Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s appearance at Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations have been much reported on, but there have been conflicting reports concerning their reception. The royal pair only attended one public event during their brief trip across the pond and outlets can’t seem to come to an agreement on how the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were greeted by the crowd: with cheers or with boos. We got to the bottom of the matter.
Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Reception Under Review
Were Prince Harry and Meghan Markle booed by the crowd during the one Jubilee event the couple attended? There are contradictory reports in the press and from those on the ground, but there’s plenty of video footage available that ought to set the record straight.
Unfortunately, there are also videos featuring distorted audio making their rounds across social media that are helping to muddy the waters. So, what was the real reaction of the crowd surrounding St. Paul’s Cathedral during the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s entrance and exit from the Thanksgiving service? We’ve checked original sources and can explain what really happened.
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Markle and Harry didn’t attend many public functions during their trip to London, choosing instead to make the National Service of Thanksgiving where their arrival was greeted with much fanfare. Detractors of the Sussexes were quick to claim that the pair were greeted with boos, including Piers Morgan who has made something of a side-hustle for himself as a vocal Markle critic.
Boos For The Sussexes?
Many outlets soon began reporting this as fact, including outlets that have a history of anti-Markle sentiments such as Daily Mail, The Sun, the New York Post, and Fox News. It’s not unnoticed that these tend to be conservative outlets and Markle has a reputation for leaning liberal in her political beliefs. Two of these outlets are based in the UK and have been cut off by the Sussexes, who declared in 2020 that they would no longer engage with those media outlets.
Related: Piers Morgan Spent The Weekend Trashing Meghan Markle On Twitter, Of Course
Social media users from the anti-Sussex side of Twitter soon began passing around videos purporting to show Harry and Markle being resoundingly booed by the crowd as they exited the cathedral. There are two massive problems with the video, however: the bells are so loud they largely drown out the crowd noise and the audio has clearly been altered.
We suspect someone lowered the pitch slightly after apparently screen recording the live video. They also tried to block out the identity of the original uploader (Reuters) with a series of emojis. If the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were booed upon their exit, it would be impossible to hear it over the bells.
Full Video Shows Arrival, Departures Of Sussexes
We looked through videos taken by members of the crowd to get a better idea of what the atmosphere was like on the ground. We were able to find a video taken by a person who booed Markle and Harry at their arrival, but even in that video, you could hear the cheers of many more people. Still, it does prove that it wasn’t an entirely warm welcome that the Sussexes faced upon returning to the U.K.
What isn’t up for debate is the idea that there are people who quite frankly don’t like Prince Harry or Meghan Markle. Were there people in the massive crowds who shared that sentiment? Undoubtedly. Was their animosity towards the Duke and Duchess of Sussex strong enough to compel them to boo in public? Less likely, but clearly not improbable as it did happen and there’s video proof.
Were there more people booing than cheering? Enough to justify so many outlets claiming that Markle and Harry were booed? No, and live video of the event shows that there were more cheers than boos, which many on social media sounded off about.
Sussex Supporters Chime In
So what’s the verdict? Obviously, some people booed, but it’s disingenuous, to say the least, to describe the overall reception to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s appearance as a negative one. Many, many more people cheered and the evidence supports that fact.
It’s also no surprise that many of the outlets pushing this narrative have been hostile in their coverage of Markle in particular in the years since she joined the royal family to the point where these media sources no longer receive communications from the Sussexes. Their bias against Markle and Harry has been made clear, so it’s only natural to look askance at these outlets’ continuous, sometimes illogical, negative coverage.