When you're tied to the Royal Family in any way whatsoever, you're going to make the object of scrutiny. That's just the way it is.
Meghan Markle knew this when she met Prince Harry—and she wanted to make sure the scrutiny painted her in a positive light, which I'm sure we can all relate to.
Page Six reported in 2020 that the then-actress' Wikipedia page had made the object of a bunch of changes in October 2016, before her months-old relationship with Harry was revealed just weeks later. The outlet claimed that the IP address responsible for these changes was "linked to a Los Angeles PR firm with no known links to the duchess."
At the time, the dominant theory was that friends of Markle's had asked for these changes to be made. Now, though, author Tom Bower is claiming that it was the future duchess herself who worked with the PR company to have her page modified.
"In late September 2016 nothing was more important than her relationship with Harry," Bower writes in his bombshell new biography Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors.
"She decided that her past story needed adjustment.
"On 9th October, 2016, a PR agency in Los Angeles changed her Wikipedia entry.
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"The reference to the Deal or No Deal game show was removed, along with the description of her carrying case number 24. The technician also deleted the reference to being a fashion model.
"A section headed 'humanitarian work' was inserted. That described her visits to Rwanda and Afghanistan, and her New York speech for United Nations Women and The Tig."
Revenge is expected to greatly displease the Duke and Duchess of Sussex: Bower is known for his incendiary portraits of public figures, and has even been quoted implying that he wouldn't mind if his book further hurt the Sussexes' reputation. Kind of a weird thing to brag about, but OK.
Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Bustle and Shape. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.
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