- You might have already
seen this footage of
Meghan Markle Duchess of Sussex
being completely lovely
and emotionally sincere
in an ITV documentary about
her and Prince Duke Harry.
- Cause not many people
have asked if I'm okay,
but its, its a very real thing
but its, its a very real thing
to be going through behind the scenes.
- The royal couple spoke super honestly
about their huge problems
with the British tabloids
and the unrelenting attacks on Meghan.
But how did all of this begin?
And have trash British publications
decided to attack Meghan so viscously?
So the story basically kicks
of when the suits actor
and the worlds most eligible bachelor
started dating in the summer of 2016.
- I gave you that for a reason
and you haven't taken one note.
- Its because--
- Because you were to busy ogling
me to listen to a word I've said?
- A lot of conservative media
quickly decided that Meghan being
biracial, divorced,
American, politically minded
and a bloody actor was
just a stretch too far.
The British tabloids went fucking bananas,
to the point that
Kensington Palace had
to release a statement
telling everybody to cool it.
Journalists were allegedly trying to
break into Meghan's home,
offering her ex bribes to talk about her
and accosting her family members.
The royal message also pointed out
that all of the press around Meghan
had some serious racist undertones
because of her biracial heritage.
For example there was
this Daily Mail headline
that described Harry's girl as
being almost straight outta Compton.
The letter ended with a note from Harry
saying that he hopes
that those in the press
who had been driving the stories
could pause and reflect before
any further damage was done.
Spoiler alert they shitting didn't.
Firstly, its probably
worth noting that tabloids
and some weirdly royal
obsessed members of the public
believe that they're kind of entitled
to know what's going on behind
the scenes with the royals.
Something something my tax
dollars something something.
So Meghan and Harry
keeping latest royal baby
Archie's christening private was seen as
kind of slight that exacerbated
all of this bullshit.
- [Male Voice] Like it
or loathe it there is
huge public desire to see baby Archie.
- Since then the couple
have been called hypocrites
for spreading environmental messages
whilst also flying on private jets.
- They're trying to be the high priest
and high priestess of
environmental preaching.
- Her guest edited vogue was
slammed by right wing commentators
for being too divisive
and left wing
and Australian media isn't
exactly blameless either
with 60 minutes inviting Katie
Hopkins onto their program
to discuss the Duchess.
- Like I'm unpopular,
I'm known as the biggest bitch in Britain,
the only person in Britain
who's more unpopular than me,
Meghan Markle.
- Keep in mind,
Katie Hopkins has made Islamophobic
statements in the past,
is a proponent of white genocide theories,
an anti-feminist and a profound tool.
So, why has this problem ramped up
so much in the past couple of weeks?
All of this came to a head
when tTe Mail on Sunday
decided to publish a
private hand written letter
that Meghan had written to her
Father in February of 2019,
Meghan and her Dad have
an estranged relationship,
and he was a noticeable
absence from the Royal wedding.
But nobody actually really cared because,
do you remember this guy?
- You just tell the love of Jesus,
how he died to save us all,
oh, that's the balm in Gilead.
- Seriously have you ever seen
something more uncomfortable
than the royal family being
confronted by human joy before.
Anyway, Meghan took legal action against
The Mail on Sunday for
breaches of privacy.
And Harry launched separate proceedings
against the owners of
The Sun and Daily Mail
for allegedly hacking Meghan's phone.
By the way the British
public actually seemed to be
really supportive of them in doing this.
One survey found that
54% were in favor of it,
although the same survey also found that
20% of people just did
not care either way.
So, gossiping about the royals
definitely seems facile
and silly and pandering to the
construct of colonialist
unelected sponge people,
but there's some interesting
things to unpack here.
When you marry into the royal family
there's obviously a certain expectation
that your privacy will
be compromised by press.
Yes there was that one time that
a French magazine published
topless photos of Kate Middleton
and got sued for it.
But Meghan's been hunted
disproportionately
by the press since she started the Prince.
And its really not difficult
to draw comparisons
between Meghan and Harry's
Mum, Princess Diana.
In fact Harry directly drew
that line in the ITV doco.
- I will not be bullied into, into,
into playing a game that killed my Mum.
- Meghan speaking in that documentary
has now been compared to
the panorama interview
that Princess Di gave in 1995,
about her mental health issues,
media attacks
and the breakdown of her
marriage to Prince Charles.
- I'd like to be a
Queen of peoples hearts,
in peoples hearts.
But I don't see myself
being Queen of this country.
- Princess Di was a
progressive feminist figure,
who has a job before she
married into the family,
and was vocal about both
her personal struggles,
as well as her advocacy work.
And Meghan is establishing
herself super quickly
as a comparable kind of figure.
And all of this media scrutiny
of her is even weirder,
when you consider that the
story about Prince Andrew,
friend of literal
pedophile Jeffrey Epstein
was relatively un-discussed
in comparison to
Meghan's stories for a
really long stretch of 2019.
So what's the takeaway from all of this?
Well firstly, you don't have
to care about the royals,
because the world is collapsing
and the British monarchy is a
pointless irrelevant institution
with lots of people walking
around in fancy hats.
But it is shocking that
the British tabloids
are still getting away with
treating a woman like this
because of her progressive
and some what unconventional attitudes
within that pointless
fancy hat institution.
And after Princess Diana,
how've we not learnt how
this story can unfold?
(upbeat music)
