UK Tabloids Vent Anger at Harry and Meghan

British publications, pundits excoriate Sussexes, part of what the duchess calls a 'double standard'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 8, 2021 11:33 AM CST
How UK Tabloids Covered Harry and Meghan's Interview
Newspapers are displayed for sale outside a shop in London on Monday.   (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

While Americans seemed rather sympathetic to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday those across the pond aren't being quite as kind. CNN notes the "tumultuous" relationship the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have long had with the UK tabloids, which went to town on the couple with no-holding-back headlines. Details and more:

  • Examples: The Daily Express called the Sussexes' interview a "self-serving" one, while the Sun predicted that Markle "may never return to Britain after angering Royal Family." The Daily Mail, predictably, went into overkill mode, publishing no fewer than 13 stories about the couple's sit-down on its website. One headline that took a jab at their new life in America: "Back to basics at their $14.5 million mansion."
  • New nickname: First there was "Megxit" to describe the couple's exodus from Britain to the United States. Now, in the wake of their revelations, the Sun has come up with a fresh label for Markle's apparently bitter spit with much of the royal family: "Megxile."

  • 'Double standard': That's how Markle is describing how the British media treats her versus Kate Middleton, Prince William's wife. "I can see now what layers were at play there," Markle told Oprah. "And again, they really seemed to want a narrative of a hero and a villain." Buzzfeed has chronicled this dual coverage with headline examples.
  • Morgan's musings: UK broadcaster Piers Morgan, who's not known for being shy with his opinions, tweeted Monday that he found the interview "appalling." He penned a Daily Mail column that elaborated on his thoughts of how the couple was trying to "destroy the monarchy." "Salacious. Scandalous. Sanctimonious. Spectacularly self-serving. Those were just my initial thoughts after 10 minutes of the Oprah whine-athon with Meghan and Harry," he writes.
  • Pushback on Piers: Not everyone took kindly to his assessment—particularly Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a Black activist who called Morgan "disgusting" on Good Morning Britain. "You're more outraged that Harry and Meghan had the audacity to speak their truth than ... at the actual outrage of racism," she lobbed at the host in what HuffPost calls a "tense exchange."
  • Did The Crown save the Queen? William Booth thinks so. Despite the outrage machine that's now fired up over the treatment of the Sussexes (particularly Meghan), Booth writes for the Washington Post that he doesn't think any "irreparable harm" has been done to the royal order in England—mainly because people have been binge-watching Netflix's The Crown and already thought the family was "distant and dysfunctional."
  • A little levity: BuzzFeed takes a lighter approach to the commotion, rounding up the "most hilarious tweets" about the interview. This image says it all.
(More Meghan Markle stories.)

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