US Republicans have suggested that Meghan Markle “stick to acting” instead of “trying to play politics”, reported the Daily Mail.
Furthermore, after her lobbying “intervention” on Thursday urging American politicians to bring in paid parental leave as a “national right”, some members of the GOP have wondered why the royal family doesn’t simply strip her of her Duchess of Sussex title.
“Ms. Markle's latest interference in US politics reignites the question in my mind as to why the Royal Family does not simply strip her and Harry officially of their titles, particularly since she insists on sending this under the pretense of being the Duchess of Sussex,” Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., was quoted as saying.
The wife of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, sixth in the line of succession to the British throne, wrote a lengthy letter where she recounted incidents in her childhood when she was forced to get a job as a teen for gas money and ate at a salad bar, while advocating the need for a US paid family leave programme. The issue is part of the Democrats' budget reconciliation social spending plan. The historic legislation moving through Congress would make 12 weeks of paid family and sick leave available to most workers as part of a new federal policy.
In this Wednesday May 8, 2019 file photo Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, pose during a photocall with their newborn son Archie, in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle, Windsor, south England. The Duchess of Sussex has revealed that she had a miscarriage in July. Meghan described the experience in an opinion piece in the New York Times on Wednesday. She wrote: "I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second." The former Meghan Markle and husband Prince Harry have a son, Archie, born in 2019.
© AP Photo / Dominic Lipinski
The letter with the post-royal letterhead, which uses the Sussexes' titles but not their official cyphers was addressed to the Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Markle urged putting “families above politics” to ensure a federal guarantee that parents can take compensated time off after the birth of a child.
“While her attempts at appealing to working class families by recalling her days of eating at Sizzler were laughable, her comments make crystal clear that the passage of this massive tax-and-spend bill is aimed more at helping global elites get huge tax breaks than helping the working families she claims to have dined with,” stated Congressman Jason Smith.
The letter also sparked rumorrs that Meghan Markle, who together with her husband and their two children has been residing in the US since quitting royal life in 2020, was plying the “tactics of an aspiring politician”.
Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle appear onstage at the 2021 Global Citizen Live concert at Central Park in New York, U.S., September 25, 2021
© REUTERS / CAITLIN OCHS
“Meghan Markle is incredibly out of touch with the American people and should stick to acting instead of trying to play politics,” Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., was quoted as saying by the outlet. She added:
“The last thing we need right now is wealthy celebrities pushing their liberal agendas on the American people.”
Angela Levin, journalist and biographer of Prince Harry, was cited by the outlet as saying that despite Meghan Markle being an American citizen, the letter from “The office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex” and signed “on behalf of my family, Archie and Lili and Harry,” amounts to using a British royal title to interfere in US politics.
Last October, Congressman Jason Smith similarly requested the royal family strip the Duke and Duchess of Sussex of their titles over their breach of the British Royal Family's neutrality and purported interference in the US election.
This followed the couple’s joint US broadcast where they urged to “reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity”. Furthermore, Meghan Markle had called the 3 November 2020 ballot-casting the “most important election of our lifetime”.