Meghan Markle, the iconoclast pseudo-royal who is married to Queen Elizabeth II’s grandson, Prince Harry, has had her fair share of bad press in the United States and the United Kingdom.
But one of the late Princess Diana’s friends and the designer of her iconic wedding gown has brought such critique of Markle’s public rejection of the royal family to new heights by refusing to even say her name out loud.
Ouch.
David Emanuel and his wife, Elizabeth, were the pair behind the memorable wedding dress which Diana wore in 1981 when she married Harry’s father, Prince Charles, in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The gown, a seemingly endless cascade of ivory silk taffeta, represented quintessential 80s fashion and would cement the princess’ image as a fashion icon, not unlike her son William’s now-wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, who like her husband’s late mother is a commoner by birth who would go on to win the hearts of the British people.
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Rather than follow in the footsteps of Diana and Kate, however, Markle has publicly distanced herself from the royal family, to put it lightly.
Not only have Meghan and Harry given up their royal titles, but Meghan would go on to publicly smear the Windsor clan in a scathing interview with Oprah in March of 2021 in which she went as far as to not-so-subtly imply that Queen Elizabeth and her brood were stuffy, racist bullies.
Now, it is certainly difficult for your average American to understand what it means to bash the British royal family, but for a woman who has married into the British royal family to do so, and to such an extent, has certainly made Her Ex-Royal Highness the target of strong rebuke among her grandmother-in-law’s adoring subjects — and her would-have-been mother-in-law’s good friends.
Emanuel, when asked his thoughts on Markle’s appearance and fashion choices at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee by The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden, replied that he daren’t speak her name.
Do you agree with Emanuel about Meghan Markle?
“You mean the American woman? I can’t utter the name now,” he was quoted as saying, as reported by Newsweek.
Of Markle’s Christian Dior Haute Couture trench coat dress, Emanuel declared she had been “channeling” Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee who enamored Edward VIII and over whom he ultimately abdicated the throne in 1936.
“I tell you who she is channeling — Wally Simpson,” Emanuel said, going on to cattily add that “she looked as if she was in a nurse’s uniform.”
Meghan Markle & Prince Harry: More Hated Than Ever Following the Platinum Jubilee? https://t.co/5iqWtiXzfi pic.twitter.com/IAB3xMjtAz
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“And why were they there?” he reportedly went on, wondering why the couple was even present at the celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s historic 70 years as monarch. “I can understand Her Majesty wanting her grandson, of course, but they’re not working royals.”
It has always appeared rather ironic that Harry and Meghan want to distance themselves from the British royal family and yet continue to enjoy the status they only have because they are, well, royals.
Meghan Markle, as Emanuel noted, is hardly a household name apart from the fact that she married the sixth person in line to the British throne.
“They talk about her being a movie star, but she is not,” he said. “She’s a B-list TV actress, that’s all. She’s not Glenn Close.”
Talk about biting the hand that feeds — while Princess Diana fulfilled her royal duties with grace and poise and gained celebrity for both her killer fashion choices and her humanitarian efforts as well as her grace under the fire of constant tabloid attention.
Meghan, on the other hand, has sought to officially separate herself from the title that gave her so much fame and gone on to apparently use her name recognition to advance her career by slandering the royal family she married into.
She’s like the polar opposite of Diana, to her shame.
She indeed draws a sharp contrast from her husband’s mother, who was the picture of royalty, despite her birth. According to Emanuel, if Princess Diana were here today, none of this ugly public split on the part of her younger son and his wife would have happened.
“If Diana were alive,” Emanuel also declared, “all of this would have been sorted out.”
