Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: is there a risk for Meghan in Britain?

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, is a member of the royal family, a former American actress married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, younger son of King Charles III.

Before marring British Prince, Meghan Markle climbed the steps of acting career, starting with the role of Rachel Elizabeth Zane in the legal drama “Suits” and pursuing her charity work on the women’s issues and social justice. Duke of Sussex is not her first husband as she has been married before that to American film producer Trevor Engelson, however, the couple filed for divorce in 2014.

In the year 2016 actress started her relationship with His Royal Highness, Prince Harry and in 2018 they married. Meghan Markle retired from her acting career right after, becoming known as the Duchess of Sussex.

From the day Prince Harry announced a relationship with Meghan Markle to the public, former actress started to receive racist and discriminatory comments on the social media and even press. In Twitter there started to appear comments saying that “Meghan will never be royal” due to her problems with the “royal protocol” or that she is “an embarrassment to the Royal Family”, “a talentless victim jealous of people”.

When Meghan became pregnant with her first child, even Daily Mirror made one of its publications with the title “How dark will the baby’s skin be?” The Globe has published an article with the name “Meghan must go!” Twitter’s comments have been going alongside the magazines and newspapers saying: “Look at this fake bump Meghan saga..” adding hashtags #megxit, which quickly gained popularity among haters of the Duchess.

When Harry and Meghan actually made their departure away from the Royal Family to Canada, that has prompted a nationwide reckoning about whether this former empire has made any significant progress tackling issues of racism and classism. The fight has been cast as the latest battle in a culture war dividing this country and beyond. In the year 2020 the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced that they are terminating their full-time responsibilities before the British Crown and will no longer use their “royal highness” titles or receive public funds for royal duties.  

The same year after a couple moved to Vancouver Island, they signed a private commercial deal with Netflix to make a documentary about them and their lives before and after separating from the Royal Family. In the series the couple described for the first time their problems with the media and press, underlying the bullying of Meghan by both the social media, tabloids as well as the indifference of senior members of the royal family to the harassment of Meghan. Prince Harry said that “so much of what Meghan is, and how she is, is so similar to my mum. She is the same compassion, the same empathy, she has the same confidence, she has this warmth about her.” Saying about “warmth” Duke of Sussex wanted to show the “coldness” of the Royal Family, the accusation towards the Crown that is known almost to every British citizen. However, if in case of Princess Diane it was a “problem” of her great openness to the people- “the queen of people’s hearts”- as Diane was calling herself in one of her last interviews before the tragedy, with Meghan it was always about race.

Meghan’s mother Ragland said in one of the episodes that after Meghan became the part of the British Royal Family, she was “stalked by the paparazzi” and “felt unsafe a lot”. “I said to her [Meghan]— I remember this very clearly — that ‘This is about race,’” -said Ragland. “‘You [Meghan] may not want to hear it, but this is what’s coming down the pike.’”

After almost 4 years from the moment when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the UK, there have been lots of changes in their private as well as public life.

The “Archewell Foundation” was launched as a charitable organization focused on non-profit activities and creative for-profit media ventures. In 2020 “Archewell Foundation” funded 3 “Community Relief Centers” in Dominica, Puerto Rico and Mumbai by providing special “quickly activated service kitchens” in these locations. The foundation has been collaborating with various organizations, including the Loveland Foundation, which provides mental health supplies for black women and the “Harvest Home”, a charity that helps expectant mothers dealing with domestic violence, substance use and homelessness.

In the year 2021 the “Archewell Foundation” partnered with “Women for Afghan Women” to help with the evacuation of thousands of Afghan women and children during the 2021 Taliban offensive. Later the organization has been assisting the “World Central Kitchen” with delivering meals to hospitals and shelters for those affected by the 2021 Haiti earthquake.

Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the organization has made several donations to charities that support Ukrainian people.

In an effort to support young people and intergenerational organizations involved in the responsible technology movement, Archewell became a founding member of the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund in February 2023.

The founders of the “Archewell Foundation” also signed a multi-year contract with Spotify in December 2020 to start a podcast through “Archewell Audio”, an audio production company that is a division of Archewell Inc. The Duchess of Sussex has been putting an effort to launch her own podcast, however, due to the “issues with the platform” the plan was realized partially only in the year 2022. In June 2023, Spotify ended their deal with the couple to produce podcasts.

Is there a risk for Meghan to return to the UK?

The Duke of Sussex in his recent interview said that he is still worried about the safety of his wife in case of her return to the UK as “she could be attacked here”. In his first significant interview, which was released following the litigation against newspapermen from Rupert Murdoch’s Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), Harry voiced this viewpoint. “I was forced to go too far. One person, a loner, who reads all the published materials and acts in accordance with what he reads, is enough. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a knife or acid.”

Consequently, the lawsuit against News Group Newspapers was filed in connection with the possible illegal collection of information regarding the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the trial on the merits should take place in January.

Nevertheless, the question remains: if there is a real threat to the life of the Duchess of Sussex in Britain? The probability of that is much lower nowadays due to the governmental change in British government and less radical attitude to the separated senior members of the Royal Family, especially after the release of Netflix series “Harry and Meghan” partially directed by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex themselves.

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