Since Meghan and Harry’s Oprah interview aired in the UK, those determined to hate her have been trying to find ways to delegitimise her experience. Particularly, the idea that she didn’t know much about the royal family before joining it. How are they doing this? Well, by using the absolute smoking gun that is… a picture of Meghan Markle outside Buckingham Palace aged 15.
Yes, seriously.
No sooner than Meghan proclaimed she had to Google the national anthem did the Daily Mail whack up a story condemning her a liar. ‘How prepared WAS Meghan Markle for palace life? Duchess claims Fergie taught her to curtsy, she had to Google national anthem and did NOT research Prince Harry's family - despite 'childhood fascination' with the royals,’ one headline on their website read this morning.
The ‘childhood fascination’ they’re referring to comes from the word of Meghan’s ex-best friend Ninaki Priddy – who not only sold numerous stories on the actor after she became a royal but also released home videos of Meghan talking about her fractured relationship with her father.
The pair were friends for decades, but fell out in 2011 after Meghan’s first marriage to Trevor Engelson broke down. One month after their divorce, Ninaki had decided to meet with Trevor and after talking with him – the details of which conversation she has never revealed – she ended her friendship with Meghan. It seems suspect then, to rely on the word of a friend who clearly no longer support Meghan and has motive to feed into scandal around her to get a pay cheque.
Then comes the supposed ‘smoking gun’ that is meant to confirm Ninaki’s version of events, the picture of her and Meghan outside Buckingham Palace in 1996. The photograph was taken while Meghan was travelling across Europe, with other similar pictures outside famous landmarks in Switzerland and Paris. To be honest, if Meghan hadn’t taken a picture outside Buckingham Palace when visiting London, the tabloids would’ve probably found a way to spin that as her intent on destroying the monarchy too.
And yet, people are searching for said picture in droves. ‘Meghan Markle Buckingham Palace 15’ and ‘Young Meghan Markle Buckingham Palace’ are breakout search terms on Google right now. But what does this picture really prove? Because all we can see is an American tourist taking the same picture every other American tourist does.
People are desperate to find holes in Meghan’s story, and the idea that she never knew much about the royal family seems to be their crown jewels – pun intended. But when you really read Meghan’s words, it’s not hard to see what she meant.
‘I went into it naively because I didn't grow up knowing much about the royal family,’ Meghan said. ‘I didn't fully understand what the job was.'
Not knowing much about the royal family doesn’t mean she had no idea it existed. Many of us in Britain know a lot about the royal family – or at least, we think we do – but we still wouldn’t be able to tell you the day to day of royal life. An American woman might know the names, might remember the grandiose around royal weddings and might have visited the monarch’s landmarks on trips abroad, but no one would expect that knowledge to extend to the daily duties of a Duchess – including how to curtsey and the national anthem.
The same people who complain Meghan is in the news too much are now upset that she too was disinterested in royal life.
Hell, I wouldn’t even be able to sing the national anthem without Googling it first – nor would I know the correct way to curtsey, and it’s quite literally my job to know about the royal family. For people to be so flabbergasted that Meghan might not have taken too much interest in the royal family is frankly, quite conceited. These are the same people that complain when Meghan is in the news too much, and yet are surprised when she expresses her own disinterest in royal life prior to being thrown into it.
Because you might not remember, but she really was. Harry asked Meghan to go on holiday with him after just two dates, and the pair only dated for three months before publicly announcing their relationship. Realistically, she was thrown in at the deep end when it came to getting to grips with the throne. And with a relationship moving that quickly, it wouldn’t be surprising if Harry asked Meghan not Google him on her first date – as she says she never did – given how much he despises the tabloids. As an actor, she would surely understand an unwillingness to divulge in celebrity gossip.
All this is to say that regardless of whether you believe Meghan was fascinated by the royal family or not, it’s still a huge jump from someone being intrigued by the royals as a child to understand the rigmarole of being a Duchess day-in-day-out. Because that’s what she was truly getting at wasn’t it, that she didn’t realise how hard it would be – how racist Britain would be towards her – and all of the royal protocols involved?
Whether you’re a fan of the royals or not, most of us couldn’t know that either, not just because there is no precedent for it in Meghan’s case, but because most of us clearly haven’t got a clue what’s going on behind closed doors. If there’s one thing the Oprah interview proved, it’s that.
Read More:
Here's The Story Behind Piers Morgan's Weird Obsession With Meghan Markle