MEGHAN’S TOUGHEST YEAR The duchess’ challenges
AFTER 12 MONTHS OF TABLOID CRITICISM, BITTER FAMILY FEUDS AND THE STRESS OF BEING A NEW MUM, THE DUCHESS OF SUSSEX IS STARTING 2020 WITH RENEWED STRENGTH AND A DETERMINATION TO PROVE HER DOUBTERS WRONG
At the start of what would prove to be a traumatic and challenging year for the Duchess of Sussex, she had at least one A-list ally. “They’re just chasing Meghan Markle everywhere,” a concerned George Clooney complained to WHO in February. “She has been pursued and vilified and chased in the same way that Diana was. We’ve seen how that ends. I can’t tell you how frustrating that is, just seeing them broadcast a letter from a daughter to a father. She’s getting a raw deal.”
Since entering royal life, Meghan has never spoken publicly about her strained relationship with her father, but Thomas Markle, 75, has frequently embarrassed his daughter by doing the opposite.
In February, he shared a private letter Meghan had sent him, which the duchess’ attorneys say detailed “her intimate thoughts and feelings about her father’s health and her relationship with him at that time”.
It was then published – although not in its entirety – by the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline. Stoking the embers of controversy, as always, was Meghan’s halfsister Samantha Markle. “They have been made to appear as siblings who had this falling out, and that’s not the truth at all,” a long-time friend of Meghan told WHO of Samantha, and Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Jr. “They were not a part of her life.”
Sibling drama is something the former Suits actress shares in common with her husband, and this year, the rivalry between Prince William and Harry spilled over to their wives.
Fanning talk of a falling out, in March the Sussexes and the
Cambridges officially broke up their joint ‘court’ at Kensington Palace by creating two separate offices. A pregnant Meghan found herself trying in vain to mediate between the brothers, causing her own relationship with Kate Middleton to break down and leaving her feeling isolated and ostracised.
“As brothers, you have good days, you have bad days,” Harry, 35, said of the rift in the documentary Harry and Meghan: An African Journey. “Inevitably, stuff happens. But look, we’ll always be brothers. We’re certainly on different paths at the moment.”
Part of the divergence has to do with how each prince navigates family life. When Archie was born on May 6, Harry and Meghan broke three decades of tradition by refusing to pose on the hospital steps hours after the birth, instead keeping the world waiting until a prearranged press call two days later with a handful of selected outlets.
It further antagonised the media and public opinion seemed to turn against them, especially Meghan.
A private christening provoked talk of overprotection and accusations they were ungrateful and ‘whining’ about their privileged lives.
It didn’t help that British taxpayers found out that they were going to have to foot a $4.3 million bill for the Sussexes’ Frogmore Cottage home renovations.
“They can’t have it both ways,” royal biographer Penny Junor told UK’s Sunday Times. “Either they are totally private, pay for their own house and disappear out of view, or play the game the way it is played.”
Save for an appearance at June’s Trooping the Colour – where, at one point, Meghan appeared to be on the verge of tears – the new mum spent the majority of her summer away from the public eye.
But that didn’t deter her detractors. A July outing to see her pal Serena Williams play at Wimbledon resulted in complaints about her overzealous security.
A Centre Court official described the duchess as ‘a nightmare’.
A month later, a solo trip to see Williams at the US Open saw Meghan cruelly slated for leaving behind baby Archie. The environmentally conscious couple also
copped heat after taking four private jet flights in 11 days for family holidays to Nice, in France, and Ibiza, Spain, in August.
A 10-day official tour of Africa started well for the couple, but by the end it was clear Meghan wasn’t coping with the unrelenting negativity from savage media commentators. A protective Harry didn’t hold back his anger. “My wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences,” read a blistering 565-word statement released on November 1. “A ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy and while raising our newborn son. Put simply, it is bullying, which scares and silences people … I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”
Speaking to ITV host Tom Bradby, Markle appeared exhausted and fragile.
“I never thought this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair, and that’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile,” she said. “When people are saying things that are just untrue … I don’t know anybody in the world who would feel that’s OK and that is different from just scrutiny.”
According to sources, the rest of the royals were “fairly astonished” by the personal details that the couple shared in the documentary.
“There is bemusement among palace officials about what exactly Harry and Meghan are trying to achieve, as members of the royal family do not usually speak in such detail about personal matters,” the insider tells E! “There is a deep sense of unease about the direction this is all headed.”
Several insiders have told WHO that the couple want to base themselves overseas, and possibly even relinquish their royal duties in return for a quiet life.
But, despite the setbacks, there are also signs that Meghan is slowly adjusting to the pressure of life in the media goldfish bowl. Her fans point to how she is modernising the royals and becoming a role model for strong, confident women. Her decision to spend Christmas away from the Queen raised many eyebrows, but this also shows Meghan is no pushover, not even to the powerful forces behind ‘The Firm’.
“I don’t wake up every day and identify as being anything other than who I’ve always been,” she told Bradby. “I’m Meghan, and I’ve married this incredible man and this to me is just part of our love story.”
Few believe the coming year will be any less stressful, but Meghan may yet show the resilience, and strength of character to finally win round her detractors.