In May 2018, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding kicked off a new wave of royal fever.
Since then, their every move has been ruthlessly picked apart by the press, with several media
outlets calling them "hypocrites."
Here are some of the most dramatic examples.
Do Harry and Meghan genuinely care about the environment?
"Eliminate plastics.
Conserve water.
Protect wildlife and their unique habitats."
Prince Harry has often talked about how we all need to reduce our carbon footprint, releasing
a statement in June 2019 that read in part:
"With nearly 7.7 billion people inhabiting this Earth, every choice, every footprint,
every action makes a difference.”
So when it was revealed that the royal couple had taken four private flights in just 11
days in August 2019, the press had a field day.
"A lot of people have labeled them hypocrites."
According to the Independent, the Sussexes flew to Nice for a getaway with baby Archie
just days after celebrating Markle's 38th birthday on the island of Ibiza.
And they reportedly traveled on private jets for both trips.
According to the Mirror, the Ibiza vacation is estimated to have dumped 12.5 tons of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere.
Ken Wharfe, a former bodyguard to Harry's late mother Princess Diana, told the Mirror:
"Harry can't be preaching about the catastrophic effects of climate change while jetting around
the world on a private plane."
While in Nice, the royals reportedly stayed at Sir Elton John's multi-million dollar hilltop
villa.
The "Rocket Man" singer was quick to defend the royal couple on Instagram, posting:
"To support Prince Harry’s commitment to the environment, we ensured their flight was
carbon neutral, by making the appropriate contribution to [sustainability consultancy
company] Carbon Footprint."
Meanwhile, several celebrities leapt to the royal couple's defense, with talk show host
and comedian Ellen DeGeneres tweeting:
"Imagine being attacked for everything you do, when all you’re trying to do is make
the world better."
In February 2019, Meghan Markle returned to the States for her baby shower, spending five
days in New York City.
According to the Daily Mail, she opted to make the six-hour journey across the Atlantic
in a private jet rather than a commercial flight.
All in all, the trip reportedly cost $500,000.
I did find it to be tacky.
I found it to be very Kardashian-style, glitzy, glamorous."
As one angry Twitter user wrote:
"That trip cost half a million.
No wonder there are anti-royalists out there when we've got thousands of homeless people
on our streets."
Another angry tweet read:
"The obscene cost of this 5 day trip is utter hypocrisy.
Not to mention the carbon footprint of taking a private jet"
These concerns were echoed by a Friends of the Earth spokesman, who told MailOnline:
"Private air travel obviously comes with a huge carbon footprint.
Perhaps for future trips the Duchess could consider less carbon intensive modes of travel.
We invite her to set a good climate trend by flying less."
Of course, every pregnant woman deserves a baby shower.
But some people didn't like the idea of Markle partying the night away in the Penthouse Suite
of the five-star Mark Hotel.
The room reportedly costs $75,000 dollars a night, according to the Daily Mail.
Meghan Markle wasn't the first royal to guest-edit a magazine, but the fact that she was taking
charge of the September 2019 issue of British Vogue certainly rankled some members of the
press.
British Vogue's editor-in-chief Edward Enninful was certainly excited about the coup:
"Meghan, with this issue, wanted to, sort of, put across these incredible changemakers
- these women who are changing the world today."
Not everyone was having it, though.
The Yorkshire Post's Jayne Dowle wrote:
"It is the sense of entitlement - and now, more seriously, the hypocrisy - which is getting
out of hand.
[...] Can this really be the same woman who refused, in concordance with her husband presumably,
to reveal details of where her son was born - and then baby Archie's godparents following
the baby's christening?"
In recent years, TV personality Piers Morgan has been incredible vocal in criticizing Prince
Harry and Meghan Markle - particularly the latter.
"Is Meghan really 'fake' and 'a piece of work' as I know you've said before?"
"You know what, I"m sorry to have to say this, but I'm afraid I think she is."
After learning that Markle had spent seven months editing her Vogue issue, Morgan penned
a column for the Daily Mail.
He was particularly annoyed that the issue would be tackling the notion of "privilege,"
writing:
"I'm sure the one thing we all need most in the world right now is a fabulously rich and
entitled princess lecturing us on privilege from her servant-laden royal quarters."
Meanwhile, the headline for that piece referred to Markle's guest-editing gig as:
"Me-Me-Meghan Markle's shamelessly hypocritical super-woke Vogue stunt"
Quite the mo-mo-mouthful, isn't it?
Wimbledon is one of the biggest sporting events in the British calendar - a famous tennis
tournament attended by countless photographers.
Well, when she showed up to the event in 2019, Meghan Markle clearly didn't want to be photographed:
Security explained that she was there in a, quote, "private capacity."
That didn't go down well with some members of the British press.
In a scathing piece for The Telegraph, media consultant Sally Jones wrote:
"No wonder there is a growing tide of resentment against the Sussexes for their secretive,
high maintenance attitude and diva-ish demands for privacy when it suits them."
Jones subsequently visited Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, and you can imagine
how that went down:
"I'm not a big fan of Miss Markle and I'm particularly not a big fan of the way that
she and Prince Harry appear to want their cake and eat it on privacy."
Elsewhere in the segment, Morgan said:
"It's frankly hypocritical and they're not private people, they're the Duke and Duchess
of Sussex.
If you want to be private, go back to America and live privately.
It's pretty straightforward."
Sometimes it really seems like the British press is out to get Prince Harry and Meghan
Markle.
In January 2019, the Daily Mail's Tom Leonard blasted Markle for serving avocado on toast
to one of her guests.
The trouble began when a friend of Markle's posted an Instagram photo of their breakfast
together, captioning it:
"Thank you Meghan for being the consummate hostess this weekend and still being the #avocadotoast
whisperer, YUM!"
In his Daily Mail story, Leonard wrote:
"The campaigning duchess may be passionate when it comes to racial equality and female
empowerment, but for someone who wants to save the planet, she's committed something
of a faux pas with avocados."
He goes on to explain:
"The fact is that rampant avocado production in the Third World has been linked with water
shortages, human rights abuses, illegal deforestation, ecosystem destruction and general environmental
devastation."
Omid Scobie, a royal contributor for ABC News, was clearly amused by the brouhaha.
He tweeted:
"That avocado toast pic really triggered some people huh"
It most certainly did.
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