When Oprah’s interview with Meghan Markle premiered on CBS, viewers were stunned by many of the claims made by the Duchess of Sussex and her husband, Prince Harry.
At the time, Markle’s account of the ignorance and insensitivity that she encountered during her time in the UK was widely accepted at face value.
For example, there’s no reason to doubt that a member of the royal family expressed concerns about Archie’s skin tone, or that the abuse Meghan received from the British press drove her to the point of suicidal ideation.
However, some of the lesser claims that Meghan and Harry made during the conversation are now being called into question.
Unfortunately, these claims have served as a launch pad for critics to question the more important revelations.
The first account that came into question had to do with Meghan’s description of a secret ceremony in which she and Harry exchanged vows several days before their actual wedding.
“You know, three days before our wedding, we got married. No one knows that. The vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury,” she told Winfrey.
In response to backlash from angry fact-checkers, a spokesperson for the couple has now clarified that the Sussexes were not legally married until they said “I do” in Westminster Abbey before an audience of millions.
(Getty)
“The couple exchanged personal vows a few days before their official/legal wedding on May 19,” the insider noted.
So — despite claims made by the British tabloid media — Meghan was not “lying” when she described the ceremony, she simply failed to clarify that it was not legally binding.
Another portion of the interview that has since become a source of intense scrutiny is Meghan’s claim that officials at Buckingham Palace seized her passport and other forms of ID when she first arrived in London.
She claimed that she did not see her passport again until she and Harry announced their decision to relocate to California.
Nay-sayers point out that Meghan made at least 13 trips abroad after she began dating Harry, but before the two of them were married.
The main thrust of the narrative remains accurate, but critics of the Sussexes have chosen to focus on the alleged half-truths and omissions.
“It’s always been her father, her sister, her ex husband, Kate, William, Charles, etc. Is anything ever been her fault?” one message board user wrote online.
“A selective memory that fits her narrative. How did she make it to Canada with no passport?” another asked.
“She expects us to believe that she travelled extensively without a passport. She wasn’t allowed to drive but Kate, the Queen, Camilla etc are all allowed to drive,” a third chimed in, adding:
“She didn’t own anything so what keys did she have to hand over?”
Yes, it certainly seems that — intentionally or otherwise — Meghan may have offered misleading accounts of her first wedding and her interactions with Palace security.
But the fact that critics feel the need to try and undermine her credibility by focusing on these relatively insignificant claims should tell you how frightened they are by the truths presented elsewhere in the interview.
