Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, née Meghan Markle, used an International Women’s Day event that she and husband Harry, Duke of Sussex, hope their baby will be a feminist.
“I’d seen this documentary on Netflix on feminism and one of the things they said during pregnancy was, ‘I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism’,” the American divorcee, 37, told her audience at the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust event, hosted by King’s College London.
“I loved that — boy or girl, whatever it is, we hope that’s the case, our little bump,” added the former Suits actress.
The Duchess — also known as the Countess of Dunbarton in Scotland, and Baroness Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland — was enthusiastically embraced by the left-liberal commentariat, many of whom regarded the entry of a mixed race woman to the Royal Family as a totemic symbol of social progress.
However, her past political activism against, for example, U.S. President Donald Trump, and her continued interventions on hot topics such as feminism, have raised eyebrows among critics who regard them as incompatible with her official role.
Britain’s royals have traditionally kept their political and ideological views to themselves, partly to help them serve their customary role as representatives for the whole nation; partly because there is a constitutional expectation — arguably an obligation — that they remain neutral and above the fray of day-to-day politics and political debate.
Husband Harry, younger son of heir to the throne Charles, Prince of Wales, was once considered something of a black sheep himself, and like the Queen’s husband Prince Philip — his grandfather — prone to the occasional politically incorrect gaffe.
He ultimately won the public’s respect for his frontline service in Afghanistan, however, earning plaudits from an American officer who described him as “in the thick of the fighting… the real deal,” and subsequent work with the wounded veterans with the Invictus Games.
Since his courtship with his left-liberal wife began, however, things have changed, with his relationship with older brother Willian and sister-in-law Kate allegedly becoming strained, and one correspondent warning the prince should be careful not to “turn himself into some celebrity” who people will “tire of”.
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