On Jan. 8, 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced that they would be taking a “step back from their roles as senior members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent.”
This decision was followed by the ire and backlash of the British press, who have been targeting Meghan and criticizing her every move since she and Harry started dating. In a Buzzfeed News article comparing headlines about Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, it is appalling what Meghan gets criticized for while Kate is then praised for the same things. A particularly egregious set of headlines from the Daily Mail describe Kate as “tenderly [cradling] her baby bump” while angrily questioning, “Why can’t Meghan Markle keep her hands off her bump?”
It is not difficult to ascertain that Meghan and Harry have chosen to step down in order to limit how much the press can cover their lives. As senior royals, the press has been able to do so in the past because of an agreement known as the “Royal Rota.” The “Royal Rota” was set in place 40 years ago between the British Royal Family and the British press, giving the latter exclusive access to cover members of the royal family at the events they attend and/or host. It was created on the basis that the media would share the factual information they acquire with other members of the press.
Because the Royal Rota gives specific media outlets first-hand access, they are seen as credible first-person sources. In reality, though, they have been guilty of misreporting and twisting stories, especially in the cases of Meghan and Harry. By stepping down, Meghan and Harry will be involved in fewer public events, and the media will have a harder time getting access to their schedules and reporting on them.
Meghan has been unfairly vilified by the British press for a long time, and it is admirable that she is putting a stop to it by making her life less accessible to the media. She is pursuing lawsuits with her husband against Associated Newspapers—the company that publishes the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday—as well as the owners of the Sun and the Daily Mirror for alleged phone hacking.
The coverage of her is unfairly critical, demeaning and sometimes flat-out racist. She has been described by the press as having “exotic DNA,” being “(almost) straight outta Compton” and has had her son compared to a chimpanzee. This type of coverage could be brushed off by some, but it represents the racism held by media outlets about Meghan.
The British media can complain and criticize Meghan and Harry’s decision all they want, but they cannot change that the couple is going to do this for the sake of their own mental health and privacy. It is understandable that the two would not want their son to grow up in an environment where his every move since birth is being documented and picked apart.
The British press needs to realize that when you continuously smear someone for no reason other than their skin color and/or the fact that they are American, public figures are going to get tired of it and fight back. Meghan and Harry are taking back their agency and refusing to let the media dictate the narrative surrounding them any longer.
Meghan and Harry are human beings who deserve respect and privacy just as much as any ordinary person. They are not just the media’s scapegoats.
