When Meghan Markle officially joined the Royal Family by marrying Prince Harry in May 2018, she was tipped as a future star due to her dazzling smile and empathetic nature.
But fast-forward to 2024 and Meghan, along with her husband, who once beat the late Queen in a poll of the nation’s favourite royal, have fled The Firm to live out their lives in increasing insignificance in California.
Tina Brown, the former editor of Tatler and The New Yorker, believes her dramatic fall from grace and relevance is because ‘she has the worst judgment of anyone in the entire world’.
The bestselling author of royal books, who had lunch with Princess Diana in New York two months before her death in 1997, added: ‘She’s a perfectionist about getting it all wrong. She really is.’
‘Her issue is that she doesn’t listen. She hires all these people, asks them their opinion, and then doesn’t follow it. She does what she wants to do. And all of her ideas are total crap, unfortunately.’
Here MailOnline looks back at the long-list of questionable calls Meghan Markle has made since she married Prince Harry and joined the Royal Family.
Meghan and Harry’s blockbuster tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey is usually regarded as one of their most questionable decisions
Tina Brown, the former editor of Tatler and The New Yorker, believes Meghan’s dramatic fall from grace and relevance is because ‘she has the worst judgment of anyone in the entire world’
Meghan also drew controversy over the birth of her son Prince Archie
Starting off on the wrong foot with Kate
Shortly after she became involved with the Royal Family, Meghan courted controversy when it was revealed that her relationship with her sister-in-law Kate Middleton, who is beloved by the public, quickly turned sour.
Prince Harry said in January 2023 that trouble was brewing behind the scenes at Kensington Palace from the offset of his romance with the former Suits actress.
Although the Duke claims the Prince and Princess of Wales were ‘religious viewers’ of Suits, he said it was ‘fair’ to say that his family ‘didn’t get on’ with his wife ‘almost from the get-go’.
He explained: ‘There was a lot of stereotyping that was happening, that I was guilty of as well, at the beginning.’
He said the ‘stereotyping’ of Meghan, in part by William and Kate, was causing a ‘barrier’ to his family, preventing them from ‘welcoming her in.’
Meghan courted controversy when it was revealed the relationship with her sister-in-law Kate Middleton, who is beloved by the public, quickly turned sour. Pictured: The pair on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in 2018
The Royal Family on the steps of St George’s Chapel in Windsor after Prince Harry married Meghan
But the relationship continued to worsen, and in his book, Spare, Prince Harry detailed how Meghan asked to borrow a lip gloss from Kate ahead of their appearance at the first Royal Foundation Forum event in 2018.
He writes that Kate was surprised, but rummaged around in her bag before offering it to Meghan.
Harry goes on to claim that Meghan applied a little gloss to her finger, and rubbed it across her lips, before Kate made a ‘disgusted’ face.
As People magazine reports, Prince Harry speculated that Kate was ‘on edge’ around Meghan and suspected that she was ‘going to be compared to, and forced to compete with, Meg’.
In traditional royal fashion, Kate and William have refused to comment on their personal relationships, so only Meghan’s side of the story has been heard.
Getting into an emotional conflict with Kate over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress
In his memoir Spare, Harry backed up Meghan’s claim that her sister-in-law made her cry ahead of their May 2018 wedding.
In October 2018, it was reported that a conflict over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress had left Kate in tears.
One unnamed friend claimed Kate wanted to follow ‘protocol’, with the bridesmaids, including Charlotte, then three, wearing tights – but Meghan disagreed.
In his book Revenge, Tom Bower claimed unnamed sources told him the Duchess of Cambridge and Duchess of Sussex disagreed over the length of Princess Charlotte’s hemline and the fit of her dress.
In October 2018, it was reported that a conflict over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress had left Kate in tears
The princes and their wives attend the 100th birthday of the Royal Air Force on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace in July 2018
The Princess and Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex walk step out together to greet members of the public at Windsor Castle in Berkshire following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022
He also claimed Meghan’s ‘insistence’ was ‘supported’ by bridesmaid Jessica Mulroney, adding: ‘Some would say that Meghan compared Ivy [Mulroney’s daughter] favourably against Charlotte’.
