Meghan 'Did What She Felt She Had to' in Uvalde Despite 'Cynical' Critics

Meghan Markle "did what she felt she had to" in traveling to Uvalde, Texas following the shooting at Robb Elementary School which saw 19 children and two teachers lose their lives, a royal commentator told Newsweek.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said that the duchess' "expression of personal sorrow" was marked with the "paying of respects" on Thursday when she was photographed laying flowers at a memorial to the victims outside the Uvalde County Courthouse.

On May 24, 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos opened fire in Robb Elementary School, killing 21 before police officers intervened and shot and killed Ramos.

The attack is the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since a shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School killed 26 people in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012. In 2018, a shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida killed 17.

A spokesperson for Meghan told Newsweek that the duchess made her visit to Uvalde in a personal capacity "as a mother," seeking to offer her support to the community which is experiencing "unimaginable grief."

Shortly before laying flowers at the memorial, Meghan was seen visiting the Herby Ham Activity Center to deliver parcels of food to volunteers who were working on an emergency blood drive to support the local hospital, according to Buzzfeed.

Though Meghan did not announce her visit to Uvalde beforehand, the fact that she was photographed by press photographers has seen her subjected to criticism online.

Some have accused Meghan of using the tragedy as a PR stunt to raise her profile, with Prince Harry biographer Angela Levin taking to British television to call the appearance "the most appalling thing I've ever seen actually. That someone could use dead children to show what a compassionate person she is."

Fitzwilliams does not agree, stating that no link could be drawn between the private visit and an image-conscious move or politicization of the tragedy.

"I don't see any link between the Duchess' appearance at Uvalde and politics," he told Newsweek. "She did what she felt she had to do after a ghastly atrocity, leaving white roses at a memorial for the victims."

He continued to state that cynicism behind speculation of ulterior motives behind the visit was "tasteless."

"Given the horror of the event," he said, "it Is tasteless to imply that, by paying her respects as a mother, she is doing anything other than expressing personal sorrow at what happened and sympathy for the bereaved."

Ian Lloyd, author of The Queen: 70 Chapters in the Life of Elizabeth II, told Newsweek that Meghan's critics' reducing the visit to something as base as a "photo op" was "inevitable."

"While Meghan's admirers will applaud her gesture," he said, "her critics will inevitably see it as a cynical photo-op, trying to improve her image which will undoubtedly be damaged," before going on to reference the harm that could be done to the royal's public standing should her father, who has reportedly been hospitalized following a stroke, deteriorate before the pair have reconciled.

Meghan and her father, Thomas Markle, have been estranged since 2018 and over the following years, he has made repeated comments about his daughter to the press.

Markle was due to fly to Britain at the invitation of a news channel to mark the queen's Platinum Jubilee next month before he had the stroke.

Commentators such as panel show host Sharon Osbourne have objected to Meghan traveling to Uvalde and not to her father's bedside.

Speaking on TalkTV's The Talk, Osbourne said: "it would be better for her to go to get whatever hostilities she has about her father, to get it out and put it all to rest," she said.

While some social media users have criticized Meghan for her visit to the memorial, others see it as a continuation of royal duty and tradition in addition to being a natural showing of human empathy.

Lloyd told Newsweek there are examples of both the queen and Kate Middleton making similar gestures:

'It reminds me of when the Queen laid flowers after the similar school massacre at Dunblane in the 1990s," he said, "and also of Kate making an unannounced visit to lay flowers following the murder of Sarah Everard, the marketing executive who was slain while walking on Clapham Common in March 2021."

In the wake of some of the negative reactions to Meghan's visit, Twitter users drew comparisons between the positive way in which Kate's 2021 tribute was received and Meghan's.

The Daily Telegraph's arts and entertainment editor Anita Singh posted: "All the people having a go at Meghan for visiting the Texas school memorial were just as angry about Kate going to the Sarah Everard vigil, right? Just checking."

Meghan is due to return to Britain for the first time publicly next month since stepping down as a full-time working royal in 2020 and the broadcast of her landmark interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.

In a statement released to Newsweek via a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan they said:

"Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are excited and honored to attend The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations this June with their children."