A royal expert has claimed that Meghan Markle bears “no resemblance” to the “villain” she is portrayed as online in a resurfaced interview.
Bryony Gordon, a British journalist who has met and written about the Duchess of Sussex a number of times, appeared on This Morning in April to reflect on some of the claims made by the 44-year-old during her Australian tour that month.
Speaking in Melbourne about the dangers of social media, Meghan confessed that she had been “bullied” every day over the past ten years and that she was “the most trolled person in the world”.
She went on to accuse tech companies of enabling cyberbullying, adding that they are “not incentivised to stop” their platforms from being used to share harmful rhetoric and content.
“That billion-dollar industry, that is completely anchored and predicated on cruelty to get clicks – that’s not going to change,” she said, adding: “So you have to be stronger than that.”
In Gordon’s resurfaced interview, the journalist revealed that she spent “a lot of time” with the royal in 2018, adding: “She was crying on me because of what she was experiencing.”
Referring to Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, Gordon added: “People often say to me, ‘What are they like in real life?’ And I’m like, ‘they’re really nice. They’re normal people.'”
The journalist then revealed Meghan’s heartfelt, three-word admission during a candid conversation eight years ago: “I’m not deluded.”
“What Meghan said to me once is, ‘I don’t expect everyone to like me. I’m not deluded. I don’t want everyone to like me. But there is an element of just be polite.'”
This isn’t the first time Gordon has defended the Duchess and her husband following their exit from the royal family.
Last August, the self-described “friend” of the Sussexes criticised the monarchy’s “ridiculous double standards” towards the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whose links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein have shrouded him in controversy.
“With each sordid allegation, I have become more and more furious that so little was done to help Meghan as she struggled with life in the royal family, while so much was done to protect Prince Andrew,” she wrote in the Daily Mail.
Since leaving the royal family in 2020, Meghan has publicly accused the monarchy of failing to protect her mental health a number of times, including in her 2021 sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey and Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan.
Gordon appeared to dodge allegations of Meghan’s problematic behaviour during her time as a working royal, which included claims of staff bullying, and asserted that the royal’s only crime was a few “5am emails”.
“Somehow, Andrew got away with it for decades, while Meghan was branded ‘Duchess Difficult’ the moment she so much as asked the Queen if she might be able to borrow a tiara for her wedding,” Gordon said.
“Why is it that people will tolerate all manner of misbehaviour from the likes of powerful men like Prince Andrew, but not a woman who, according to critics, has a habit of occasionally emailing her staff at 5am?”