I was told that in 2019 I was the most trolled person in the entire world – male or female.

Meghan Markle in a podcast interview (Oct. 10, 2020)

Meghan Markle has spoken about her experiences with social media, revealing that she has been the most trolled person in 2019 and describing this as “almost unsurvivable”. In a candid interview with three Californian high school students from Orange County, California, Meghan opened up on her ordeal with cyberbullying for an episode of their podcast called Tonnage Therapy.

Meghan Markle (39) has come under a lot of fire ever since she and her husband Prince Harry have announced to step down as senior royals and have moved to Los Angeles together with their son Archie (1). The tabloid press like The Daily Mail, The Sun or The Daily Mirror are full of articles about Meghan snatching their once so beloved and popular Prince Harry and taking him with her to the United States. Meghan Markle has been demonized for allegedly manipulating Harry for her own agenda. People who commented on these articles accused Meghan of having married Harry only because she wanted to up her game and become famous. Once she has reached a certain amount of popularity, so the theory, she would drop Harry and go after someone more famous and richer. The criticism of Meghan Markle is immense and resembles a witch hunt with especially The Daily Mail publishing loads of articles to keep the fire burning.

1. Meghan sells

Truth is, Meghan Markle sells. Especially negative articles that pit her against Catherine, Prince William’s wife, catch the reader’s interest most. With an average of 3,500-4,000 comments per article, The Daily Mail is able to capitalize on Meghan Markle big time. In contrast to that, other royals aren’t able to get anyway near that number of comments. Even articles about Prince William and Catherine don’t always do the trick. Each comment generates more clicks, because most commentators are vain and return to see how many likes and comments their comment has received. Some commentators even engage in heated discussions with other commentators online which again increases the click-through rate for the online tabloids like The Daily Mail and others. Every click converts into money and fills the pocket of the tabloid journalists. Since the comments aren’t moderated, the comment section resembles a battlefield for trolls and haters who vent their anger and frustration. Meghan Markle has become one target for all that. And this is the reason why tabloids spin and feed the narrative of the mean American who brought havoc over the royal family.

2. How dare she?

How dare Meghan Markle leave the most precious institution the Britons have – the royal family? How dare she leaves their national icon – the Queen – just like that? Meghan Markle left something that isn’t to be left. No-one leaves the royal family! In fact, most people would lick their fingers to join the royal family if they could. And don’t be fooled by Britons denying that. Most Britons were instilled with the sense and knowledge that the British royal family ranks highest in their social and political echelons. After the fall of the British Empire, the royal family is the last remnant of Britain’s glorious past. Britons know that – often buried deep down inside, but they do know that! If having the crudest chance of joining that institution – by a once-in a- gazillion-chance of marriage, for example – most die-hard BRITISH critics would drop their long cherished resentments and forget about their rants against that “bloody” family and join the royal family in a drop of a hat. Again, denying that is pointless… Meghan had joined that family too – and left. That is not how things work on the island. One is not amused!

3. Happily ever after

Once you are in, you are meant to stay. Of course, you can divorce from a member of a royal family – like three out of four of the Queen’s children had done so before. But you don’t snatch one of theirs and leave Britain – and be HAPPY! Meghan and Harry don’t hang their heads in shame in LA for having left the royal family and having rocked their boat. And they certainly don’t lead a low-key life. They closed a major Netflix deal and have moved into a $14-million mansion in sunny Santa Barbara and continue their charity programs and socialize with celebrities like Oprah and Beyoncé there. In fact, Meghan and Harry are more active and out and about than Prince William and Catherine in Britain. Meghan and Harry look radiant and happy, thriving on their new-found freedom away from the restrictions of a dusty and outdated institution. It is very likely that the royal court in Britain is keeping a very close eye on Meghan and Harry, afraid that both of them might eclipse William and Catherine or even Prince Charles with their busy schedule. With ever more financial independence like the mega million deal with Netflix, the court has less control over them both. In contrast to Edward VIII. who abdicated in 1936 to marry his American mistress Wallis Simpson, Meghan and Harry are busy building their own brand and setting their own agendas. Edward and Wallis had to leave Britain whereas Meghan and Harry chose to leave Britain. Edward and Wallis retreated in a French chateau whereas Meghan and Harry relish in their LA mansion! The hard truth is that envy is why some Britons dislike Meghan Markle.

4. Blow to national pride

Meghan Markle was by no means intimated by the royal family or “the firm” as it is also called. She hasn’t grown up with the glory and mystery that surrounds the British royal family. As an American, she probably has had some vague fairy-tale notion of monarchy that stem from movies in which a young American girl becomes an English princess over night. Leaving the firm was no big deal for her, but it hurt the British soul. Never in a million years would they admit to anything like that, but leaving the firm amounted to basically showing the British people that their last standing glorious national symbol – the British royal family – means not much to outsiders. The British royal family lost some of the magic the day Meghan left. Not because of Meghan herself, but because of the sheer fact that it can be left, like an unwanted piece of furniture. This is a major blow to the national British pride and demystifies the royal institution. Intended or not, Meghan Markle did just that. And this hurts.

5. Too modern to function

Of course not all Britons feel that way. Modern British people applaud Meghan Markle for having had the guts to leave. Those are the ones that don’t identify with the old sense of Britishness and the royal family anymore. They view the monarchy as an outdated institution that should end once the Queen has passed away. For them, Meghan Markle is the symbol of a young empowered woman who breathes and lives modern virtues like self-determination, gender equality and self-respect. Certainly there were not few British people that were able to identify with Meghan, whose parents divorced when she was a child and who has a middle-class and mixed race background. Even though the 2020 census for the UK shows that only 2.2 % of the population classify as mixed race, the fact that Meghan Markle is a person of color made her one of the modern faces of Britain overnight. Here is a bright and beautiful lady that fought her way up to the top and doesn’t let get anything in her way, lest courtiers telling her how to act, dress and speak in public. In a twisted way, Meghan Markle became a modern royal not by joining the royal family but by leaving it.