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Author Emily Giffin has unleashed a torrent of insults at Meghan Markle over the video that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared for their son Archie’s birthday on Wednesday.
Prince Harry and Meghan recorded the video as part of the charity campaign #SaveWithStories, which seeks to provide food and learning resources to children affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
In the nearly three-minute clip, Archie sits on his mother’s lap while the two read the children’s book Duck! Rabbit!
But the New York Times bestselling author, writer of Something Borrowed and a self-described royal watcher, had nothing but complaints about Meghan’s part in the video.
In a series of Instagram stories on her page, Giffin introduced the video by writing “Happy birthday, Archie. Go away, Megan,” before linking to the clip.
Throughout the Instagram stories, she misspells the duchess’s first name.
Giffin also shared a screenshot in one Instagram story of a comment she’d written.
“Holy ‘me first.’ This is the Megan show. Why didn’t she film and let Harry read? And why didn’t she take the moment at the end to say ‘he said daddy!’ Because that would make it about Harry for a split second, God forbid,” the author said.
“Also, you want privacy for your child so you put out a video (by your authorised biographer) of him .... wearing no pants?! Ooookay ....” Giffin added.
In a separate text conversation posted to her social media account, Giffin appears to call the Duchess of Sussex “so unmaternal” and a “phony” who is “poorly” playing the part of a mother.
Contrast that with Giffin describing other members of the royal family, including Kate Middleton and Prince William, as a “class act” for wishing Archie a happy birthday:
HuffPost US reached out to Giffin, and on Wednesday evening, her representatives sent over a statement that she’d posted on her Instagram account, which she made public once again:
I enjoy following celebrities and analyzing them with my readers. I post dozens of IG stories a day in a very honest, unfiltered way, as if I’m confiding directly with close friends. Further, I’m very interested in the British monarchy. I always have been. See the link in my bio for an essay I wrote in the days before Meghan and Harry wed. To be clear, I absolutely loved that a biracial, American woman was marrying into the Royal Family. It seemed a wonderful, happy thing for everyone. I celebrated their wedding by hosting a gathering here at my home and posting many, many photos. Further, I was appalled by any signs of racism against her. Over recent months my feelings about BOTH Harry and Meghan changed. But I can say from the bottom of my heart that my criticism of Meghan has never had anything to do with race. Further, I understood why she wanted to leave the monarchy and carve out her own path. I do, however, find fault with the way BOTH she and Harry handled things, and those feelings bled over in later posts, including the ones today. I can see how some of my posts may have felt mean-spirited, and could be construed as having racial undertones. It was not my intent, but I understand that intent and impact are two very different things. And I am truly sorry for that negative impact.
Giffin’s original remarks elicited a strong response on Twitter, to say the very least.
Writer Kaitlin Menza, who was formerly one half of the hit podcast Royally Obsessed, tweeted screenshots from Giffin’s Instagram posts, which were quickly picked up.
Royals reporter Omid Scobie, who is co-writing the much-anticipated book about Harry and Meghan due out later this summer, tweeted in response to Giffin’s comments: “Imagine being this hateful and pathetic.”
Elizabeth Holmes, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and author of the upcoming HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style, added, “Holy shit.”
As news of Giffin’s Instagram stories blew up on Twitter, she turned her Instagram account from public to private, and later to public again.
Giffin had previously said that Meghan “sucks” and that she was no longer a fan of Harry after the two announced their intention to step back as working members of the royal family in January.
“I can’t stand Meghan Markle. There. I said it,” the author declared in screenshots shared on Twitter in January. “And I’m no longer a Harry fan, either. Get over yourselves.”
And when Meghan gave birth to Archie last year, Giffin posted a photo of the queen on Instagram along with the caption, “FACT to keep in mind this week: The only reason the world cares about Meghan Markle’s pregnancy is because of this woman. God save the Queen.”
She also described Harry and Meghan as a “footnote” in history books in a March 2019 Associated Press article about the then-upcoming birth of little Archie, adding that she was more excited for William and Kate’s three children.
“That’s the future,” she said. “They’ll be in the history books. Hundreds of years from now, Harry and Meghan will be a footnote.”
Giffin has also discussed Archie’s given name at length. In a video from last year, the author sounds distressed that the baby’s name didn’t carry any royal significance and that Meghan and Harry didn’t let him have a title.
But two years ago, Giffin wrote a column for Glamour titled Emily Giffin On Why She Unabashedly Loves the Royals—And Always Will, that talked about her excitement over Harry and Meghan’s then-upcoming nuptials, and a timeline biography on Giffin’s website still mentions their relationship positively.
For the year 2017, the timeline says: “Later in the year, Prince Harry’s engagement to Meghan Markle brings happier news, and Emily proceeds to spend the next several months obsessing over anything and everything involving the new royal couple.”