Meghan Markle’s video on replacing an LA wildfire survivor’s Billie Eilish concert t-shirt has managed to offend millions of people.
Meghan Markle is only four posts into her new Instagram account, but the Duchess of Sussex has copped backlash for every single one so far. Her latest – a video about replacing an LA wildlife survivor’s concert t-shirt – has managed to enrage millions. Here is why a seemingly harmless post about teaming up with Billie Eilish to replace a 15-year-old’s favourite concert t-shirt has earned Meghan so much backlash.
What Meghan posted
“I was just told that something arrived that I have been waiting for,” she told the camera. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed as she looked at the shipment, which included clothing and a signed Hit Me Hard and Soft vinyl.
Meghan revealed that the merchandise was for a Los Angeles fire survivor who had lost her home and her most prized possession – a Billie Eilish concert t-shirt – in the wildfires that ravaged Southern California.
Meghan had visited an area affected by the wildfires along with her husband, Prince Harry, when she met a mother-daughter duo whose house had burnt down.
While speaking to the pair, the Duchess of Sussex learnt they had come back to their home, now reduced to ashes. The 15-year-old girl told Meghan she was looking for her prized t-shirt from an Eilish concert. She had left it in the washing machine while fleeing her home.
“And of course, they now see their home — and the washing machine and the dryer — are ash,” Meghan explained. “They’re not there anymore.”
How Meghan helped
Meghan Markle promised to help the teen and reached out to her celebrity friends to see if someone could help replace the t-shirt. “So I thought of everybody that I knew, and I made a voice note, and I was like, ‘Please, can someone get this voice note to Billie Eilish, here’s what I’m asking, guys.’”
Help materialised when the voice note reached Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine and his wife Behati Prinsloo, who sent her a box of Eilish merchandise.
“Huge thank you, Billie Eilish. This is going to mean so much to her. And honestly, to Adam Levine and Behati, you guys helped get this over the line,” Meghan said in her Instagram video. “To everyone who’s showing up for people in big and small ways to get through what’s happened in California, just thank you so much.”
So why the backlash?
Meghan’s altruistic side failed to impress the internet, and many slammed her video as “tone-deaf” and “classless”. People took offense with the fact that the Duchess of Sussex needed to post about her good deeds on social media.
“Disaster tourist-in-chief Meghan Markle scored some free merch from Billie Eilish for a teenager impacted by the LA fires – and she actually made an entire boastful Instagram video about it. The most tone deaf and classless celebrity on the planet,” read one critical post on X.
“There is NO reason for this video except self promotion. She didn’t do that much. Others did and she HAD to take credit and had make it public,” another X user said, adding that “Billie did it but didn’t say anything. Levine did it but didn’t say anything.”
“Instead of doing things about others it’s all about her. Of course she needs to post publicly to try to win sympathy. She’s such a fraud,” a user posted.
Hundreds of other people accused Meghan of doing things “only for attention” and boasting about her celebrity connections.
