Meghan Markle has been criticised for using her children to promote her brand. The criticism follows her decision to pull out of a joint speech about online safety with Prince Harry in Brussels.
Withdrawal from Brussels Speech
On Tuesday, November 10, Meghan was due to deliver a joint speech with Prince Harry in Brussels on the topic of online safety. However, in the wake of her father's arrest, Meghan pulled out because she "didn't feel emotionally strong enough".
Last week, Meghan's father, Thomas Markle Snr, was arrested and charged with possessing thousands of indecent images of children. He attended court in Tampa, Florida, and has denied the allegations.
Criticism from Media Figures
Discussing the developments on News 24, The Mail on Sunday Editor at Large Charlotte Griffiths stated that while she understood why Meghan could not go through with the speech, it would have been "hypocritical" for her to do so. Charlotte claimed this is because the Duchess of Sussex has "used" her two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, to sell products for her brand, As Ever.
"Well, it's about child online safety. I mean, how could she possibly go and do a speech really knowing what she does," she told News24 host Samara Gill. "I just can't imagine standing on stage and preaching about child safety."
"There's another side note, which is before all of this. It was a little bit hypocritical of her to go on and talk about online child safety when she has been using her children to sell products for her brand and sell her brand," Charlotte continued. "However, she's always been cautious not to show their faces, and we've always kind of wondered why because she's gone so far almost to showing their faces and then hasn't. And of course, now we know um it's because she was trying to shield their faces from her father."
Further Reactions and PR Move Claims
Samara was less sympathetic in her assessment, issuing a scathing verdict of the mother-of-two. "She's shown so many different angles of her children's faces, just not the full thing. If you're a proper crazy person, you could probably piece them together and figure out what they look like," the TV host said. "I think she hasn't been that great with protecting their own safety. And I agree. I always thought that it was quite a hypocritical cause for her to get behind just because, as you said, she broadcast the children's lives out there."
Samara went on to describe Meghan as her own biggest paparazzi, insisting everything she has seen about Archie and Lilibet has come through the former actress's Instagram. "I didn't really understand why they would get behind that. It just doesn't look great," she argued.
The pair also discussed Meghan's recent appointment as a co-host of Junior MasterChef Australia, which Charlotte suggested was "deliberately timed" after the initial allegations about Thomas Snr came to light. Charlotte mused: "That was almost deliberately timed. I think it was a couple of days or 24 hours after the first reports came out about her father. And I think that was her trying to do a PR move to almost say, 'Look, I'm safe with children.' I know that sounds obvious, but I feel like that was her strategy. Like, 'I'm not my father. Look, I'm a mum. I can do Junior MasterChef.' But it backfired massively because people felt like she was almost using Junior MasterChef to distract away from these terrible allegations."
