- Duchess of Sussex is part of ‘The Year We All Finally Got Tired of the Narcissists’
- Writer Joanna Weiss claims Markle is similar to Trump, SBF, Kanye and Musk, accusing her of being racist
- However, Megan Markle fans have demanded Politico apologize
Fans of the Duchess of Sussex are demanding Politico apologize for a piece where Meghan Markle was branded a ‘narcissist’ akin to Donald Trump, Kanye West, Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried.
The article, titled ‘2022 Is The Year We All Finally Got Tired of the Narcissists,’ suggests that, for the likes of Markle in 2022: ‘Some of them got their comeuppance and some of them got worse: our disinterest.’
And now some of Markle’s fans are asking for an apology, while deeming writer Joanna Weiss’ piece ‘racist.’
Christopher Bouzy, who appears in the ‘Harry & Meghan’ Netflix documentary, wrote on Twitter that while he believes Trump, Bankman-Fried and Holmes are criminals and West an anti-Semite, Markle’s only offense is having ‘defended herself while being black.’
Bouzy went further, adding: ‘Placing Meghan Markle at the center of criminals and antisemites is not an accident. The hate for Meghan is palpable. A woman of color protecting her family and defending herself isn’t narcissism; it’s survival.’
He’s quoted in the Netflix documentary as saying the controversy over the Duke and Duchess is ‘about hatred. It’s about race.’
Bouzy went down the rabbit hole to the point of finding a 2012 tweet by Weiss where she responded to a tweet about having ‘a #RoyalFetus column in your future’ by saying ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about Prince Harry lately.’
The CEO of Bot Sentinel suggested Weiss may be jealous of Meghan’s marriage, saying: ‘These Meghan haters all have something in common. Meghan got the prince, and you must learn to deal with it.’
Another fan of Markle’s tweeted their upset at the piece’s comparison of the royal to disgraced ex-Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes’ schemes:
They said: ‘So let me get this straight, according to Politico a white woman who committed a billion-dollar fraud is exactly like a biracial woman who thought her love story is the best and wanted to tell it to the world.’
Another writer on Twitter added: ‘Not you putting Meghan Markle at the center of a piece about criminals, white supremacists, and racists simply because you don’t like her. Very sad, desperate behaviour. Embarrassing for you. What a sad little life Joanna.’
One more tweeter noted that ‘one of these things is not like the other,’ alluding to the remainder of the ‘narcissists’ criticized by Weiss being white.
Journalist Victoria Bronworth tweeted: ‘How on earth is Meghan Markle grouped with the likes of criminals, racists and anti-Semites? @politico claiming Meghan is a narcissist for speaking out about the unbridled racism leveled at her just bolsters her point.’
Ryan Heath, Politico’s Editorial Director, defended the column on Twitter, writing: ‘If you want to write-off an entire publication because one of our 600 journalists included Meghan Markle on a list, you are indeed tired of free debate. If, instead, you actually just disagree with her being included on the list, you can say that instead.’
The Politico writer has yet to respond publicly to the uproar caused by the piece.
Weiss noted in the piece she’s drawn to the likes of Markle and Prince Harry, but that the couple’s Netflix documentary ‘Harry and Meghan’ turned her against them.
She writes: ‘My natural sympathy for the couple started turning to irritation, and it occurred to me that ego has its limits. And it struck me that the overreach that led to the Sussexes’ critically panned mega-series is the same impulse that turned Elon Musk into a terror on Twitter, that prompted Ye to up the ante of outrageous behavior until he crossed the line into blatant antisemitism, that sent Bankman-Fried from the top of the world to a Bahamian jail.’
Weiss allows that the royal couple have legitimate grievances, however: ‘Even sympathetic critics have groused that there’s little new here, beyond the vanity.’
The piece admits that the Sussexes’ brand of narcissism is more ‘benign’ than the likes of Kanye West, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Sam Bankman-Fried, but that when it gets to the level of those three in particular, it can become dangerous.
Meghan & Harry, directed by Liz Garbus, is the first project to emerge from the multi-year deal the couple signed with the streaming giant back in 2020, shortly after they announced they were stepping down as working members of the royal family.
In September 2020, the couple announced a partnership with Netflix to work on a number of projects including documentaries, docuseries, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programming in collaboration with their company Archewell Productions.
In an official statement at the time, they said: ‘Our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope. As new parents, making inspirational family programming is also important to us.’
They added that Netflix’s ‘unprecedented reach will help [them] share impactful content that unlocks action’.
In July last year, the duchess announced her first project with Netflix, an animated series called Pearl, in which she would take on the roles of creator and executive producer.
But in May this year, Pearl was dropped by the streaming platform as part of a wave of cutbacks prompted by their drop in subscribers.
Daily Mail (UK)