Even though they stepped down as working royals, it seems we’re always hearing about what Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have to say. From Harry’s tell-all memoir to their family docuseries on Netflix, this controversial duo is always ready to dish on every topic under the sun.
Every topic, it seems, except for politics. These two have been surprisingly tight-lipped about their political views, but they’ve slipped up here and there and revealed how they really feel. What’s the real reason these two don’t say much about politics, and what does
Why Harry and Meghan’s politics have been such a secret
Let’s cut right to it: why do Prince Harry and Meghan Markle rarely tell us their own political opinions? Believe it or not, this is actually because they are obeying a royal rule to maintain the appearance of political neutrality. This goes back to England being a country with both a Royal Family and an elected government led by a Prime Minister.
It’s actually unconstitutional for royals to vote in UK elections, and they are expected to maintain political neutrality and not speak in favor of one side or one politician over another. While Harry and Meghan live outside of the UK and are no longer working royals, they are still part of the Royal Family. And despite their historically rebellious nature, they seem intent on following this rule.
For those who know how to read between the lines, though, it’s easy to see what these royals’ politics truly are.
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Harry encouraged citizens to vote
While Prince Harry has done his best to stay out of elections in the UK, he has become more outspoken about American politics since moving to the United States. As Time reports, ahead of the 2020 election, Harry went out of his way to encourage American citizens to vote.
Believe it or not, this simple encouragement actually ruffled the feathers of some of the Royal Family because they didn’t want to see Prince Harry getting overly involved with any election, even one outside the UK. Meanwhile, in the United States, many felt Harry was implicitly encouraging people to vote Democrat despite him not explicitly encouraging anyone to vote in a particular way.
Harry and Meghan’s company is fighting election disinformation
Somewhat ironically, another reason that many felt that both Harry and Meghan were encouraging voters to take liberal sides in the 2020 election is because of some comments they made. As Time reports, Harry said that “it’s vital that we reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity.”
Again, Harry didn’t tell anyone how to vote, but many felt that encouragements to “reject hate speech” and “misinformation” were implicitly criticisms of Donald Trump and his controversial history as present and equally controversial re-election campaign. Considering that Meghan Markle publicly criticized Trump back in 2016, it wouldn’t be surprising for both Harry and Meghan to support Joe Biden.
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Prince Harry appears to reject conservatism
Yet another reason that many assume Prince Harry has liberal politics is because of what he wrote in his memoir Spare about the conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch. As reported by The Hill, the prince wrote that “I didn’t care for Murdoch’s politics, which were just to the right of the Taliban’s.” Additionally, he “didn’t like the harm he did each and every day to the truth, his wanton desecration of objective facts.”
Considering that Murdoch has served as both Chairman and CEO of Fox News, it’s easy to see Harry’s criticism of the man himself as a criticism of conservatism, though it’s equally possible Harry just hates the man due to all the negative tabloid headlines about Meghan Markle and “Megxit.” But this highly public criticism of a major conservative figure combined with Harry’s relatively close friendship with liberal politicians in the UK (like John Major) and in America (like Barack Obama and Joe Biden) all seem to point to liberal bias.
Meghan Markle upset the royals with her liberal bias
Speaking of liberal bias, it’s hardly a shock that Meghan Markle, who was a famous actor before she became a royal, is more openly liberal. We already touched on her very public 2016 criticism of Donald Trump in which she called the man “divisive” and “misogynistic” on The Nightly Show with Larry Whitmore. At the time, she ironically even joked about leaving America should Trump win the election.
According to one highly connected person, Meghan’s liberal politics really annoyed people in England. Princess Diana’s friend Lady Colin Campbell told the Daily Beast that “Her politics are an issue. She is ultra-liberal and that trendy-lefty stuff does not go down well with some of Harry’s friends.” Furthermore, the fact that Meghan “is very anti [of] a lot of the things that their world functions upon, such as shooting” put even more English noses out of joint.
After “Megxit” brought Meghan home to America, the controversial royal endorsed Kamala Harris for the role of Vice President. Put it all together and it’s clear that for all their attempts at maintaining political neutrality, Harry and especially Meghan are about as liberal as they can be.