Over the Labor Day weekend, I finished With Love, Meghan. I really enjoyed this season and I hope we get many more seasons of WLM. It’s so funny, in retrospect, that the British media made such a big deal about the lack of “star power” with WLM’s guests, because Meghan’s guests were amazing. I love that Meghan isn’t looking for the most famous people she can get on her show, and instead, she features interesting food writers and home cooks and local California food-industry people. It’s incredibly cool, and I hope to see more of Samin Nosrat and Clare Smyth especially. I also loved the Shettys!! If there’s a WLM season 3, I want Roy Choi to come back (from Season 1).
Meanwhile, the usual suspects are still banging their heads against the wall about WLM and about Meghan’s ONE promotional interview for season 2. Meghan spoke to Bloomberg’s The Circuit in an interview which dropped on the same day as WLM S2. Meghan spoke about so much, but obviously, these people are still super-mad about Meghan saying that the royals micromanaged her to the point where they demanded that she wear pantyhose. The Mail’s YouTube talk show covered that, plus Becky English revealed what her palace sources said/texted about Meghan.
On the latest episode of Palace Confidential, the Daily Mail’s royal editor, Rebecca English, and presenter Jo Elvin discussed part two of With Love, Meghan, which dropped on Netflix on Tuesday. To promote the series, Meghan appeared on The Circuit with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang where she spoke about the ‘inherent tension’ between ‘trying to be relatable’ while also being a Duchess.
Speaking on the hit YouTube show, Rebecca, who has been covering the royal beat since 2004, said: ‘It was a soft interview but there were a few interesting questions asked. Her answers were well thought out and there were definitely a few digs at the Royal Family.’
Jo Elvin, who hosts the hit YouTube show as well as making regular appearances on ITV’s Lorraine, said: ‘Some people are interpreting Meghan’s comments about wearing tights as a slight against the Royal Family.’ Rebecca said: ‘Meghan said that having to wear these “pantyhose” [tights] was inauthentic for her as a person. It was all tied up with the time in her life – she didn’t mention the Royal Family by name but it’s quite clear what she was referring to – where she wasn’t able to be as vocal as she wanted to be and was not able to use her voice properly.
‘Understandably, this has sparked quite a lot of debate about whether women in the Royal Family are expected to wear tights. Like anything, I think it was quite a deliberate statement on her behalf. It’s another dig I just don’t think she needs to make.’
Rebecca pointed out another inconsistency in Meghan’s narrative. In her lifestyle series, the Duchess said she always wears monochrome because it’s the ‘easiest way to dress’. Rebecca said: ‘Yet she made a huge deal about one of the constricting things about the Royal Family being that she wasn’t able to wear the colour that she normally favoured. So again there’s so much inconsistency there that doesn’t quite make sense and is a very revisionist version of what she experienced. Again, on this, it seems that recollections may vary.’
Rebecca wrote about Harry being the ‘proverbial ghost’ of Meghan’s new Netflix series in this week’s Palace Confidential newsletter. In the free newsletter, which is delivered to subscribers’ inboxes every Thursday, Rebecca wrote: ‘The Duchess of Sussex waves around “my husband’s” birthday baseball cap – bearing the slogan ‘PH40’, in case anyone forgets his royal status – during a lesson on how to pack a suitcase (yes, really). She modestly reveals that it was he who gushed “I love you” first, then announces with newsreader-level intensity that he doesn’t like lobster. The fifth in line to the throne is shoehorned into the narrative at every flower-sprinkled opportunity, along with the couple’s children, Archie and Lilibet.’
Also in the newsletter, Rebecca wrote that the only message she has had from anyone in royal circles, amusingly, in response to this week’s launch was a ‘yawning’ emoji. In the episode, Rebecca said: ‘I think a lot of people would love to think, even with the digs about the tights and inauthenticity and not being able to use her voice, that there would be outrage about it. There is not. In fact, I would say it’s the opposite. It’s almost indifferent. It’s so inoffensive compared to some of the really designed to wound barbs that her and Harry have made about the Royal Family in recent years that now, no one is really saying anything. I think the yawning emoji reaction is probably all you need to know.’
The yawning emoji from “royal circles” huh? If there really was indifference to Meghan and WLM, surely the royalist press wouldn’t throw a week-long meltdown over Meghan’s pantyhose comment. The longer the Pantyhosegate issue goes on, the angrier I get on Meghan’s behalf. Are they all in denial about what they did to Meghan from 2017-2020? The palaces authorized the 24-7 hissy fits about every single little “broken protocol” from Meghan, everything from pantyhose to hats to her hairstyle to the cost of her jewelry to her trousers and on and on. Meghan’s pantyhose comment was a larger statement about how she gets to dress how she likes and she doesn’t have a national press jumping down her throat about it every day.
Going back to the yawn emoji… I get why English reports on it and I’m sure the Mail’s readership loves this, but at some point, the palace courtiers have to simply stop feeding this particular beast. They just *have* to stop commenting on Meghan in particular. You can argue that there’s still a connection to Harry, and therefore, the palace can comment about Harry’s activities in general. But the courtiers’ unwillingness to apply their “indifference” about Meghan’s activities is killing the palace’s image. They look hung up on Meghan, they look like they’re watching everything she does, they look like they’re still crazy-obsessed with her.
Photos and screengrabs courtesy of Netflix and Bloomberg’s The Circuit.
