. From the moment she walked away from the royal family—an institution she says affected her mental health negatively—the hatred raining down on her has been never-ending.
Though Markle is undoubtedly financially privileged, I wouldn’t trade places with her for anything. A quick search of her name on X presents you with the most unimaginable bile. Some people seem to devote their entire lives to hating Markle and spreading conspiracy theories about her. I would be afraid for my safety if I were her.
Luckily, there is the odd fan out there who defends her and points out the ridiculousness of people watching her show simply to hate on it. “If you don’t like Meghan Markle and you’re not a TV critic … WHY are you watching her show?” wrote one user on X. “Meghan could cure cancer and they’d still find a reason to hate her, it’s pathetic,” wrote another. Good Morning Britain’s Narinder Kaur did stand up for Markle against the consistently heinous journalist Dan Wootton, who called her show “the worst TV series ever made.”
At least all these people hate-watching the show will give it high ratings. But the question persists: Why hate Markle to this extent? What has she ever done to anyone? And the answer is, sadly, because she’s a Black woman who refuses to hold her tongue. That’s all it is. Britain is long overdue for a reckoning over its racist treatment of the Duchess of Sussex.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
