Maren Morris is weighing in. After seeing that Meghan Markle was getting quite a bit of vitriol online following the release of her and husband Prince Harry’s new Netflix documentary series, the 32-year-old country music star came to the Duchess of Sussex’s defense.
In a recent TikTok, Morris revealed that though she hasn’t yet watched Harry & Meghan, she has seen what she feels is a confusing amount of public disdain directed toward the former Suits star following the Dec. 8 release of the docuseries’ first three episodes.
“This profound hatred and annoyance at Meghan Markle specifically — mostly coming from women, I have to say — it’s unfathomable to me,” she said. “People are saying, ‘Oh a woman should never take a man away from his family.’ Have you seen this family?”
She went on to give examples of past royals whose relationship to the British monarchy became strained over romantic relationships, including former King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne in 1936 so that he could marry American socialite and divorcée Wallis Simpson. “[Princess Margaret] did not leave the family, but I kind of wish she had,” Morris continued, referencing the princess’ forbidden love with Peter Townsend, a British Royal Air Force office.
“Apart from Diana, Princess Margaret’s story is one of the saddest,” she added. “And if we talk about Princess Di, she didn’t leave her children, but she left the family.”
Though the final three episodes of Harry & Meghan won’t be released until Dec. 15, the show’s first half has already drawn mounting criticism from viewers. Some were particularly bothered by a scene in which Markle reenacts a moment she awkwardly curtsied for Queen Elizabeth. And NPR London correspondent Frank Langfitt has attributed reviewers’ negative reactions to a perception that Harry & Meghan was “self-indulgent” of the Duke and Duchess to make.
Morris, however, clearly disagrees. “Now, I don’t know these people, and neither do you, but I do have a moderate fascination with the monarchy and the royals,” the 2023 Grammy nominee said, noting that she’d watched Netflix’s The Crown. “But I don’t understand this very specific hatred to Meghan herself. I just don’t — I never have.”
“This all feels very pointed at one woman, as it mostly always has in history,” she concluded.
Watch Maren Morris come to Meghan Markle’s defense below:
