British Twitter woke up to some spicy royal tea this morning after Oprah’s primetime special with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry aired last night on CBS. The hour-long special covered many aspects of the inner workings of life in the royal family, mostly focused on Meghan’s experience both before and after her wedding. Meghan debunked a tabloid rumor about having made Kate Middleton cry over some flower girl dresses (apparently it was actually Kate who made Meghan cry)—a bit of gossip that may seem absurdly trivial to most, but was a big ‘turning point’ for Meghan and the start of a decline in her wellbeing and mental health. The tabloids from then on depicted Meghan as a sort of villain, and the side-by-side comparisons of how the media treated Kate compared to Meghan for literally the same innocuous behavior is telling of the double standard Meghan had to put up with. For example, headlines about Kate ‘tenderly cradling’ her baby bump were very different from the ones about how Meghan ‘can’t keep her hands off her baby bump.’ Oprah made another comparison between a headline about Kate eating avocados ‘to help with morning sickness’ vs. Meghan’s love for avocados, a fruit that is ‘linked to human rights abuse and drought.’ We can’t make this stuff up.
In the interview, Meghan discusses her mental health, how she was silenced by the royal family, how she and Harry were told that their son Archie would not be receiving security because of his title, and how she did not feel protected despite what she had been told. Meghan revealed that not only was the firm ‘willing to lie to protect other members of the family, but they weren’t willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband.’ Sound familiar? The royal family certainly has a history of trying to take control of the public narrative at the expense of the people involved in rumors and scandal and many on Twitter have been drawing parallels between Meghan’s and Princess Diana’s experiences. Perhaps the most scandalizing divulgence in the interview was when Meghan and Harry revealed that some members of the royal family had previously brought up concerns about the color of their future children’s skin. Not that it’s a huge surprise that members of the royal family are racist, but this bit of tea sparked quite a reaction from both Oprah and Twitter.
We’ve collected some hot takes and Twitter reactions to the primetime special. It’s been quite a day for Black Twitter vs. British Twitter.