The Duchess of Sussex later disagreed in her bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview, claiming it was the other way around and adding: ‘She [Kate] was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised. And she brought me flowers.’
Asking Harry about Kate and Meghan’s disagreement in January 2023, Harry’s friend Tom Bradby said: ‘Your version of it in this book is it was the other way round, Meghan was the one left in tears, Kate came round the next day with flowers to apologise and you’re careful to say there’s a witness.’
In response, Prince Harry admitted that ‘tensions were high’ at the time and blasted the Palace for not issuing a statement regarding the story.
Secrecy over the birth of Prince Archie
Meghan also made what could be regarded as questionable decisions after the birth of Prince Archie, who is now sixth in line to the throne.
Buckingham Palace initially announced that Meghan had gone into labour early on May 6, 2019.
But it turned out the Palace later corrected its statement, claiming her son had already been born at 5.26am.
And the couple chose to dismiss the conventional public photocall post-delivery, instead sharing more private first photos of Archie, captured at Windsor Castle a few days after his birth.
Royal historian and author Robert Lacey also pointed out how tradition was broken when the Sussexes chose not to reveal the identities of Archie’s godparents.
Meghan was accused of unnecessary secrecy over the birth of Prince Archie, sixth in line to the throne, in May 2019
Traditionally, the names of the consultants and their hospital are included in the proclamation posted outside Buckingham Palace, pictured, but the royal couple declined to include them
Harry later said in their Netflix documentary that they got abuse for ‘not wanting to serve our child up on a silver platter’.
Another row over the birth emerged when the pair ditched the traditional issuing of the names of the consultants and their hospital in a proclamation posted outside Buckingham Palace.
The pair also chose not to make the birth certificate public to keep these details out of the public domain for even longer, instead only submitting it to the local registrar.
The decision to keep these details private is in stark contrast to Kate and William, who carried out the traditional royal duty for the births of all three of their children.
Aired her grievances with The Firm in a tell-all chat with Oprah
Some 50million people around the world watched as, on March 7, 2021, the duo took part in an 85-minute tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Chatting in the sun-kissed garden of a Californian mansion – which turned out to owned by a friend of Oprah’s – a heavily-pregnant Meghan described her time in the Royal Family as a nightmare that she’d barely survived.
Oprah asked the now famous question, ‘Were you silent or silenced?’
‘The latter,’ Meghan replied.
She said the situation had deteriorated to the point that she’d even contemplated suicide.
Meghan faced criticism after she spilled family drama as the world watched on March 7, 2021, in an 85-minute tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey
A tearful Meghan tells ‘her truth’ in an interview watched by 50 million people
The front pages of British newspapers following the Oprah interview…
‘I didn’t want to be alive any more,’ she told Oprah. ‘It was a clear and real and frightening constant thought.’
Yet Meghan alleged that Palace staff didn’t offer her help when she went to them begging for support, even though she was then six months pregnant with Archie.
She then made the bombshell claim: ‘I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution.’
The other eyebrow-raising claim was the suggestion that the Royal Family was collectively racist, pointing the finger at one – unnamed – member who, they alleged, had speculated about the colour of their son Archie’s skin when Meghan was pregnant in a racist way.
Critics didn’t take well to her decision to go on national television and attack the family she married into, especially when she was already estranged from most of her own.
Her revelations in the interview are still reverberating more than three years on.
Making fun out of meeting the Queen with a deeply exaggerated curtsy
Another incident which made critics wince was when a giggling Meghan appeared to mock her own efforts at following royal protocol as she recounted the ‘surreal’ moment she first met the Queen.
In her and Harry’s December 2022 Netflix documentary, she recounted the ‘intense’ moment and performed a deep curtsy as husband Harry watched on, stone-faced, before he glanced off camera appearing awkward. The pair then chuckled afterwards.
Meghan met the Queen for the first time during a lunch at Royal Lodge in Windsor, shortly after she and the Duke revealed they were dating, in 2016.
But she said the whole occasion felt like an antiquated banquet at Medieval Times, a family dinner theatre in the US featuring staged medieval-style games, sword-fighting and jousting.
The Duke of Sussex described how Meghan meeting the Queen for the first time was a ‘shock to the system’.
