Meghan Markle Recalls Bumping Queen Elizabeth Off Front Page—'Not My Fault'

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have accused the monarchy of trying to "put them in a box" because they outshone other royals, including Queen Elizabeth II.

In their Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex describe how they had woken up one morning after the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance in London in 2018 to find Meghan had beaten every other royal family member to the front page of The Daily Telegraph.

Harry said: "First time that the penny dropped for her, M [Meghan] and I spent the night in a room in Buckingham Palace after an event where every single member of the family, senior members of the family, had been including the queen."

Meghan described how "the next morning they'd set up breakfast for Harry and I," before Harry added, "and on the front page of the Telegraph…Meghan."

Meghan said she reacted by saying, "Oh my God," while Harry added, "She was like, 'but it's not my fault.' And I said, 'I know and my mum felt the same way.'"

James Holt, executive director at Archewell and a former palace aide, said: "When some people in the institution around the family started to see that this new couple could destabilize the power dynamics, whether actively talked about or not, the aim was to put them in a box or make them irrelevant."

He added: "All of a sudden these tabloid stories started to appear criticizing Meghan for every little thing."

The documentary suggested that a pivotal moment took place after the Sussexes 2018 tour of Australia and the South Pacific, and accused the media of treating Meghan differently to Kate Middleton.

Harry cited a number of examples, including a story criticizing Meghan for touching her pregnancy bump and one in the Daily Mail with the headline: "How Meghan's favorite avocado snack—beloved of all millennials—is fueling human rights abuses, drought and murder."

The prince said: "You had the bump, the avocados, it's bizarre. And there were maybe like 25 examples. It's literally the same thing. It's the off the shoulder dress. It's the same fruit."

"If you can't see the difference and understand why it's being reported that way, then I can't help you," he said. "I can't, I'm sorry, I just can't."

He accused other stories of "stereotyping" or suggesting an "association to drugs or terrorism."

Abigail Spencer, Meghan's co-star in Suits, told the show: "It was almost like from the wedding and everything they were building Meghan up and then there was a shift and they started to tear her down."

Prince Harry told the documentary: "I have 30 years' experience of looking behind the curtain seeing how the system works and how it runs.

"I mean, just constant briefings about other members of the family, about favors, inviting the press in. It's a dirty game. You know, there's leaking, but there's also planting of stories.

"So if the comms team want to be able to remove a negative story about their principle, they will try and give you something about someone else's principle. So the offices end up working against each other.

"It's kind of this weird understanding or acceptance of what happens. You can always say, 'I didn't know about this,' or 'don't be ridiculous, this would never happen, are you suggesting that I condone this?'

"No, but what I am asking is, have you done anything to stop it? And the answer is 'no.' William and I both saw what happened in our dad's office and we made an agreement that we would never let that happen to our office."