Liz Jones: Meghan Markle Is Being Cruelly Exploited in the Spotlight

When reports emerged on Wednesday that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were preparing to return to the UK and enroll their children in school from September, more than a few eyebrows shot up.

‘What are they really up to?’ wondered those who have long viewed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with suspicion.

I was inclined, at first, to take the explanation at face value. As I wrote in Our News Outlet this week, ‘Harry thinks our schools are “wonderful” and wants a traditional British education for Archie, seven, and Lili, five.’ I even suggested that the move might open the door for the family of four to edge their way back towards the Royal Family — and, in my view, inject a little much-needed spark into the Firm.

Now, though, I cannot help feeling somewhat wrong-footed.

By Friday, fresh reports claimed Meghan was holding talks about dusting off her acting skills and teaming up with British filmmaker Guy Ritchie.

You remember Guy Ritchie, don’t you?

He was once married to Madonna. Together, they bought Ashcombe House, the beautiful former Wiltshire home of the celebrated royal photographer Cecil Beaton. After their divorce, Ritchie rather shrewdly ended up keeping the mansion for himself.

His directing career has been, shall we say, uneven. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was backed by Sting’s wife, and he followed it with the memorably titled Snatch, starring Brad Pitt. From there, Ritchie’s reputation took a few knocks, including several Razzie Awards. Even the kinder notices for RocknRolla could manage little more than praising its cast as ‘energetic’, before he appeared to drift away from any serious bid to become the next Scorsese.

He is now churning out dross in the shape of another season of The Gentlemen for Netflix, a spinoff of a 2019 film of the same name.

The first series, which aired in 2024, was a barely intelligible caper about aristocrat Eddie (played by bestubbled thesp Theo James, or Theodore to his family and friends; most Brits know him only as the annoying toff in the Range Rover TV ads who proves his masculinity by having no need for the Sat Nav lady), who inherits a family estate only to discover it is home to a weed empire run by very hard men.

It is set in and around the Cotswolds, as that is within a short drive in a Land Rover Defender from Ritchie’s own home, where he is busy nurturing blooms from seed (he grew all his own flowers for his second wedding, to Jacqui Ainsley), hosting professional pheasant shoots, ironing his collection of tweed and firing up his very masculine outdoor cooking range to serve floppy steak to neighbours David and Victoria Beckham.

He reportedly had the bright idea to cast not an Oscar winner, but a former actress. But things move fast. Royal author Tina Brown reported on Saturday that the offer to Meghan had been ‘withdrawn’.

Brown wrote on her Substack, ‘The backlash in the UK was so intense it became untenable to go forward. This does not bode well for Meghan’s acting comeback in the UK.’ 

Meghan, I suspect, would have been flattered by Ritchie’s offer, not realizing she was there to move his series up Netflix’s top 10 this week chart, if only for mere moments.

We in turn would hardly have been able to concentrate on the new episodes, refurbishing as they inevitably would The Gentlemen’s scenes of sex and violence, leaving us wondering, ‘Who is paying for the security to watch her engagement ring and Diana’s Cartier watch in the Winnebago?’

The most graphic scene of the original Ritchie film, The Gentlemen, depicted a man kicking a prone woman’s legs apart with the clear intention of rape. This re-treaded series is no better; in fact, the actress Kaya Scodelario later claimed filming gave her ‘a lot of anxiety’ and she didn’t even remove her clothes! 

There is lots of gory blood spattering; perhaps Meg’s business brain spied a new outlet for her jam? The series is meant to be tongue in cheek but merely ends up licking the toilet bowl.

All Harry would have gotten from the sojourn is that he would be able to don a flat cap from the extensive collection in Ritchie’s gun room to cover his bald patch.

It was all getting a bit Gwyneth Paltrow who, seemingly tired of running Goop, returned to acting last year (in Marty Supreme) and although critics were kind, the only thing that kept my attention was whether or not we’d get a peek beneath that prim 1950s costume.

There should be a little mystery when it comes to acting, surely? When a thespian’s private life eclipses any character they are being paid to play, viz Johnny Depp post-Amber, Brad Pitt post-plane rage, what we are watching is not art, but a freak show.

I hope, if the offer has indeed been withdrawn, that Meghan doesn’t go looking for another similar B-list opportunity that I’m certain will come her way.  

All of the above will likely go over Meghan’s lovely head, of course. 

She plays herself in a cameo in the upcoming film Close Personal Friends. While this new role may have presented an opportunity to stretch – the first time she’s been able to do that since last week’s Pilates – I fear she would have remained blissfully unaware that she was being used most cruelly.

Imagine Meghan’s character gunning down a room of mobsters, using swear words, stripping off. Meghan, your husband and children are in the line of succession. These gigs are for ageing actors who need to foot the alimony bill, or up-and-coming youngsters grasping greedily in the hope they’ll get noticed. You’re above all that. You escaped the 4am call sheet, the hours in hair and make-up, the boredom sat in a chair with ‘Duchess’ scrawled hastily on the back.

The season two trailer is already up, depicting every cliché known to teenage boys, as well as a particularly gory scene involving baseball bats. It airs on September 3. Season three is currently being written on the back of a matchbox. 

If Meghan is cast in a ‘significant’ role the hype will be big. It’s the actress who will have gotten small.