The reports about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s split from the Royal family — what the commoners have now hailed as “Megxit” — have become so inundated with rumors and hearsay that it’s sometimes impossible to decipher the truth. In a rare rebuke of the reports, however, Prince William and Prince Harry both denounced the idea that the Duchess of Sussex was somehow “bullied” out of a senior position in the family.
“Despite clear denials, a false story ran in a UK newspaper today speculating about the relationship between The Duke of Sussex and The Duke of Cambridge. For brothers who care so deeply about the issues surrounding mental health, the use of inflammatory language in this way is offensive and potentially harmful,” the brothers said in a joint statement on Monday.
Though the statement did not mention the publication by name, the pair was undoubtedly referring to an article in The Times that reported both Harry and Meghan were “bullied” and “told their place” for “two years” by members of the Royal Family. A source said that the Cambridges were “not very friendly… quite early on they decided, right, ‘We are going to tell these people their place and we are going to push them away.’”
“If you are Meghan and Harry and you have had two years of constantly being told your place, constantly bullied as they would see it, constantly being told what you can’t do, Meghan has been thinking, ‘This is just nuts. Why would anyone put up with this?’” the source alleged.
As noted by The Daily Beast, however, the statement from the royal brothers did not deny another report in The Times over the weekend that said Meghan Markle was the driving force behind her and Harry’s decision to split their time in North America as they seek financial independence.
“This isn’t working for me,” Markle reportedly told Harry.
Despite the strong and forceful rebuke from both Prince Harry and Prince William, the narrative that some members in the media have seized upon regarding “Megxit” is that Britain’s racism ultimately pushed Meghan Markle into going her own way.
“Meghan, a biracial, divorced American actress, was far from what many envisioned as a fairy-tale match for a beloved member of the British royal family,” wrote Lisa Respers France of CNN last week. “While many in the UK welcomed her, the British tabloid media and a large swath of the Twitterverse were not kind. It became so bad that Kensington Palace released a statement scolding the press about its treatment of her.”
Likewise, Nsenga Burton, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said that criticism of Meghan Markle’s exit “reinforces the stereotype of black women being destructive, divisive, and unsatisfied.”
“People are cool with black women as long as we go along to get along,” she said. “As soon as we start standing up for ourselves and saying, ‘This is not working for me,’ we become the problem.”
In response to the arguments, “Good Morning Britain” co-host Piers Morgan blasted such arguments for using the British Royal Family drama for an escapade to push a “race-baiting” narrative, arguing that Meghan Markle invited most of the bad press she received.