When Meghan Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, sat down with Oprah Winfrey for one of the most explosive interviews of the decade, she was asked if Buckingham Palace had tried to silence her.
She gave a shocking answer.
Markle shared: “That’s the sad irony of the last four years. I’ve advocated for so long for women to use their voice, and then, I was silent.”
Oprah asked: “Were you silent, or were you silenced?” Markle responded by: “The latter.”
During the period that she was a working royal, Markle, who had been sharing her truth since she was a child, was asked to remain silent like Queen Elizabeth and the other royals.
At the age of 11, Markle, a young activist, called out Procter & Gamble after the company released a sexist ad and wrote a poignant letter to Hillary Clinton asking that women be respected.
Markle grew up to be a proud liberated female activist and Democrat who never had to hold back when she was defending causes that are near and dear to her heart, such as women’s rights.
Markle, who loves to make waves, was a fish out of water when she entered the British royal family — where the rule of thumb is dignified silence.
Members of the royal family, including Queen Elizabeth and the heirs to the throne, Prince Charles and Prince William, are not permitted to engage in political issues. They cannot vote during elections. They cannot weigh in on social matters that are affecting the world.
They are not allowed to defend themselves when the media prints inaccuracies about them or their spouses.
Now that Markle has liberated herself from the royal’s rules and she is free to speak her mind — she has been doing just that.
Since “Megxit,” Prince Harry and his wife have rattled the Firm by engaging on controversial topics, including the American presidential election, police brutality, and racism.
They have called for vaccine equality, and Markle has reached out to several high-profile politicians, Republicans, and Democrats, to push for paid leave for working women.
And her latest announcement confirms that she is just getting started. Like Michelle Obama, Meghan Markle, who is rumored to be very curious about becoming president, will launch Archetypes, a podcast this summer where she will voice her opinion and rattle feathers.
She shared the announcement earlier today where she explained that she plans to tackle topics that focus on women.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, with the support of Prince Harry, has announced: “This is ‘Archetypes’ — the podcast where we dissect, explore and subvert the labels that try to hold women back. This is how we talk about women: the words that raise our girls and how the media reflects women back to us. But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up in defining our lives?”
Markle is set to interview historians and experts to “uncover the origin of these stereotypes and have uncensored conversations with women who know all too well how these typecasts shape narratives.”
Days prior, a royal expert and author went after Markle and her husband for talking too much and not following in Queen Elizabeth’s footsteps.
She reminded the world that after 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth has not done any interviews and has not shared her opinion on much.
Daniela Elser said the Queen has mastered the power of silence, and Prince Harry and Markle should learn to do the same.
In a piece for news.com.au, she wrote: “If there is one lesson Her Majesty can teach us, besides why every woman, monarch or not should buy Hermes scarfs in bulk, it is the power of silence. And if ever there has been a time in royal history when the 95-year-old has put that philosophy into blistering effect it has been over the last 365-days and change.”
The royal commentator said this about the controversial Oprah interview and praised Her Majesty for never responding: “What is fascinating is that at each of these junctures, when the Queen and co. came in for a fresh round of damaging headlines, they did not put out statements refuting Harry’s claims point-by-point or push back against the victim narrative being furiously peddled by the Montecito Two. Instead, their lips stayed entirely zipped. At the time, it seemed like the palace was being woefully shortsighted, clinging to their time-honored modus operandi of impervious silence, rigidly refusing to engage or considering doing things differently in the face of even this unprecedented mess. However, with the benefit of hindsight, that has proven to be a shrewd approach to a febrile situation.”
It seems clear that Markle has chosen a different route.
