In news that is somewhat confusing, a recent poll of the British public has cast Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex and the greatest gift the monarchy could have ever asked for, as the second least popular member of the royal family. The only person below her? Prince Andrew, who is currently elbow-deep for his alleged role in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Opinions about Meghan fall predictably along age-based lines, with respondents who are young and identify as politically leftward-leaning voting in favor of the duchess. In fact, her approval rating is at 66% among 18- to 24-year-olds, with the Duchess of Cambridge topping out at 67% for the same demographic.
Meghan has been unapologetically making waves lately by speaking out about everything from royal protocol to the challenges of being a new mother while coping with increasing drama from the British press. Journalist Bryony Gordon recently followed Meghan as she made an appearance at the Luminary Bakery. Gordon noted that Meghan "told me that she didn’t want people to love her — she just wanted them to be able to hear her."
Meghan showed up at the new Luminary Bakery to support the organization's goal of empowering women who are struggling by providing them with training and jobs. As the official Sussex Instagram account noted, "It was a special moment to acknowledge the spirit of Luminary and their remarkable business model that opens its arms to women from vulnerable circumstances (be it abuse, poverty, trafficking, marginalisation) and equips them with the job skills and confidence to succeed."
Meghan gave a moving speech at the event, telling her fellow attendees, "I find that when you strip all the layers away, as people, and especially as women, we can find deep connection with each other, and a shared understanding."
Meghan has been balancing her work obligations and related passion projects with raising 6-month-old Archie. Byrony Gordon also made note that the duchess is "weaning, feeding," and in "an almost permanent state of exhaustion."
Meghan appears to have a wonderful supporter and co-parent in her husband, Prince Harry. Harry recently attended a rugby match between England and South Africa. While there offering his support to England, Harry shared a photo of baby Archie donning a tiny version of the team's jersey.
Even though some British citizens aren't pleased with the duchess, she recently received a huge wave of support from the female members of Parliament. In a moving statement, the women united across political parties and wrote, "As women MPs of all political persuasions, we wanted to express our solidarity with you in taking a stand against the often distasteful and misleading nature of the stories printed in a number of our national newspapers concerning you, your character, and your family."
To show her appreciation and gratitude, Meghan called one of the MPs after she received news of their support. MP Holly Lynch shared, "She was calling to thank myself and other women MP for standing with her. As a fairly new mom myself, the challenges of being in the public eye, managing childcare, managing public responsibilities can all be a challenge, so we did discuss that. But yeah, we were quite happy to stand with her and recognize that what she's going through has on occasion had xenophobic undertones. We're not happy about that."
In fact, Lynch's support of Meghan did not stop there. She further added, "I've been really concerned about some of the narratives, some of the articles that have been incredibly sexist but also that she's not from this country, she's from elsewhere and we're not happy about that. I'm afraid that's unacceptable in this day and age. She's here, she's married our prince, they've got a young son. We really want to welcome her to our society and I'm afraid not all of the articles in our national press [do so], and it's time that stop."
Meghan and Prince Harry also recently announced that they will be taking time off from royal duties beginning in mid-November 2019. The two are also reportedly considering setting up a home in the United States as their "second base."
Prince Harry has recently been quite outspoken about the mistreatment of his wife by the British press, and he said that his deepest fear is "history repeating itself." The statement was an obvious reference to the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
For her part, Meghan has said that she hopes people can see her for who she is. In their recent documentary, Meghan shared that, "I would hope that people — the world — will get to a point where you just see us as a couple who is in love, right? Because I don't wake up every day and identify as being anything other than who I've always been. I'm Meghan and I married this incredible man, and this, to me, is just part of our love story." One thing is for sure: Polls or no polls, Meghan isn't going anywhere.
