Former working royal Meghan Markle has been mocked ever since the release of her new Netflix lifestyle series, “With Love, Meghan,” which dropped on Tuesday.
The TV personality is being criticized for her show being inauthentic, elitist, and out-of-touch, even when interacting with her friends on the eight-episode series. One of the most viral moments comes when Markle firmly corrects her longtime friend, actress Mindy Kaling, insisting that she’s calling her by the wrong name.
“It’s so funny, too, that you keep saying ‘Meghan Markle.’ You know I’m Sussex now,” the “Suits” actress says abruptly at one point. Kaling remains quiet with a serious expression as Markle goes on to explain her reasoning.
“You have kids and you go, ‘No, I share my name with my children.’ And that feels so — I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me. But it just means so much to go, ‘This is our family name, our little family name,’” she went on.
“Well, now I know,” Kaling replied. “And I love it.”
Viewers have been critical of this interaction and of Markle’s decision to use her royal title “Sussex” as a last name, which is a break in tradition for the royal family. Meghan and her husband Prince Harry were given the titles His Royal Highness the Duke and Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex after they wed. But Sussex is a cultural region, not a name. Prince Harry’s actual surname is Mountbatten-Windsor.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement that Meghan and Harry could keep their titles as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but they would no longer be referred to as His and Her Royal Highness after quitting their roles as working royals in 2020.
Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, are now using the last name “Sussex” informally, which is what led Markle to want to do the same.
“She has spent under six hours in the county in her entire lifetime… she’s not a Sussex, she’s a Windsor,” British news anchor Piers Morgan said.
“Her name is NOT Meghan Sussex. Her name is technically Rachel Mountbatten-Windsor,” another commenter observed. “Sussex is a county in England & part of a courtesy title-NOT her last name.”
She continued, noting how the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince William and Kate Middleton, sometimes style their children’s last name in school as Wales to simplify things, but the adults don’t.
“Diana didn’t call herself ‘Diana Wales’ either,” she wrote in an X post. “[Meghan Markle] just showed how ignorant she is of the protocols & customs of the family she married into & no doubt they’re laughing at her. Yes… she shares a last name [with] her kids…but it ain’t Sussex.”
Many other followers pointed out how Markle complained about her name change during the bombshell interview she did with Oprah in 2021. “I grieve a lot. I mean, I’ve lost my father. I lost a baby. I nearly lost my name. I mean, there’s the loss of identity,” she said during that interview. “But I’m still standing, and my hope for people in the takeaway from this is to know that there’s another side.”