In Harry and Meghan’s December 2022 documentary she made fun of her own efforts at following royal protocol as she recounted the ‘surreal’ moment she first met the Queen – performing a deeply exaggerated curtsy in front of an awkward-looking Prince Harry
Harry said: ‘My grandmother was the first senior member of the family that Meghan met. She had no idea what it all consisted of, so it was a bit of a shock to the system for her.’
Meghan said: ‘There wasn’t like some big moment of “Now you’re going to meet my grandmother”. I didn’t know I was going to meet her until moments before.
‘We were in the car and we were going to Royal Lodge for lunch, and he’s like, “Oh, my grandmother’s here, we’re going to meet her after church.”
‘And I remember we were in the car driving up and he’s like, “You know how to curtsy, right?” And I just thought it was a joke.’
Harry said: ‘How do you explain that to people? How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother? And that you will need to curtsy. Especially to an American. That’s weird.’
Going with Harry to accept the Pat Tillman award – despite objections from Mr Tillman’s mother over the award
The Pat Tillman Award is named after the iconic NFL player and late US Army Ranger who gave up his lucrative sporting career to enlist in the army in the wake of 9/11. He died in Afghanistan in 2004 due to friendly fire.
Prince Harry accepted the prestigious military honour in July 2024, but it quickly drew criticism, not least from Mr Tillman’s mother, Mary Tillman, who said he was too ‘privileged’ and other soldiers were more deserving.
Harry faced calls to reject the award because it has typically gone to unsung veterans. More than 76,000 people signed a petition demanding the decision was reversed.
Mary Tillman told the Mail that she was ‘shocked’ it would go to ‘such a controversial and divisive figure’, adding: ‘There are recipients that are far more fitting. These individuals do not have the money, resources, connections or privilege that Prince Harry has.’
Meghan joined Prince Harry at ESPN’s 2024 Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards in July in Los Angeles where he accepted the Pat Tillman Award for Service
Prince Harry accepted the prestigious military honour, but it quickly drew criticism, not least from Mr Tillman’s mother Mary Tillman, who said he was too ‘privileged’ and other soldiers were more deserving
Harry accepted the award at the ceremony in July 2024, despite critics having called for him to turn down the honour
Mary Tillman was not at the ceremony, but Pat’s widow, Marie, was, and she looked on seriously as the award in her husband’s memory went to Harry.
Harry brushed off calls for him to turn down the prize from critics, including the former head of Britain’s Royal Navy Lord West, who warned the royal risked the wrath of military veterans.
As he accepted the award from three previous winners, Harry – who served two tours in Afghanistan – noted the struggles that military personnel face after they return from duty.
Although some condemned the choice of Prince Harry as a recipient of the award, ESPN defended it and cited his role in setting up the Invictus Games – which he mentioned as he dedicated the award to ‘the entire service community’.
Criticised for not having a defined brand and instead latching on the ‘Twitter cause of the moment’
The influential editor Tina Brown argues that Meghan lacks a defined ‘brand’ and instead latches on the ‘Twitter cause of the moment’.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Brown said that the Duke and Duchess ‘completely underestimated’ what their life would be like without the ‘palace platform’.
In the interview, the editor claimed the Duke of Sussex is ‘in a much better spot’ than Meghan thanks to the Invictus Games.
The royal set up the sports events for injured servicemen and women in 2014.
Brown said: ‘That’s what his brand should be. Just forget everything but the Invictus Games. It’s authentic, he really was extremely impressive as a soldier.’
Meghan and Prince Harry visit Canada House, in London in January 2020. Five days later they would dramatically announce they were quitting the Royal Family
Tina Brown after she received her CBE from British Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in London in 2000
Tina Brown with Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer and editor Geordie Greig at a charity event at Earl Spencer’s home, Althorp House, in Northampton, in June 2006
In contrast, Brown said Meghan has lacked focus since leaving The Firm and ‘doesn’t really have a brand’.
She continued: ‘You feel like she is grasping somewhat at whatever is the kind of Twitter [cause] of the moment.
‘It’s vaccinations. It’s Ukraine. It’s women’s rights. It’s, ‘hey – it’s my 40th birthday, let’s do a mentoring scheme.’
‘Nothing is really going anywhere for Meghan.’
