It's one post on instagram and she's had her marriage questioned, piss taken out of her clothes, of her writing in the sand, of her name, of her use (or lack or) of the word 'the' in her instagram handle.
It’s one post on instagram from a Hollywood actress who had a part on a long-running cable drama and who was pivoting to being a SM influencer and starting to dip her toes into being a philanthropist who then met and married a Prince from the UK. Who be came one of the most famous women in the world, literally overnight, and who also then started setting out her narrative to the world. Who immediately started to sport a wardrobe of couture clothing (starting with her engagement photoshoot) and a lifestyle based around holidays (18 in her 18 months in the Royal Family), private jets, getaways in New York hotel suits and borrowed celebrity villas… and the occasional royal engagement.
Who appears to have bullied her staff, and started collaborating directly with a friendly journalist to settle some scores she had held for a while against her family and others. And then lied in Court about that.
Who 18 months later stood in a country of immense deprivation and told the world she was surviving, not thriving, and complaining that no-one had asked her if she was okay.
Who released her and her husband’s manifesto for a “progressive new role” within the royal family just a couple of months’ later that was focussed on giving them the ability to monetise their royal roles, something that the couple griped they were currently prohibited from doing.
Who when told “no” to that then went on a multi-year, multi-project smear campaign against their former family, using every platform available to them to call them cold, unfeeling, racist, unwilling to help Meghan, collaborators with the press against Meghan and Harry, bad parents and far far more. (Many of the allegations were things we knew Meghan and Harry had done themselves, by the way). In the meantime, Meghan was also painting herself as exceptional, adored and saint-like (in, amongst other things, Finding Freedom which she directly contributed to, their Netflix documentary - the pilot of the plane knelt down and thanked her for her service, remember - and articles about her - in The Cut she told the world that someone had told her people rejoiced in the streets of South Africa when she married). She paid a lot of money to PR firms to keep her name in the press and for her and Harry to be awarded spurious awards - for fighting racism in the Royal family, anyone? Something Harry had already walked back…
Who entered into multi-million pounds creative contracts from Netflix and Spotify despite having no experience and produced very little that drew a genuine audience, and who had the dubious pleasure of being dubbed “f**ing grifters” by one of the executives who had worked for them. Not to mention launched a lifestyle brand last year and then did precisely nothing about it. And who found that the Hollywood industry insider press reporting that the bullying of staff seemed to have been carried over in their new endeavours.
So please don’t pretend “one post on instagram” doesn’t bring with it several years now of hubris, ego and outrageous behaviour. Meghan’s supporters may have the memory of a goldfish, but please credit the rest of us with a working recall.