At the start of 2016, Meghan Markle was thriving. Then 35 years old, the star was enjoying a successful acting career in the hit TV series Suits, which she starred in from 2011 until 2018, ran a successful lifestyle blog called The Tig, which she founded in 2014, and was using her voice and platform to speak out on important issues that were close to her heart. Then, her relationship with Prince Harry hit the headlines.
What followed was years of relentless and baseless tabloid scrutiny; Meghan was heavily criticized for everything from eating avocados to how she wished her then-six-year-old nephew Prince George a happy birthday on Instagram.
Simultaneously, Prince Harry has claimed that false stories about Meghan were being shared with the press to paint her in a negative light, once saying of the Royal Family’s longstanding relationship with the British media: “They were happy to lie to protect my brother, they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”
The abuse was so extensive that Meghan revealed in 2021 that she considered suicide when she was pregnant with her and Harry’s first child together, Prince Archie. And when Archie was born in 2019, BBC presenter Danny Baker shared a racially-charged photo comparing the newborn to a chimpanzee.
In 2021, Piers Morgan sensationally stormed off the popular UK breakfast show Good Morning Britain when his frustrated Black costar Alex Beresford dared to call him out for his daily trashing of the Duchess of Sussex. The following year, British TV personality Jeremy Clarkson wrote a horrifying column for The Sun newspaper where he admitted to “dreaming of the day when [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.”
Whatever the reason behind this campaign, it’s undeniable that it worked. To this day, Meghan possesses the ability to leave otherwise-regular-seeming people frothing at the mouth with her mere existence. In fact, Meghan appears to induce an almost admirable level of willful ignorance from her haters, who are seemingly so indoctrinated to find issues with everything she does that they lose all common sense.
And, predictably, the blind hatred has really ramped up a gear this week thanks to the release of Meghan’s Netflix series With Love, Meghan; an aesthetically beautiful lifestyle show where Meghan shares incredibly attainable tips and tricks for everything to do with hosting. In one episode, she puts together a child-friendly party bag for a pretty garden dinner with her friend Mindy Kaling. In another, she makes natural beeswax candles and a three-tier honey and lemon cake with another pal, makeup artist Daniel Martin.
The whole series gives viewers an insight into just how much Meghan is thriving five years after her and Harry’s move to California. In addition to Archie, they have welcomed a daughter together, Princess Lilibet, and live a wholesome life with their beloved pets growing their own produce in their huge garden full of flowers, fruit trees, and vegetable patches, alongside a chicken coop with chickens they rescued from factory farms, and even their own bee yard where they source fresh honey.
Still, in the face of Meghan’s new chapter, there remains a very vocal group of people who somehow can’t stop themselves from using their energy to spread Meghan Markle hate. From British daytime TV shows, such as Good Morning Britain and Loose Women picking With Love, Meghan apart, to the keyboard warriors leaving vindictive social media comments online, the anti-Meghan brigade is just as loud and exhausting as ever.