Hating royal tours and not understanding the ‘representational role’ of the British monarchy
In her book The Palace Papers, Brown claims that an insider told her that Meghan apparently ‘hated every second’ of her Australia tour in 2018 and didn’t understand the point.
Despite the warm reception and a lively itinerary, Brown claims a Palace staffer told her that Meghan actually loathed the trip.
‘So, Meghan must have been thrilled with it all… right? No. She apparently hated every second of it,’ she wrote.
‘She didn’t understand why things were set up in that way. Instead of being excited when thousands of people showed up at the Opera House, it was very much like, “What’s the purpose? I don’t understand this”, a Palace employee told Brown.
When the Sussexes arrived in Australia in 2018, thousands of Australians gathered to see them in the flesh, something Meghan allegedly struggled to grasp ‘the point’ of
Despite the warm reception and a lively itinerary, Brown claims Meghan did not enjoy the trip
The staffer said Meghan didn’t appear to grasp the ‘representational role’ of the British monarchy when they toured, adding she was more interested in ’causes she wanted to spotlight’.
Brown’s claims are supported in an article published in The Times in 2021, which asserted that Meghan found it ‘silly’ when people crowded to see the Sussexes when they arrived in Sydney.
‘What are they all doing here? It’s silly,’ she reportedly said to her team. A source said that she simply ‘didn’t get it’.
The couple completed 75 engagements in 16 days across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga during the whirlwind tour – all while Meghan was in the early stages of her first pregnancy.
They were often pictured having intimate conversations, embracing fans or receiving numerous gifts from admirers during their time Down Under.
Lack of warmth when attending the LA Children’s Hospital Gala
The most recent decision from Meghan that has led to criticism came about earlier this month when she attended the LA Children’s Hospital Gala
Her former friend British socialite Lizzie Cundy, 56, was present at the event but claims Meghan was just there ‘for the photographs’.
She told the Mail: ‘There wasn’t a great deal of warmth from people when she arrived. She wasn’t there long – she seemed to be there for the photographs.’
She added: ‘Meghan needs LA more than LA needs her. LA people feel they’ve been played by her. I’d have worn a different one if I’d known.’
British socialite Lizzie Cundy said the Duchess (pictured with Kelly McKee Zajfen, her long-time friend, at the event) only attended the LA Children’s Hospital Gala ‘for the photographs’
Ms Cundy and the Duchess were previously friends after they met at a charity gala back in 2013. However, Meghan allegedly went on to ‘ghost’ Ms Cundy after she met Prince Harry.
Ms Cundy added: ‘Harry and Meghan were loved because they’re part of the Royal Family, but they’ve bad-mouthed the royals, who are loved in LA.
‘It’s a shame, because charity work is where her and Harry do great things.’
She was also disappointed to find that the Duchess of Sussex wore a similar dress to hers and said: ‘I’d have worn a different one if I’d known.’
Claims she was using the scene of a school shooting in Uvalde as a ‘public relations’ exercise
Meghan’s visit in May 2022 to the parents of victims of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was seen by some as a public relations exercise.
She went to the scene two days after the massacre which killed 21, including 19 children.
She was pictured laying a bouquet of white roses at a makeshift memorial, but her spokesperson insisted she was attending in a personal capacity as a mother.
The appearance drew criticism as some members of the public felt it was an attempt by the Duchess to take centre stage after an unimaginable tragedy.
‘I find her posing like this utterly disgusting,’ one user tweeted. ‘I’m used to her PR stunts but this actually makes me angry. By all means, pay your respects but posing 4 photographs & releasing to the media is SICK’.
Meghan was criticised for using her well-documented May 2022 visit to the parents of victims of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas
Meghan was pictured visiting a memorial site in Uvalde, Texas, to honor the victims killed in the elementary school shooting
Jill Kargman, the author and star of US TV show Odd Mom Out, was also critical at the time, saying: ‘This rings hollow and feels opportunistic. I thought she stepped down for privacy?
‘Using dead kids for a photo op isn’t drawing attention to the tragedy, it’s drawing attention to her obvious quest to be our People’s Princess. No thanks.’
Meghan’s close aide Mandana Dayani cited the episode as an example of the Duchess’s kindness ‘happening behind closed doors’.
The ex-employee of Meghan’s company Archwell said the duchess spent hours with the victims’ families and went round the room ‘one-by-one’, where she ‘hugged and cried with them’.
