Baby Archie's birthday was a day of celebration, not just because the royal baby is now one year old, but because mother Meghan Markle marked the occasion by uploading a rare family video of herself reading a book to Archie for Save The Children UK. In the video, Archie babbles about as Markle attempts to read the story, resulting in a number of sweet and funny moments, my personal favorite being when Archie flings a book onto the ground. The video was a moment of peace during a difficult time, but author Emily Giffin felt the opposite. The Something Borrowed writer criticized the video in a series of Instagram Stories and comments, prompting fans to accuse her of racism. After immense backlash, she's issued an apology.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
This is apparently not the first time the author has taken issue with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. One Twitter user posted a video of a previous Instagram Story from the author in which she's criticizing Archie's name for not being royal enough.
Look at the videos she put up on her IG stories obsessing and hating on Archie’s name! She’s an evil woman who follows Meghan hate pages and laughs with Meghan bullies. She can’t even sleep without thinking about Archie’s name! pic.twitter.com/xoG2nCtx8e
— 😹 (@fartherkelss) May 6, 2020
In her most recent tirade, she accused Markle of being "unmaternal" and "uncomfortable" in texts to a friend. In another comment, she accused Markle of making the video "the Meghan show." She also criticized the royal for the fact that Archie, who is one, is not wearing pants in the video. The author screenshotted all these things and shared them on her Instagram Story, which then made its way to Twitter via writer Kaitlin Menza and went viral.
"The fact that she uses her Instagram as a platform to bully someone who has never harmed anyone and she still thinks she’s a better person than Meghan is beyond me," one person replied to the tweet. "People need to look themselves in the mirror!"
"This is absolutely deranged lol," another wrote more simply.
As the fervour grew, Giffen went private on her social media, but issued an apology on Instagram.
“I can see how some of my posts may have felt mean-spirited, and could be construed as having racial undertones,” Giffin said, per NBC. “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.”
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
She explained that the negativity came from her distaste for how Markle and Prince Harry exited their duties as senior royals, but that she "absolutely loved that a biracial, American woman was marrying into the Royal Family.”
Meanwhile, Meghan Markle's too busy literally delivering food to those who need it during the coronavirus pandemic to get wrapped up in any of this.