If you’ve not got round to blocking the very worst people on social media, you’re probably aware that the Harry and Meghan Netflix series began on Thursday.
The first three instalments of six-part Netflix series ‘Harry and Meghan’ have prompted a predictable reaction among the sort of people who watched Prince Andrew’s 2019 Newsnight interview and still believe no-one has brought more shame to the Royal Family than Meghan Markle.
It doesn’t matter if it’s any good. In fact, it could be the worst television programme of the 21st century and its existence would still be justified.
Why? It annoys all the right people.
When long-term couples have a blazing row about the dishes or the bins, it’s often not really about the dishes or the bins. There’s an elephant in the room that is never explicitly addressed, but which underpins all the tension.
That’s what’s been going on with the UK’s right-wing pundits ever since Meghan Markle began a relationship with Prince Harry in 2016. Out loud it’s ‘ugh, her dress’, ‘ugh, her attitude’ or ‘ugh, her polite request to not be harassed or bullied’, but it’s hard not to wonder if there’s something else about Meghan that gets under their skin.
READ MORE: Matt Hancock's I'm A Celebrity run is damning indictment of gullible viewers
Here are just a few of the all too predictable reactions from those anti-Meghan types, as well as an idea of what they might really mean…
JAMES BRADLEY (US military veteran and Republican politician)
— James Bradley (@JamesBradleyCA) December 6, 2022
“Meghan Markle CHOSE to marry into the most powerful WHITE family in the world. Crying ‘racism’ on the back of that choice is the most disingenuous and shameful thing I’ve ever seen.”
TAKEAWAY: Don’t marry a white person unless you’re prepared to endure racism
PIERS MORGAN (Cristiano Ronaldo fanboy)
“God, they’re so boring! #HarryandMeghanNetflix.”
TAKEAWAY: God, the people I have tweeted about 12 times already today are so boring!
SARAH VINE (columnist)
“Funny how they don't seem to mind the banks of photographers when it suits their agenda.”
TAKEAWAY: Funny how people prefer being photographed with consent to being photographed without consent.
English press deciding what they’re going to criticise Meghan Markle for today pic.twitter.com/BTQpZKybLf
— Oldfirmfacts (@Oldfirmfacts1) March 3, 2021
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NICK ADAMS (Trump-endorsed author who regularly tweets about being an ‘alpha male’)
“Nobody cares about Meghan Markle. At all.”
TAKEAWAY: Aside from the World Cup Final it might be the TV event of the year, it’s the number one trending topic online across the world and newspapers are covering the revelations from it in live blogs. I, however, am the sort of guy who replies ‘NO-ONE CARES!!!’ under articles about Kim Kardashian and, as the main character of the world, people must know that I personally don’t care.
JAMES SPIRO (Israel-based tech journalist)
It is important to remember that Meghan Markle is, first and foremost, an actress.
— James Spiro (@JamesSpiro) December 8, 2022
#HarryandMeghanNetflix
“It is important to remember that Meghan Markle is, first and foremost, an actress.”
TAKEAWAY: It is important to remember that James Spiro is, first and foremost, an actor. Specifically, the one who played McLovin in Superbad.
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NICK TIMOTHY (columnist and Theresa May’s former Joint Chief of Staff)
“He can’t stop insulting his family. The man has no honour at all.”
TAKEAWAY: If you want to know about honour, ask the man who wrote Theresa May’s ‘if you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere’ line. That’s me, by the way.
DAN WOOTTON (GB News presenter, who in 2020 responded to images of Harry and Meghan visiting the Los Angeles National Cemetery on Remembrance Sunday by tweeting: “How lucky that a photographer happened to be here to capture this deeply personal moment” and in 2022 tweeted a video of himself laying a floral tribute to the Queen with the caption: “I wanted to return to Buckingham Palace today for some quiet reflection and lay my own tribute.”)
Meghan: "Obviously now people are very aware of my race because they made it such an issue when I went to the UK, but before that most people didn’t treat me like a black woman."
— Dan Wootton (@danwootton) December 8, 2022
The only person who made race an issue was Meghan herself. The UK embraced her#HarryandMeghanNetflix
“The only person who made race an issue was Meghan herself. The UK embraced her #HarryandMeghanNetflix.”
TAKEAWAY: The UK immediately had an issue with Meghan because of race, but we have to keep pretending that’s not the reason we didn’t embrace her.
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