Meghan Markle Was "Naive" to Expect "Free Reign" in the Royal Family

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published 30 November 2021

To her eternal credit, Meghan Markle stands up for what she believes in. But when she joined the Royal Family, there were certain expectations of her that she seemed to believe she could dodge—which simply was not the case, a royal expert has claimed.

In the second episode of the BBC's controversial documentary The Princes and the Press, which aired on Nov. 29, host Amol Rajan asked Daily Mail columnist Amanda Platell, "In so many ways, Meghan is a welcome breath of fresh air but the last thing Britain needs is an over-confident, virtue-signaling American actress using her position in the Royal Family to promote her right-on views. What did you mean when you said the issue was that she's over-confident and virtue-signaling?" (via Express).

Platell answered, "I think that it shows the utmost naïveté of any intelligent woman, which she is, to think that you'd join an organization like the Royal Family and have free rein and free speech."

It's cool that women can't have opinions, I guess? Very 21st century of everyone involved.

london, england july 14 catherine, duchess of cambridge and meghan, duchess of sussex attend day twelve of the wimbledon tennis championships at the all england lawn tennis and croquet club on july 14, 2018 in london, england photo by karwai tangwireimage

In the same documentary, columnist and broadcaster Rachel Johnson reinforced this sentiment, implying that Markle was too opinionated for the "patriarchal" culture of not only the royals but the United Kingdom, too. She explained that, by contrast, Kate Middleton exemplified the "perfect" female royal in the eyes of the press.

"There are women journalists, who basically say, 'Kate is perfect, she's our English rose,'" Johnson said (via Express). "They have a perfect template of what they want a royal female to be: not political, doesn't open her mouth very much in public, who makes very short, scripted speeches on very safe subjects.

"Whereas Meghan Markle will talk about period poverty. She will talk about racism. She will talk about female empowerment.

"These are trigger subjects in this country, where the Royal Family, despite being led by the Queen for 70 odd years is still a very patriarchal, hierarchical country." Ugh.

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.