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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Sami Quadri

Piers Morgan sparks Twitter storm by accusing Meghan Markle of ‘abusing royal status’ after ‘mud-slinging’ interview

Piers Morgan has accused Meghan Markle of an “outrageous abuse of royal status” following her controversial “mud-slinging” interview.

In an interview with American magazine The Cut, Meghan, 41, took a new swipe at the Royal Family, claiming she and Prince Harry left Britain because “just by existing” they were “upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy”.

Meghan also claimed Harry, 37, had told her: “I lost my dad in the process”.

But Morgan, 57, has condemned the Duchess over what he called “fork-tongued” comments.

The broadcaster wrote on Twitter: “How much more fork-tongued mud-slinging crap are the Royals going to take from Princess Pinocchio before the Queen strips her and her halfwit doormat husband of the titles they are exploiting so cynically to the highest bidders?

“It’s such an outrageous abuse of royal status.”

However, some people accused Morgan of having a “personal vendetta” against Meghan and urged him to “sober up” on the topic.

One wrote: “Your virulent attacks towards the duchess will not make the RF look better. You need to sober up while on this topic.

“You often sound subjective as if you have a personal vendetta against her.”

The Duchess of Sussex told the magazine that while they were living in Britain, she and Harry felt they were being criticised for their tax-payer funded lifestyle.

They had, she said, suggested to Buckingham Palace that they carry on as working royals in a Commonwealth country, such as New Zealand or Canada, but earn their own money. Meghan said: “Then maybe all the noise would stop.”

Piers Morgan (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Archive)

She said such a move was not “reinventing the wheel”, claiming a “handful of princes and princesses and dukes” already had the “very arrangement” the couple wanted.

But Meghan added: “That, for whatever reason, is not something that we were allowed to do." She continued: "So we go, ‘OK, fine, let’s get out of here. Happy to’.”

The couple left and set up home in the US in 2020.

In the article, Meghan was questioned about her relationship with her estranged dad Thomas Markle, 78.

The former Suits actress said she believed the media had played a role in the breakdown of their relationship and suggested Harry was estranged from Prince Charles. She said: “Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process’. It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision.”

Meghan’s favoured author, Omid Scobie, who wrote the pro-Sussex book Finding Freedom, last night claimed there had been “some confusion” about the quote.

Scobie said: “I understand that Prince Harry is actually referring to Meghan’s loss of her own father, and Meghan is saying she doesn’t want Harry to lose his.”

The article also suggests Harry himself took a dig at his family when discussing how he and Meghan worked closely together on their Archewell organisation.

Harry told the interviewer: “Most people that I know and many of my family, they aren’t able to work and live together.”

The magazine said he enunciates “family” with “a vocal eye roll”.

Meghan also took aim at the British media, alleging that they had called her children the “N-word”.

Telling how she hated having to share her family photos through the “royal rota”, a media pool used by worldwide publications, she said: “Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child?

“You tell me how that makes sense, and then I’ll play that game.”

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