Meghan Markle. The more we see – and inevitably hear of her – the less we like her.
That’s the conclusion of left-wing outlet Politico which has nominated the former Duchess of Sussex amongst its list of 2022 narcissists we could all do with seeing less of.
In a piece by Politico contributing editor Joanna Weiss, Elon Musk, Sam Bankman-Fried, Ye (né Kanye West), Elizabeth Holmes and Donald Trump were all nominated as public figures who “used attention as currency and ego as fuel” as they sought to place themselves at the very center of the public square.
The item came with the headline: “2022 Is the Year We All Finally Got Tired of Narcissists”
Meghan Markle was there amongst them, right alongside her husband Harry. The author of the piece knew exactly when her feelings turned against the pair:
[…] somewhere between the fifth and sixth hour of “Harry and Meghan,” the new Netflix documentary series produced by the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex and filmed at their California mansion — which suggests that there is no one more in love, no one more socially conscious, no one more aggrieved — my natural sympathy for the couple started turning to irritation, and it occurred to me that ego has its limits.
Others were then nominated for inclusion amongst the 2022 narcissists, but the Royals stood as a benchmark of self-regarding mediocrity:
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 went on to examine just what makes “grandiose narcissists,” offering that “They believe they’re the absolute best at what they do. They go to great lengths to protect and defend their egos. They strive to be unique and promote themselves energetically.”
Harry and Meghan adorn that category, after two years of Netflix deals, Oprah interviews, a United Nations address and a reported $20 million advance for Harry’s tell-all memoir, Spare.
So maybe the time has come for the pair to just go away and leave us all alone.
They can give us all a break from the Sussex drama because our patience is fading. Fast.
Read the Politico piece in full here