Meghan Markle’s Mandela moment

It seems that the last two years of interviews, podcasts and media briefings actually count as Meghan Markle keeping shtum. Towards the end of a 6,500-word interview with the Cut, which covers the duchess’s views on the monarchy, the British press and racism, she says that she “never had to sign anything that restricts her from talking,” adding, “I can talk about my whole experience and make a choice not to.” At this point, Cockburn doesn’t know whether this is an attempt at satire or if Meghan genuinely believes her “truth.”

The interview with Allison P. Davis — the zeitgeitsty feature writer who first coined the terms “big dick energy” and “vibe shift” — is titled “Meghan of Montecito” and comes less than a week after her Archetypes podcast with Serena Williams (in which listeners might have hoped that she could have spoken a little less). Maybe Meghan decided that an hour of uninterrupted self-endorsement wasn’t enough and has now dedicated at least a day to the feature-length interview and photoshoot.

At one point, she claimed that during a visit to the Lion King premiere in London, a cast member from South Africa pulled her aside: “He looked at me, and he’s just like light [sic?]. He said, “I just need you to know: when you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison.’” Seems legit.

Another bizarre section sees homeless people used as a learning experience for Meghan’s son Archie. They take the interviewer for a drive (not at all pre-meditated, Cockburn is sure) where Meghan then “reaches into the trunk and produces a brand-new black backpack and hands it to her security detail to give to an unhoused man on the corner.” Meghan claims that they are ‘teaching Archie that some people live in big houses, some in small, and that some are in between homes. They made kits to pass out with water and peanut-butter crackers and granola bars.” Cockburn wonders if Meghan couldn’t have instead offered one of the nine bedrooms from her Montecito estate.

And what’s Harry been up to? According to the interview, not much. He’s spent a fair amount of his time doing DIY around their home as well as “fixing sprinklers” for their LA neighbors. The interviewer described the prince as “exasperated” when talking about “fixing pipes” in their Montecito mansion. Perhaps it’s another learning experience for Archie: some people are born princes but end up as glorified handymen.

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.