Unlike certain people, I actually read the whole Harper’s Bazaar cover story on the Duchess of Sussex. It’s an excellent piece, and unlike some of the other profiles of Meghan, I did not get the impression that the interviewer was a hater-in-disguise. I would still appreciate it if one of these American magazines said it outright, that Meghan has been targeted in an almost-decade-long smear campaign, and that to this very day, people jump down her throat over every little thing (and nothing). Speaking of, a minor part of the interview is getting headlines. Writer Kaitlyn Greenidge interviewed Meghan in multiple locations, one of which was the borrowed Upper East Side brownstone where the Sussexes stayed in New York last month. The operative word here is “borrowed.” The household staff were not Meghan’s staff. Here’s the section getting all of the attention:
When I meet up with Meghan a week later on a stormy day in New York, she’s wearing black leggings and an oversize Northwestern sweatshirt (her alma mater). Her hair is pulled back, and if she has any makeup on, it’s difficult to tell; her skin is bare, and some of her freckles are visible. She looks like she could still be in college.
We’re in a grand brownstone on the Upper East Side that belongs to one of Meghan’s friends. When I enter, the house manager announces, “Meghan, Duchess of Sussex,” even though we appear to be the only other two people in the house. Meghan and Harry are in New York to receive the Humanitarians of the Year Award from Project Healthy Minds, a nonprofit focused on mental health. We try to decide where we will have our talk: downstairs in the kitchen, with its oak countertops and view of the patio, or upstairs. She gestures toward the second floor of the house, which is accessed via a glass elevator in the living room.
As you might have guessed, the Daily Mail and the Royalist have been up in arms since the cover dropped. They’re attempting a sleight of hand, claiming outright that Meghan “has people announce her — by title — as she wafts around borrowed Upper East Side real estate.” Again, this was the house manager of a borrowed home – Meghan probably isn’t bringing her own “butler” to a borrowed brownstone. My guess is that the manager probably just uses everyone’s formal titles and names – Mr. George So-and-So or Dr. Marge Lighthouse. And for the millionth time… her title is her married name. And that’s the problem! From the Royalist:
It feels like a desperate attempt to drill into the journalist that Meghan is to be referred to in the copy as the “Duchess of Sussex,” not Meghan Markle from discount or No discount. I’m reminded of the aphorism that the more a king stamps his foot and screams, “Because I am the King!” the less anyone feels inclined to treat him as such.
I also think this behavior makes clear why William, as the Royalist was the first to report, is immediately so determined to strip the titles from Meghan and Harry in the fullness of time.
If I am right, it’s a spectacularly bad strategic move for Meghan to keep deploying these titles in blatantly commercial settings like this Harper’s Bazaar feature. When the titles are removed — and they will be, especially if this kind of exploitation of them continues — it will be an even bigger story because Meghan has made such an enormous point of using them.
You can almost feel the gamble: that the titles can’t legally be taken away; that they’ve had advice; that they want to believe the Crown wouldn’t dare. But that belief is colliding with the reality of what just happened to Andrew who was stripped of everything.
To be clear: Meghan is free to change her name or to whatever she wants, a family has to have a surname, and Sussex is a nicer option than Mountbatten-Windsor after the Andrew debacle.
A five-year-plus hate campaign over a woman using her married name. “But she promised not to use it!” No she didn’t – she was not allowed into the summit negotiating her future and her children’s future. She didn’t promise jacksh-t. “But William is going to remove the titles!” Okay, who really gives a sh-t, and it will make William look racist and cruel. “But she orders people to use her title!” *sigh*
Cover & IG courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.
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