Meghan and Harry's One Time U.K. TV Ally Says They Should 'Shut Up'

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were told "why don't you both just shut up" by a TV presenter who once took on one of their U.K. media rivals.

Philip Schofield, co-host on ITV's This Morning, said Queen Elizabeth II had been "dignified her entire life" during a segment alongside former U.K. lawmaker Gyles Brandreth and Daily Telegraph associate editor Camilla Tominey.

His comments on September 6 came after Meghan gave a speech at the One Young World Summit, in Manchester, the day before.

Quoted by Yahoo! News, Schofield said: "I mean the Queen is 96 years old, dignified her entire life, now having to cope with this."

He added: "There have been rumors that she and the Prince of Wales [heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles] are 'bewildered.'

"By what they are saying, and we've been very sympathetic and then sometimes we've been critical, but then you look at it and think 'oh, why don't you both just shut up'."

Joining the presenter and co-host Holly Willoughby was seasoned royal correspondent Tominey, who wrote the now famous story in the Telegraph suggesting Meghan made Kate Middleton cry.

Meghan disputed the story in her Oprah Winfrey interview in March 2021, saying "the reverse happened" and that in fact she had cried and Kate had apologized.

In the aftermath, Schofield and Willoughby confronted Tominey about the story, presenting Meghan's case to her.

Tominey said: "I don't write things that I don't believe to be true and that haven't been really well sourced.

"What's interesting about them coming out with that now is, obviously I'm well known for doing royal coverage so at any point in time when we had published that I would have expected to have received a phone call saying it's wrong or it's misconstrued, this mustn't be reported again. I don't know, you'd even expect editorial compliance to be involved. That never happened."

Schofield replied: "I've gotta say though, that's all addressed in that interview isn't it? Because they said that she couldn't understand why nobody stood up for her. Nobody phoned up and said 'that's not true' to you guys."

The more recent This Morning segment was not all critical and Willoughby also stood up for Meghan following a comment about the price of her outfit.

TV personality Vanessa Feltz, a household name in Britain, said: "There's just a girl in a $4,000 Valentino outfit, she's not just a humble girl from Suits!"

Willoughby replied: "I don't like it, it's unfair, I wonder how much Harry's suit was? Do you know what I mean? I bet it's not off the rack either, I'm just saying I think it's unfair to talk about her outfit."

Schofield added: "But she will be criticized for anything she does no matter what she does, I have that feeling."

The exchanges show how public criticism of the Sussexes in Britain has become pervasive to the point that even those who defend them are often also willing to criticize them.

Data from pollster YouGov in the second quarter of 2022 gave Meghan a net approval rating of -22 and Harry of -7 among the British public.

Meghan told Oprah that Kate apologized with flowers and a note after an argument at a dress fitting for the flower girl bridesmaids days before her May 2018 royal wedding to Prince Harry.

She said: "A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining—yes, the issue was correct—about flower-girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings.

"And I thought, in the context of everything else that was going on in those days leading to the wedding, that it didn't make sense to not be just doing whatever everyone else was doing, which was trying to be supportive, knowing what was going on with my dad and whatnot."