Since Megxit and her move across the Atlantic with Harry and Archie, Meghan Markle has enjoyed a new freedom of speech that now allows her to engage politically.
It has now been a few months since Meghan Markle and Harry – still very close to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip – are officially no longer considered members of the royal family.
The couple, who live with their child Archie in Los Angeles, now enjoy a whole new freedom. Although they have become (almost) financially independent, they can now also take a stand on political issues. This is something they were not allowed to do when they were part of the Crown.
For example, Meghan Markle would never have been allowed to deliver her speech condemning racism and thus the death of African-American George Floyd during a police stop, as Dickie Arbiter, who was for a time in charge of the Queen’s press relations at Newsweek, points out.
The Black Live Matter movement is an American societal problem “and does not entitle any other head of state to express an opinion” on it. “If Meghan and Harry were still in the United Kingdom and active members of the royal family, this speech could not have happened…It’s very politicized…She expressed opinions on the internal affairs of another country. I don’t think the Queen should say anything,” he said.
“I remember seeing men in the back of a van with guns in their hands.
After a long period of silence, Meghan Markle – who called herself “devastated” – finally reacted to George Floyd’s death on May 25 in a poignant video: “I wasn’t sure what I could tell you.
I wanted to find the right words … And I realized that the only bad thing to say is to say nothing,” she said before recalling the 1992 Los Angeles riots after Rodney King’s beating. “I was 11 or 12 years old at the time of those riots that were started by a racist act … I remember the curfew and I remember rushing home and on the way home I saw ashes falling from the sky, I smelled smoke … I remember seeing men in the back of a van holding guns,” she said.
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