Regardless of anyone’s personal thoughts about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, it can’t really be disputed that the royals have taken a lot of flak from the public. This has been especially true in the years since they left their positions as working members of the royal family in 2020, and moved to the United States. From everything like whether or not they actually still use their HRH titles to the kind of cookware Markle showed off on With Love, Meghan, people have lots of opinions about everything the duo does. Now, the former Suits talent has opened up about advice she got from Serena Williams to handle all the negative talk surrounding her.
What Advice Did Meghan Markle Get From Serena Williams About Handling Public Negativity?
One of the reasons that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the royal family and U.K. behind was because of the bullying they say Meghan Markle got from the press and the public in Prince Harry’s home country. She’s noted previously that the treatment was the worst when she was pregnant, but all of it led to their revealing docuseries, Harry & Meghan (which you can watch with your Netflix subscription), and the prince’s memoir, Spare, that made additional allegations about what they went through before relocating.
For a recent appearance on the Aspire with Emma Grede podcast, the conversation turned to the overwhelmingly negative things that continue to be said about Markle online, and the host asked if she would ever want to “rewrite your public narrative” because of thinking “leave me alone” and getting “angry” about all of the flak she receives. The As Ever entrepreneur answered:
Yes. I would ask people to tell the truth. Of course, I’ve gone through those chapters and do a lot of self-work. I go, ‘What’s the why?’ It’s happening for a reason. My dear friend, Serena, she said to me, ‘A lie can’t live forever.’ Eight years is a long time, but it’s not forever.
Tennis superstar/businesswoman Serena Williams has been in the public eye for a lot longer than Markle has, and she’s also had to deal with people saying a lot of things about her that she doesn’t like, including one time when Williams forced a reporter to apologize to her. The two famous ladies have been buddies for a long time, so it makes plenty of sense that the trolling Super Bowl LIX dancer would have good advice in this area for her friend.
I’m sure it’s difficult to deal with so much flak coming from so many different areas at all times, but there will come a point where either the truth of a situation comes out or people simply don’t care about what happened one way or the other. Markle continued, and spoke about how she balances “owning her own narrative” versus “feeding the frenzy” of negativity:
It’s a fine line, but it’s also setting up boundaries, which I would say to anyone no matter what you’re going through or what your experience has been. You set boundaries of where you’re comfortable. It’s OK to say no, it’s OK to say, ‘I’m not comfortable answering that,’ it’s OK to pivot. And to really get to the place where you don’t feel as though you have to explain yourself. That comes with time, maturity, work, support surrounding you, but also to be authentic. I don’t think there’s any value, either, in being so rehearsed…Just talk.
“Just” talking is something that seems like it would mostly be frowned upon when one is a working royal with a very specific image to uphold at all times, so if nothing else that appears to be a good reason to step away. Now, she and her family just have to continue saying what they want/need to and hope some of their authenticity gets through.
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