The Duchess of Sussex doesn’t hold back in a revealing new interview.
Over a year after giving a bombshell interview to Oprah, Meghan Markle is making headlines again for her candid remarks in New York magazine’s The Cut. For the cover of a new special issue, the Duchess of Sussex she sat down with Allison P. Davis at her and Prince Harry’s home in Montecito to discuss her new life in California and reflect on her time in the royal family.
Since the release of Markle’s new podcast, Archetypes, she has been getting candid about her time in the royal family. In her newest episode with Mariah Carey, titled “The Duality of Diva,” the two discussed their experiences growing up and being in the public eye as biracial women. “I mean, if there’s any time in my life that it’s been more focused on my race, it’s only once I started dating my husband,” Markle said. “Then I started to understand what it was like to be treated like a Black woman.”
In the debut episode of Archetypes, Markle and Serena Williams unpacked the double standard women face when it comes to their ambition. “I don’t ever remember personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ‘ambitious’ until I started dating my now-husband,” Markle said. “And apparently ambition is a terrible, terrible thing — for a woman, that is, according to some.”
Although Meghan and Harry announced they would relinquish their royal titles over two years ago, Markle’s comments in The Cut might be stirring some controversy back at the palace. Royal Reporter Richard Palmer tweeted that Harry and Meghan “have learnt no lessons” and called the couple “tone-deaf.”
Below, some of the most shocking revelations from Meghan Markle’s interview in The Cut.
Meghan and Harry tried to distance themselves from taxpayer money
A common attack on Markle and Prince Harry in the British press was that they were using taxpayer money to fund a lavish lifestyle. For instance, their £2.4 million renovation to Frogmore Cottage was frequently slammed in tabloids, while Prince William and Kate Middleton’s £4.5 million renovation to their apartment at Kensington Palace was rarely covered or criticized. This is just one example of the double standards Meghan and Harry had to contend with as members of the royal family — as is the relatively little attention that’s paid to the fact that Meghan and Harry repaid the renovation costs they received.
When faced with these public attacks — many of which weren’t true, like rumors that there would be a special wing for Markle’s mother and a gold bathtub — Meghan and Harry tried to cut the negative publicity at the source by offering to work as royals so they could have their own money. “Then maybe all the noise would stop,” Markle explained. However, senior members of the royal family are not allowed to hold regular jobs.
Meghan and Harry offered to leave the U.K.
In those efforts to avoid being scrutinized for “using taxpayer money,” Meghan told The Cut that she and Harry offered to leave the United Kingdom so that they could work, suggesting they could go to Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, or another commonwealth.
“Because just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy,” she said. “So we go, ‘Okay, fine, let’s get out of here. Happy to.’”
Markle also noted that the arrangement would not have been unique — some princes, princesses, and dukes have been able to do exactly what Harry and Meghan were proposing, but they were given no such leeway. “That, for whatever reason, is not something that we were allowed to do, even though several other members of the family do that exact thing,” she said.
She announced a return to social media
At one point in The Cut profile, Markle reveals some big news: “I’m getting back … on Instagram,” she says.
Before she was forced to give up her social media as a contingency of joining the royal family, Markle had 3 million followers on Instagram and a lifestyle blog called The Tig. Notably, in April 2019, Meghan and Harry started their own joint Instagram account, @sussexroyal, where they would share personal photos. The account amassed 1 million followers just one hour after its creation and currently stands at 9.5 million, so it’s safe to say that if Meghan were to rejoin Instagram, she would have a pretty gigantic audience.
She discussed why she and Harry flouted royal photo-sharing rules
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to create their own Instagram account to share pictures of their family made waves because it went against royal tradition. Initially, Meghan and Harry were allowed to use social media on behalf of the @KensingtonRoyal account, which they would share with William and Kate. However, they couldn’t just post photos whenever they pleased: “There’s literally a structure by which if you want to release photos of your child, as a member of the family, you first have to give them to the Royal Rota,” or the press pool that covers the royal family, she explained.
Markle took issue with that system, given the press’s history of cruelty and racism towards her. “Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child?” asked. “You tell me how that makes sense and then I’ll play that game.”
She opened up about the possibility of reconciliation with the royal family
In the time since she’s quit the royal family, Markle has opened up about the racism she experienced as part of The Firm, such as when she was pregnant and an unnamed member of the royal family wondered how dark her baby’s skin tone would be. (The family member in question was rumored to have been Prince Charles, which he vehemently dismissed as “fiction.”)
Nonetheless, Harry and Meghan’s time in the public eye has created tension within both of their families. Markle is estranged from her father, to whom she was once close, because of his refusal to stop leaking information about her to the media. Harry, too, has dealt with some family tensions. “Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process.’ It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision,” Markle said. (A source clarified to Page Six that Markle did not mean to say that Harry and Charles’s relationship was lost, but rather, that she didn’t want him to lose it.)
Still, despite her unfair treatment, Markle has not ruled out the possibility of reconciliation. “I think forgiveness is really important. It takes a lot more energy to not forgive,” she said. “But it takes a lot of effort to forgive. I’ve really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything,” she added, clarifying that she’s never had to sign an NDA or any other document promising that she will not discuss the royal family. She says that she’s chosen not to talk about it much because she’s “still healing.”
