Meghan Markle and Prince Harry shocked the world by announcing they were stepping back as senior royals in early 2020. They have since relocated to the United States, where they live with their two children, son Archie and daughter Lilibet. Although they retained their HRH titles, they would no longer receive financial support from the palace or undertake any royal duties as representatives of the monarch. Their sharp criticism of the royal family’s culture in the now infamous Oprah Winfrey interview of 2021 was met with some opprobrium around the world, but the couple also found a lot of support.
Since relocating to Montecito in Santa Barbara, California, the Sussexes have been busy setting up their own brand, Archewell. Meghan began hosting a podcast called “Archetypes” that “dives into the labels that try to hold women back,” while Harry has been working on his memoir, entitled “Spare,” described as being “full of insight, revelation, self-examination and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.”
The couple also embarked on a journey to document their lives since their departure from the grand halls of Buckingham Palace in the Netflix series “Harry & Meghan.” The show chronicles the pair’s progression from the “secret, early days of their unexpected romance” to their marriage in May 2018, as well as their experiences under intense public scrutiny. It also delves into their relationships with members of the royal family and the impact and strains the institution has put on their life together. The show also depicted the challenges the duo grappled with, including Meghan’s struggle to adjust to royal protocols and the media circus, as well as Harry’s efforts to protect his new family and the strain it has put on his relationships. However, not everyone is a fan of the show.
British television presenter and personality Piers Morgan is no stranger to controversy. Over the years, he has expressed criticism of countless personalities, from climate activist Greta Thunberg to actors Hugh Grant and John Cleese. Since the release of “Harry & Meghan,” Morgan has directed his vitriol at Prince Harry and Meghan, writing an extensive opinion piece in The Sun, slamming them for their “nauseating, tawdry and staggeringly narcissistic Netflix reality series.”
This is not the first time Morgan has poured scorn on Meghan. It was reported he and the Duchess of Sussex used to be friendly but that soon after her relationship with Prince Harry started getting serious, they had a falling out. “I was friendly with Meghan but she ghosted me. I am not impressed,” Morgan had told the Mirror after the actress cut him off. After that, he began speaking badly of the pair and called them “the two most spoiled brats in history,” as well as questioning whether Markle’s claims about the racism and mental health issues she faced from the royal family were true.
His censure of Markle, in particular, kicked off a debate about whether his comments were tantamount to bullying, with one tense on-air interview with presenter Alex Beresford resulting in Morgan walking off the set.
Morgan has continued to vilify both Harry and Meghan onscreen and off, and on Dec. 15, 2022, he published a lengthy diatribe castigating the couple over their Netflix docuseries he described as a “whine-a-thon.” While he had his usual critique of Markle and her “unquenchable craving for barrelling her way into the news cycle,” he saved his most savage reproval for King Charles III’s youngest son.
Morgan didn’t mince words when it came to his review of “Harry & Meghan.” He wrote the show “confirmed everything I thought about (Meghan), and none of it is complimentary. Anyone who disowns her own family including her ailing father for cooperating with a photographer to improve his derided image, wouldn’t think twice of encouraging her hapless husband to torch his family.”
After describing Meghan as a “divorced American C-list actress now gleefully playing the role of her life,” Morgan had some harsh words to say about Harry. “However, my real fury is with Harry, whose betrayal of his family and his country has now been laid bare in hideous, eye-popping detail,” Morgan wrote. He added, “Watching him publicly attack his ‘screaming’ brother William, inferring he bullied him out of Britain, then brand his father King Charles a liar, and even criticise his grandmother the late great Queen Elizabeth II for doing nothing to help him, made my stomach churn.”
Morgan wrote that what was “utterly enraging” was watching Harry “fuel a false but incredibly damaging narrative that Britain’s a racist country with a racist royal family at its head.”
“How could this horribly privileged halfwit who was once so proud to serve – with courage and honour, it must be said – his Queen and country in the armed forces become such a cold-hearted traitor to both?” Morgan questioned.
He also chided the pair for “spewing endless toxic hate at their families and causing huge anger and pain in the process to people” while “causing mounting damage to an institution that they happily trade off while they berate, smear and diminish it.”
It’s safe to say the docuseries has failed to change Morgan’s mind about the couple. Instead, it’s probably aggravated his already unsympathetic view of them.