Scrutiny and family woes pile pressure on pregnant Meghan
london — When Meghan Markle became engaged to Prince Harry, the American TV star seemed to charm everyone she met. She and Harry toured Britain to adoring crowds, and she pledged to hit the ground running once she officially joined the royal circle.
Britain’s rambunctious, royalobsessed press praised her as something different, a fresh take on an old “firm” in need of a bit of dazzle.
Nine months after her wedding extravaganza and now formally known as the Duchess of Sussex, the 37-year-old is pregnant — and finding that life in the royal fishbowl carries not just glamour and great charitable opportunities but liabilities as well.
Meghan is engaged in a painful,
public rift with her father — played out in the nation’s tabloids, of course — and dealing with speculation that she is feuding with Prince William’s wife, Kate.
Her half-sister Samantha has
been sniping at her in public, and the once-fawning press has criticised for everything from being hard on her household staff to spending too much time cradling her “baby bump.”
“I should think she’s finding it pretty difficult,” said Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of magazine. “It’s such a minefield, being a member of the royal family. Perhaps she should have eased herself into it a little more.”
She said Meghan has, like Princess Diana before her, probably been shocked at just how intrusive the press can be.
“I don’t think they realised quite how nasty it would become,” she said of the continuing spat between Meghan and her father and halfsister.
Seward said Meghan will never be able to quell tabloid rumours about rifts in the royal household — stories that rely on unnamed “sources” will continue to bedevil her. —