Meghan Markle has sparked accusations of breaching British royal political neutrality protocol by announcing she had voted in the US midterm elections.
A page on the website of the Archewell NGO run by the American former actress and her husband Prince Harry urged readers to cast their ballots in the election for all 435 federal House of Representatives seats and 34 of the 100 senators.
"Today is Election Day in the US! Time to get out and vote!" it read, beneath a photo of Markle sporting an "I Voted" sticker.
The page did not say who the Duchess of Sussex had voted for, but it included a link to the site of VoteRiders — a California-based NGO founded by Democratic Party election campaigner Kathleen Unger which opposes voter ID laws favoured by many Republicans.
While the British royals have the right to vote like other citizens, by convention they do not exercise it in keeping with the principles of royal impartiality in politics that underpins the modern UK system of constitutional monarchy.
Markle attacked former President Donald Trump during his 2016 election campaign — before she married the second son of British King Charles III — calling him “divisive” and “misogynistic”.
Last year it was reported that the duchess was considering running for the presidency herself in 2024 as a Democrat candidate — a prospect Trump said would encourage him to stand again. If elected, she would be the first British royal to rule the territories south of Canada since King George III lost control of the original 13 colonies in 1783.
Prince Harry also waded into the political arena in 2021 by backing Liberal calls to limit the First Amendment right to free speech — which he dubbed "Bonkers".
With vote-counting still ongoing on Wednesday afternoon, the Republicans were on predicted to win a slim majority in the House. It remained unclear whether either party would take control of the senate, which split 50-50 between the two dominant parties in 2020.