Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, was back in the United Kingdom this week to give a speech about her favorite topic: Herself.
Not that the residents of ol’ Blighty were delighted to see her back. In fact, while there was plenty of applause for Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, inside of The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, according to Newsweek, outside, they were greeted by boos and signs declaring they were “fake royals.”
The event was the £500-a-person One Young World Summit 2022 (that’s $574 in U.S. dollars), where Newsweek reported Meghan “struck a conciliatory tone, emphasizing how ‘nice’ it was to be back in Britain, with no reference to her past swipes at the palace or Harry’s at the alleged bigotry of the country’s press.”
It was the first time they’d returned to the country since Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebration in June and it marked the first speech Markle has given in the U.K. in two years.
It was billed as being about gender equality, according to the U.K. Daily Mail, but that might have been hard to guess from its contents.
“It is very nice to be back in the U.K., and it is very nice to be back with all of you at One Young World,” she told the crowd at the event on Monday, according to Newsweek.
“As you’ll likely hear many times this week, as we just heard, you’ll hear all sorts of things, some very heavy, some very uplifting, but the resounding spirit I believe you will hear is that you are the future. But I would like to add to that, that you are also the present,” she continued.
“You are the ones driving the positive and necessary change needed across the globe now, in this very moment, and for that I am so grateful to be in your company today.”
She went on to praise Prince Harry, no doubt an indulgent individual when it comes to stuff like this: “I am thrilled that my husband is able to join me here this time. To be able to see and witness firsthand my respect for this organization, this incredible organization, and all that it provides as well as accomplishes,” she said.
Have Meghan Markle and Prince Harry disgraced the royal family?
“One Young World has been an integral part of my life for so many years before I met him. So, to meet again here on U.K. soil with him by my side makes it all feel full circle.”
The speech, Newsweek noted, “played it safe, avoiding territory the couple have been criticized about in the past.”
“Have any of you today so far had that feeling, that ‘pinch-me’ moment where you just go, ‘how am I here?’” Meghan told the audience.
Indeed, there were plenty of moments of faux humility to be had inside The Bridgewater Hall:
‘There I was. A girl from Suits… I even saved my little paper place card that said my name on it.’
Meghan Markle speaks at the One Young World summit and says ‘it’s very nice to be back’ as she makes her first public appearance in the UK since the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. pic.twitter.com/K4qs7EEjJq
— GB News (@GBNEWS) September 5, 2022
Outside the venue, Great Britain was less accommodating. One protester had a placard reading “FO Harry and Me-Gain fake royals,” which seemed to fit the mood of the demonstrators nicely.
One woman told the U.K. Sun that Meghan was a “liar and a hypocrite” who had launched an “attack” on the royal family she married into.
“She’s a fake humanitarian and a fake feminist,” the woman said.
“She’s a social climber… she thought she could be a celebrity in the royal family and she’s the most toxic, divisive woman I’ve ever heard of in my life.”
“The queen has been on the throne for 70 years and she’s had to put up with all this trouble. Meghan has used every card she can — racism, mental health, feminism. She’s not a feminist, she’s just a hypocrite.”
Another protester pointed out the solipsistic nature of her remarks.
“It was odd that the whole speech was about herself,” they said. “But that is Meghan.”
The backlash afterward from observers of the royal family was brutal.
As royals expert Russell Myers told British TV host Lorraine Kelly, the duchess mentioned herself dozens of times throughout the short address.
“This was her big moment, the first time she was speaking in public since leaving the royal family and, unfortunately, it has felt a bit flat because it was very, very self-centered, for want of a better phrase,” he said, according to the U.K. Express.
“I mean, somebody actually counted the amount of times that she mentioned herself and it was at an astonishing 54 times, and struggling in its speed.”
“It was a seven-minute speech,” Russell noted. “It did seem like it went on for quite a long time.
Meanwhile, on conservative British cable news outlet GB News, royal and showbiz reporter Kinsey Schofield said she “just heard Meghan talking about Meghan.
She added there was “nothing about equality” in the duchess’ speech.
‘I just heard Meghan talking about Meghan… nothing about equality. She’s so fixated on her brand and what people think about her.’
Royal Commentator Kinsey Schofield reacts to Meghan Markle’s speech at the One Young World summit in Manchester. pic.twitter.com/ZpyFSDFsIQ
— GB News (@GBNEWS) September 6, 2022
“She’s so fixated on her brand and what people think about her,” Schofield added.
Indeed, as GB News noted, the speech was supposed to be about equality. Instead, it was about her. This is the paradoxical thing about Markle’s brand: The more she fixates on herself, the worse it gets.
Markle has spent the past few years becoming the personification of the Hollywood narcissist, a swellhead diva who proves the maxim that true love sometimes needn’t involve a second person.
Unfortunately, self-infatuation wasn’t going to catapult her far off the launchpad of “Suits,” the dreary USA Network time-killer that allowed her haltingly climb aboard the C-list.
Happily for her, she managed to land the densest member of the Windsor family — and then used her jihad against the royals to make headlines. She was the poorest little rich girl in all the world — a duchess, no less — and the drama was eaten up in the leftist celebrity world (an interview with Oprah!) and cheesy tabloids.
As for the British people overall, they appeared more than happy to have her and Harry decamp to California, where they could spend the next few years milking a development contract with Netflix. Meghan can keep yelling about her politics and her pain as the Windsor annex in Los Angeles recedes ever further from our attention.
When they go back to the U.K., however, they’ll still attract plenty of notice. Just don’t expect it to be good — at least not from the real Britons outside the privileged venues where their fellow elites gather.