Wearing a £5,891 outfit on a visit to underprivileged children in New York
In September 2021, Meghan ditched her laid-back Californian vibe on a visit to a school for underprivileged children in New York.
When she visited Harlem’s PS 123 Mahalia Jackson School, she wore a £5,575 outfit, comprising a £3,850 Loro Piana loose-fitting burgundy cashmere coat with matching £1,300 trousers, and £425 Manolo Blahnik red stilettos.
Public records show that 94 per cent of the children at the school qualify for free meals.
In September 2021, Meghan wore a Loro Piana cashmere coat costing £3,850, matching trousers for £1,300 and Manolo Blahnick shoes for another £425. The outfit totalled £5,575 and was worn during a visit to a school for underprivileged children
Public records show that at the school Meghan visited, 94 per cent of children qualify for free meals
The decision to Megxit the Royal Family in 2020
Although there have been many questionable decisions from Meghan over the years, perhaps the most egregious was to leave the Royal Family altogether.
Appearing on the New York Times podcast Sway, Tina Brown claimed that Megxit, which happened in January 2020, was a ‘disaster for both sides’ and said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are ‘addicted to drama’.
Brown said the couple made ‘bad choices’ and could have left the Royal Family on far better terms if they weren’t as ‘hotheaded’.
She said: ‘I actually think there is a Harry-shaped hole in the Royal Family now. And Harry was beloved, actually, by the British people. And people adored Meghan when she came into the mix.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at their last official event as working royals in March 2020
Since quitting The Firm, the couple have been working on publishing documentaries for Netflix and a podcast for Spotify
‘So it was actually very, very sad for everybody that it went so wrong because they actually need Harry and Meghan now.
Speaking to The Telegraph in 2022, the former Vanity Fair editor said the pair can’t stop creating dramatic scenes wherever they go. And she warned the Duke appears to have been ‘completely and utterly taken over by Meghan and his whole personality has changed’.
‘I do question how it will end. [Maybe] he’ll wake up and realise he’s living in [Gwyneth Paltrow’s] Goop and he has to get the hell out, go down the pub and see his friends,’ she added.
Could Harry and Meghan make a Royal Family comeback?
The question on the lips of a lot of royal commentators, is that following all their mistakes, is there any way back for the pair?
Brown, appearing on the Ankler podcast, stated her view: ‘Unfortunately, she [Meghan] made every mistake in the book and she has kind of run out of road actually. I don’t know where Meghan goes.
‘I still think that Harry could make a comeback. He will always be Prince Harry, he will always be the grandson of the Queen and the son of Princess Diana, you can’t take that from him whatever happens.
When asked if Brits would welcome Prince Harry back with open arms, Brown replied: ‘I think if he came back alone they would, but not if he came with Meghan.
Tina Brown (pictured in 2022), stated her view on a podcast recently, commenting: ‘Unfortunately she (Meghan) made every mistake in the book and she has kinda run out of road actually. I don’t know where Meghan goes’
Prince Harry and Meghan arrive at the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala in New York City, in 2022
Since quitting the Royal Family, the couple have been attending faux-royal tours to several countries, including Colombia (pictured in August 2024)
Tina Brown published The Palace Papers: Inside The House Of Windsor, The Truth And The Turmoil in 2022, 15 years after releasing the biographical work The Diana Chronicles
‘And I don’t think Meghan ever will because I think that Meghan really, really hated England. She didn’t get the culture, she just didn’t get it, and feels so rejected by England, and England feels very rejected by Meghan so it is kind of an impasse.’
But although the public could be perhaps persuaded, Brown went on to say, she does not think William will ever want Harry back, arguing it was more likely that the resentment would only grow over time.
Brown said she was saddened that Harry had been ‘naive’ and squandered the British public’s affection for him.
However, she insists that, when he met Meghan in 2016, he became a ‘lamb to the slaughter’, adding: ‘He was terribly impressed by Meghan.
‘He thought that she knew all. She persuaded him that she was the savvy Hollywood wheeler-dealer who could come in and make them stars and all the rest of it. And he just sort of blindly followed her like a child, really.’
Tina Brown is the author of The Palace Papers and The Diana Chronicles.
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