Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have once again been accused of controversy thanks to the royal renegades’ latest partnership. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced the partnership between their Archewell Foundation and Procter & Gamble, but some detractors have pointed out that the massive corporation is also connected to a controversial product, one that goes against the couple’s stated values. The product also has an ironic connection to a claim that Markle made during her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Partnership Courting Controversy
The Archewell Foundation, a non-profit organization created by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after they stepped back as working members of the British royal family, has a new partnership that’s causing a bit of a scandal. Procter & Gamble, a giant corporation with dozens of well-known subsidiaries, was recently announced as one of the Archewell Foundation’s newest multi-year global partnerships.
The partnership would focus on “gender equality, more inclusive online spaces, and resilience and impact through sport” according to the announcement. Some have noted, however, that one of the corporation’s subsidiaries, Olay, offers a product marketed in India and several other South Asian countries as a skin whitener. These products are designed to reduce the concentration or production of melanin, which is a natural pigment that gives skin its color.
Since Prince Harry and Markle called out an unspecified member of the royal family for making comments about how dark their child’s skin would be, some have called this partnership hypocritical. A former executive at Procter & Gamble, Alex Malouf, spoke to the Mirror about the royal couple’s latest partnership and called Markle out directly.
Former P&G Exec Takes Aim At Markle
“Meghan has talked a lot about the issue of race and racism, so this does stick out like a sore thumb,” Malouf told the outlet. It should be noted that as a former exec at the corporation, Malouf likely had more oversight over the controversial product than Markle has, which makes his comments about her culpability more than a bit ironic.
It’s honestly ridiculous that Markle is being singled out, especially since her husband also had a say in the partnership, and also insisted that one of his family members had made the colorist remark. Perhaps because Markle is a mixed-race black woman, she bears the brunt of this made-up scandal. As we’ve mentioned before, Procter & Gamble hold a huge number of subsidiaries, including brands like Dawn, Tide, Downy, Ivory, Mr. Clean, Bounty, Pepto, Vicks, BrAun, IAMS, Pantene, Crest, Oral-B, Gillette, Secret, Always, Pampers, Charmin, Clairol, and Covergirl to name just a few.
Were Markle and Prince Harry supposed to comb through a list of all the products owned by all the brands, from all over the world, in order to make sure there were no controversial products being offered by the company? Should the couple also bear the blame for the fact that Charmin is a toilet paper company, and people were hoarding toilet paper last year at the beginning of the pandemic? Of course not, that would be the height of silliness.
Likewise, it’s beyond absurd for the couple to face censure for working with the corporation on a charitable basis, especially since a lot of the communities they aim to help are generally the ones that skin whitening products are marketed towards. The ultimate irony here is that there’s more heat towards Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for the partnership than there is towards Olay for carrying the skin whitening product in the first place.
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