Prince Harry is right – ‘Megxit’ is sexist

Speaking on a panel organised by Wired magazine, Prince Harry dubbed the term “Megxit”, widely employed by the British press to describe the couple’s decision to step back from royal duties, as sexist.

He said: “Maybe people know this and maybe they don’t, but the term Megxit was or is a misogynistic term, and it was created by a troll, amplified by royal correspondents, and it grew and grew and grew into mainstream media.”

Prince Harry is absolutely right. The word “Megxit” in itself is an implication that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to lead a more independent life in California was down to Prince Harry’s wife Meghan Markle. It wasn’t known as “Hexit”, or more mutually as “Sussexit”, was it?

It suggests that Meghan “wears the trousers” in her relationship (something that was implied when she wore actual trousers in the form of an Alexander McQueen suit to the Endeavour Fund Awards in 2018) and Harry is just a helpless poodle who has been dragged across the pond and away from his family by a domineering wife.

“Megxit” feeds into the narrative that Meghan has been the cause of a rift between Harry and his family, something that can perhaps be summed up as the “Yoko Ono effect”. The portrayed influence of Ono on The Beatles absolutely reeked of sexism and racism, and the idea that she was responsible for “breaking up” the band has been burned into the popular psyche.

Like Ono, the Duchess of Sussex is a non-white woman who entered into a relationship with a member of a heavily-scrutinised British institution, and was torn apart for it.

Harry has stated that part of the reason the Sussex’s left was down to the racist treatment of Meghan – a biracial Black woman – by swathes of the UK press. From the very beginning of Harry and Meghan’s relationship, some British tabloids set the tone for how she would be treated and that tone was decidedly racist. One Mail Online headline called Meghan “(almost) straight outta Compton”, while the Daily Star asked if Harry would “marry into gangster royalty?”

The sexist and racist media coverage that has followed Meghan includes the recent breathless and very much unfavourable comparisons to her sister-in-law Kate Middleton, the vilification of Meghan for doing things that Kate is lauded for, and the not-so-subtle inference that white, British Kate is the kind of woman the UK will welcome into the royal family, while Meghan, a woman of colour, an actor and an American, is not.

When Kate ate avocado, it was a cute morning sickness cure, but when Meghan ate avocado, she was fuelling human rights abuses, drought and murder. When Kate cradled her baby bump, it was “tender” but when Meghan touched hers, it was suggested to be “pride, vanity, acting” and “virtue signalling”.

Although the Duchess of Cambridge did face some tabloid criticism and scrutiny before her marriage to Prince William, it did not have the ugly, racist thread running through it that Meghan’s coverage is rotten with. Kate quickly became a press darling who could do no wrong, and the tabloids set her up as Meghan’s opposite, heaping praise on her choices and behaviour, while Meghan was reviled.

A survey of journalists by Press Gazette found that 50 per cent had seen coverage of Meghan that they believe was “racist in tone or presentation”, while 11 per cent said they “did not know” if the coverage was racist. Perhaps the remaining 39 per cent hadn’t understood the question.

The treatment of Meghan by certain media outlets has been so nasty, so pervasive and so steeped in toxic misogynoir that it should have come as a surprise to no one that the Sussexes decided to relocate outside the UK. Meghan’s brave admission that she had considered ending her life because of the relentless media attacks and lack of palace support in the March interview with Oprah clearly demonstrates the serious and damaging impact this had on her mental health.

Harry already took a dim view of the tabloid press after the treatment of his mother, Diana Princess of Wales, and on Tuesday, said: “I learned from a very early age that the incentives of publishing are not necessarily aligned with the incentives of truth.

“I know the story all too well. I lost my mother to this self-manufactured rabidness, and obviously I’m determined not to lose the mother to my children to the same thing.”

But of course, for the Twitter users who enjoy attacking Meghan, this decision to leave the UK was Meghan’s fault – it was “Megxit”. It’s not too much of a leap to ascertain that the coordinated Twitter hate campaign that the Sussexes have endured – most of which was directed at Meghan – was fuelled by the outrageous conduct of sections of the British press.

Speaking to people who express personal dislike of Meghan, some are confused as to exactly why they’re not keen on her – but it always seems to boil down to consuming a constant drip-feed of snide negativity in the media.

Yes, “Megxit” is a sexist term, born out of the press’ blatantly misogynistic and racist treatment of Meghan, and then gleefully adopted by the very same media organisations. “Megxit” is the snake of racism and sexism devouring its own tail.