![\"Meghan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/c2c9a4296ab9eb99f9123d641c0613671f176ae9.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nWearing a poppy is a duty tied to a role she revoked. Meghan gave up trying to be British long ago and reverted to who she is: a cringey enthusiastic American keen to be centre stage.<\/p>\n
The real bind: Meghan can\u2019t win either way. The game is rigged.<\/p>\n
For mine, she showed grace not pulling poppy focus in a week when the Princess of Wales laid her first Remembrance Day wreath. The showgirl ceded the limelight. Smart.<\/p>\n
Had she jaunted off to Jenner HQ sporting a poppy, bet you my house, super and annual lemon crop she would have been called a hypocrite.<\/p>\n
Sidenote: for those of you thinking, \u201cshe still uses her duchess title, she can\u2019t have it both ways\u201d, I get it. I have wrestled with that too.<\/p>\n
And I have concluded titles are legal names. Meghan ditched a job and lifestyle, she didn\u2019t go into witness protection. The title is hers. Keeping it doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s clocked on for royal service any more than keeping your ex-husband\u2019s surname means you\u2019re still washing his jocks.<\/p>\n
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Meghan gave up trying to be British long ago. She is an enthusiastic American keen to be centre stage.Credit: AP<\/p>\n
The more interesting story, btw, is seeing Harry and Meghan in their new social metier. The pics of her at a momager\u2019s party with people who sell undies and bronzer were ace. See ya tiaras and protocol and ruling classes, let\u2019s do tequila shots with reality TV royalty. Love.<\/p>\n
But those pics were removed from Kardashian Insta accounts \u2013 reportedly at the Sussexes\u2019 request \u2013 because they knew what they should really be worried about. The optics of partying with Oprah and Jeff Bezos while William toils away at rebuilding the brand after the Andrew scandal and Harry angles for a way back into the fold. That\u2019s a problem. Meghan\u2019s lapel isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
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What really gets up my nose about the latest snarking is Meghan\u2019s sartorial choice wasn\u2019t read as \u201cwoman goes to party unadorned\u201d. It was, \u201cex-royal continues to refuse lifelong unpaid emotional labour for Britain\u201d.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the expectation, isn\u2019t it? That she\u2019ll spend forever performing symbolic deference to a place and people she explicitly walked away from. Forever on call to show she\u2019s appropriately grateful, reverent and sorry.<\/p>\n
Meghan didn\u2019t disrespect anyone. She didn\u2019t snub veterans. She just didn\u2019t pay lip service to something unrelated to her.<\/p>\n
If someone quits a job, you don\u2019t demand they wear their Coles uniform when they shop. You don\u2019t keep them on the group chat when they\u2019ve left the building.<\/p>\n
Five years later, we\u2019re still acting like Meghan is on the public clock. She\u2019s not.<\/p>\n
Kate Halfpenny is the founder of Bad Mother Media.<\/p>\n