A recently published exposé about Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, has sparked furore on social media.
Why is ‘voetsek’ Meghan Markle trending on Twitter?
Already faced with mounting pressure from the majority of British media journalists who constantly berate her, Markle found herself on the receiving end of backlash from South Africans who came across an excerpt from Tom Bower’s book, Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors.
The excerpt, taken from Chapter 31 titled Attack, unravels the events that allegedly unfolded in the weeks leading up to Markle and her husband, Prince Harry‘s decision to leave Buckingham Palace to relocate to the United States (US).
According to Bower, figures in the Palace had initially thought the couple would live in South Africa “to develop Harry’s humanitarian programme.”
However, much to their surprise, Bower claims, Markle and Harry had already decided on the move to the US, and the South Africa tour was nothing more than “a branding operation, an opportunity to clarify their objectives.”
The part that drew ire from South Africa’s social media came when, according to Bower, Markle’s spokesperson had, ahead of the trip, “announced that she (Markle) would be wearing cheap, sustainable clothes and would leave her unique engagement ring at home.”
No further context was given to the claims made by Bower, a former BBC investigative journalist whose garnered quite the reputation for writing unauthorised biographies of tycoons and news proprietors over the years.
The claim about Markle’s alleged attitude toward South Africa remains untested, and the Duchess has yet to address most parts of Bower’s book.
She did, however, eloquently discredit some of the writer’s claims when on the first episode of her Spotify podcast, Archetypes, she hosted Grand Slam champion and tennis icon Serena Williams for a conversation about ambition in womanhood.
In his book, Bower claimed that Markle had given Vanity Fair writer Steve Kashner a list of people she referred to as her friends, which included Williams. According to Keshner, however, the tennis icon had categorically dismissed the Duchess’ friendship claim.
The merit of this claim and others made by Bower in his book came crumbling down when, on the first episode of her podcast, Williams explicitly regarded Markle as a friend to whom she is super loyal.
“We’ve been friends for so long. I’m super loyal,” she said after embracing the Duchess.
Still, without any context or deeper understanding, South Africans were triggered by an excerpt. Here are some of the reactions to the” ‘voetsek Meghan Markle'” trend: