Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, gave a friend some jam and ice cream and signed the card “HRH” and people have lost their minds. Again.
It’s all kicked off after the Duchess appeared on a podcast with her pal Jamie Kern Lima – a neighbour and former CEO of IT Cosmetics – and offered up a few polite titbits about parenting and ambition. It was uneventful, soft-focus stuff. And yet, somehow, this was treated like a declaration of war on the Crown.
During the interview, an image was shown of said jam, ice cream, and card, which Meghan had signed “HRH, The Duchess of Sussex”. She was accused of “dancing on the grave” of the Royal Family. Of reigniting “tension” for a cancer-stricken King. All because Meghan referred to herself as “HRH” in a note to a friend.
Really?
This is beyond parody at this stage. The British press and a vocal chunk of the public have developed a visceral, sticky hatred for this woman that no longer makes much sense.
It’s like an old episode of EastEnders – a storyline people are emotionally addicted to, but can’t explain why. Ask someone what Meghan has actually done to deserve this much bile, and you’ll usually get a shrug or a vague “she’s just annoying”.
But she’s not leading any revolutions. She’s not dishing royal secrets every Thursday. She’s parenting, podcasting, sending gift hampers, and generally just living her life in California. Her biggest crime this week seems to be making a digital scrapbook for her kids, emailing them little daily memories, something most mothers would get a round of applause for. Although my mother isn’t typically sentimental, she has kept a box of mementos from my youth. Maybe we should cancel her too?
The card that Meghan sent to her friend (Photo: YouTube)
The rage, if we’re honest, has very little to do with protocol. It’s not really about the HRH slip, or even the so-called “betrayal” of the Firm. It’s about the story you were sold: that Prince Harry, the cheeky chappy, was supposed to marry someone white, quietly middle class, privately educated, and British. Someone deferential. Instead, he married a divorced, mixed-race, American actress with opinions, ambition and, god forbid, a bit of lead in her pencil.
The real issue is that Meghan never played in the background. She spoke. She hugged. She had ideas. She moved abroad. She didn’t dim her light – and that broke the unspoken deal. The Diana comparisons we love to romanticise don’t extend to Meghan, even though she shares much of the same energy: warm, opinionated, independent. But when it’s Meghan doing it, people squirm.
Why? Because she’s not what people imagined. Because she’s “too much”. Because she didn’t know her place and wouldn’t stay in it. And whether we like it or not, there’s a reason why so many women, particularly women of colour, see the scrutiny she gets and just think: yeah, I recognise that.
I’m not saying she’s perfect. None of us are. But to wish someone this much ill will – to spend your days hoping her marriage crumbles, mocking her every move, parsing her parenting habits like they’re state secrets – is disturbing.
There’s something deeper going on. Something we should all be brave enough to admit.
Deep down, a lot of people begrudge Meghan for the same unspoken reason: she took Harry away. Not just from the Royal Family, but from the nation that adored him. Like a jealous mother-in-law suspicious of the woman who’s “changed” her golden boy, we can’t seem to grasp why Harry married Meghan.
Every royal is subjected to public scrutiny. The Princess of Wales has faced her own storms, most recently with the disturbing frenzy of speculation in the lead-up to her cancer announcement. But with Meghan, there’s always been an extra bite.
Do I agree with everything she does? Of course not. No one should be above criticism. But does she deserve the scale of hate, the threats, the obsessive commentary? Absolutely not.
At some point, we have to ask ourselves why we’re still so invested in tearing down a woman who married a man, moved country, had children, and chose a different life. If the worst thing you can say about her is that she signs her name “HRH” in a thank-you note or talks about her kids on a podcast, maybe the issue isn’t her. Maybe it’s us.