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Meghan Markle once again surprised us all by appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show‘s episode that aired on Thursday, November 18th. The Duchess of Sussex’s interview with the 63-year-old comedian was a lot more light-hearted than the candid Oprah Winfrey one that she and Harry participated in back in March – she even took part in Ellen’s popular recurring sketch whereby she and the celeb play pranks on unsuspecting members of the public.
This time round, Meghan wore an earpiece and, under Ellen’s instructions, pranked some street vendors on the Warner Bros. lot by tasting various hot sauces, referring to herself as “mommy” several times, and even drinking out of a baby bottle. It has to be seen to be believed! It wasn’t all fun and games though, as Meghan and Ellen covered quite a broad range of subjects in the interview. As well as promoting her children’s book, The Bench, which we believe was one of the main reasons she was there, Meghan also once again spoke passionately about paid parental leave in the US, following on from the lengthy letter she wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
"I think that people truly forget, or don't even know that in this country, it's one of the only six countries in the entire world and the only wealthy nation in the entire world that does not mandate and have a federal paid leave program," she told Ellen. "Everybody knows, especially if you have had a child and even if you haven't, you know how hard it is and how critical it is in those first few weeks if not months to be together as a family. And the fact that we don't offer that here is something that now as a mom of two, I will do everything that I can to make sure that we can implement that for people."
Some of the other topics discussed were what Archie and Lilibet dressed up as for Halloween – Archie was apparently a dinosaur, while Lilibet was a "little skunk like Flower from Bambi" – and what life was like for Meghan when she was a struggling actress before landing her role in Suits. She detailed having no money to fix her car (an old Ford Explorer) which had a broken door, and she was forced to park very far away from auditions so no one would see her getting into her car via the trunk.
Her interview was met with mixed reviews, although there seem to be more people in the negative camp rather than the positive camp. At least according to social media, anyway! One Twitter user said: "Meghan popping up on Ellen further proves she never understood the difference between a Royal Member and a celebrity. What an epic fall from the top," while another shared a GIF of Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner exclaiming, "This is ridiculous!" The meme game was strong, with one user sharing a meme of Real Housewives of Orange County star Victoria Gunvalson saying, "You can't fix stupid." Another Twitter user shared a meme of Pumba from The Lion King, singing "Oh the SHAME!" from the popular "Hakuna Matata" song.
And of course, Meghan's biggest fan (not!) Piers Morgan also shared his opinions, saying it was "just incredibly, soul-suckingly excruciating." The 56-year-old British broadcaster added: "This is a senior member of the British Royal Family whose husband Prince Harry is sixth in line to the throne, behaving like a gormless desperate reality TV starlet… even a Kardashian would have deemed that street vendor stunt beneath them and brand-damaging." Ouch!
But the all-important question on everyone's lips is: what does the palace think? According to reports, the palace is just as unenthused as we would expect, with royal experts hinting that many royals aren’t happy with Meghan's appearance. Even more so because it seemingly "overshadowed" the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall's recent trip to Jordan and Egypt. "It is very unfortunate, particularly coming in the middle of an important tour, the first official overseas tour since the pandemic of senior Royals," Royal Expert Jennie Bond reportedly told OK! "It always annoys the palace when other news stories overshadow a tour. So much work goes into these tours so that's unfortunate."
Bond did come to Meghan's defense very briefly to suggest that the timing perhaps was out of her control, but then continued to question why she did the interview in the first place. "She probably didn't have much say in when this was going to go out, but why she did it? I have no idea," Bond added. "It was innocuous stuff, it was starlet stuff. It seems to me that Meghan is no longer Royal, she had a brief interlude of being truly Royal and now she's a celebrity again." We had a feeling that Meghan's interview wouldn’t have gone down well with the royals, and it seems we were right!
