Here's Why Meghan Markle Won't Meet Trump On His U.K. Visit
During President Donald Trump's second state visit to the United Kingdom, he planned on spending some quality time with the British royals ... except Meghan Markle. According to an official itinerary, the titian-tinted leader of the free world scheduled no face time with the Duchess of Sussex. On Monday, June 3, 2019, Trump and wife Melania arrived at Buckingham Palace, where they enjoyed a private lunch with Queen Elizabeth II. Prince Harry was on hand, The Sun reported, but there was speculation that he was "grumpy" and may not have wanted to be there based on his expressions in the few photos of him from the event. Later, the Trumps met up for afternoon tea with Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles (who went viral with a pointed wink at news cameras). Official engagements round out the rest of Trump's trip abroad, with a guest list noticeably missing Markle.
Naturally, the royal rock star's absence raised quite a few questions about why she'd miss such a rare opportunity to meet the President of the United States. Although there's no official reason, it wouldn't be royal news without a healthy dose of speculation, right?
Here are a few more possible reasons we think the former Suits star decided to sit this particular set of engagements out.
She previously called him 'misogynistic'
Meghan Markle may be apolitical now as a royal, but before she was linked to Prince Harry, she was quite vocal about her beliefs, including the notion that then-presidential candidate Donald Trump may not have had the utmost respect for women. On an episode of The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore in May 2016, Markle joked that she'd move to Canada, where Suits films, full time if he won the election. Then she got serious. "Yes, of course Trump is divisive," she said. "Think about just female voters alone, right? I think it was in 2012, like, the Republican party lost the female vote by 12 points. That's a huge number, and with as misogynistic as Trump is — and so vocal about it — that's a huge chunk of it. You're not just voting for a woman if it's Hillary just because it's a woman, but certainly because Trump has made it easy to see that you don't really want that kind of world that he's painting."
What's more, in Andrew Morton's biography of the Duchess, Meghan: A Hollywood Princess, one of Markle's fellow former Deal Or No Deal models told the author that when Trump visited the set, he was "super creepy," and although some of the girls "took his number," Markle went out of her way to avoid him.
We can't say for sure, but it's possible Markle's past words interactions with Trump contributed greatly to this seemingly epic royal swerve.
He just called her 'nasty'
When a reporter for The Sun informed Donald Trump of Meghan Markle's 2016 comments about him, he used a term for her that he previously reserved for the likes of his former presidential rival Hillary Clinton: "nasty." "I didn't know that," he said of her past comments. "What can I say? I didn't know that she was nasty." He did, however, praise her somewhat, telling the outlet of her absence from royal engagements during his visit, "I didn't know that. I hope she is OK," adding that she'd make a "very good" American princess. "It is nice, and I am sure she will do excellently," he said of the Duchess of Sussex. "She will be very good. ... I hope she does [succeed]."
After Trump's "nasty" retort when viral, he denied ever saying such a thing, tweeting, "I never called Meghan Markle 'nasty.' Made up by the Fake News Media, and they got caught cold! Will @CNN, @nytimes and others apologize? Doubt it!" Unfortunately for his alibi, The Sun released the audio recording of Trump's exact quote.
She has loose ties to Hillary Clinton
In addition to her seemingly general distaste for Donald Trump, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry also currently employ a former Hillary Clinton staffer. The couple hired Sara Latham, who was a senior adviser on Clinton's failed 2016 presidential campaign, to head their communications team, Yahoo! reported. According to Town & Country, Latham also served on then-President Elect Barack Obama's transition team in 2008 as well as serving as a Special Assistant to then-President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff from 1996 to 2000.
USA Today reported that Latham worked closely with John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, in 2016. Latham was reportedly a key player in choosing Hillary's running mate, Tim Kaine. Markle was reportedly a staunch supporter of Hillary in the 2016 election, with People noting that the actress posted on Instagram to endorse the Democratic nominee. The Daily Mail also reported that Markle wrote on her long-since deactivated Instagram that she was excited to sit close to Hillary at an event in 2015.
Granted, Markle's past political outspokenness has gone by the wayside since she became the Duchess of Sussex, but considering how Trump clearly feels about Clinton, perhaps Markle wanted to just avoid the situation entirely.
She's a proud feminist
In addition to Meghan Markle's admiration for Hillary Clinton, the Duchess of Sussex has long been an advocate for feminism, which may put principles at odds with her presence at an event in Donald Trump's honor. An incident about which Markle has spoken several times was her writing letters to Procter & Gamble, Gloria Allred, and Clinton when she was just 11 years old to complain about what she perceived as sexism in an Ivory dish soap commercial. It landed Markle her first TV credit in 1993 when she spoke about her small but mighty act of activism on Nick News.
Markle later went on to become a United Nations Women's Advocate for for Political Participation and Leadership. In 2017, Markle wrote an essay for Time about the importance of menstrual hygiene management. Since becoming the Duchess of Sussex, she's spoken out several times about the importance of feminism in the modern world.
Was this Markle's way of staging her own one-woman Women's March?
Prince Harry may have complicated feelings about Trump
Meghan Markle made her own feelings about Donald Trump clear. Her husband's feelings about President Trump, however, may be less than favorable as well. Markle's estranged father, Thomas, told the press in June 2018 that he loathed Trump, but that Prince Harry told him to give Trump a chance, noting, "I think Harry has probably changed his mind by now — I certainly hope he has."
Trump also said some questionable things about the late Princess Diana (who Markle reportedly admires) in two separate interviews with Howard Stern. In 2000, Trump told the shock jock (via People), "I think she's magnificent. Lady Di was truly a woman with great beauty. I've seen her a couple of times. She was really beautiful, and people didn't realize that beautiful. She was supermodel beautiful. She had the height, she had the beauty, she had the skin, the whole thing." Those were the nice things. Only a few months after Diana's death in 1997, Trump made vulgar comments to Stern about wanting to bed the People's Princess ... but only if she got tested for HIV. What's more, a friend of Diana wrote in The Sunday Times (via People) in 2015 that Trump pursued Prince Charles' ex almost to the point of "stalking."
Obviously, we can't say for sure, but combined with his "nasty" remark about Markle, that seems like two clear strikes against Trump for Harry.
Let's not forget that there's a newborn in the mix, folks
Alright guys, time for some good old Occam's razor: Sometimes the simplest explanation is also the most likely explanation. Meghan Markle gave birth less than a month before Trump's second UK visit. As such, the Duchess of Sussex was almost certainly focused more on doting on her and Prince Harry's newborn son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, and less on worrying about being a good host to the POTUS.
A source previously told The Sun that Markle planned to take three months of maternity leave, and would return to her royal duties at the Trooping The Colour later in June 2019. The insider, who dished to the outlet before Archie's birth in early May 2019, noted, "Meghan has made it very clear she wants to return to work as soon as possible. She has huge amounts of energy, is extremely determined and wants to be as hands-on as possible with her charities. Nothing has been written into her diary just yet, as she wants to wait and see how she feels after having the baby."
Any parent of a newborn knows that the one thing they all feel is tired, and if we're being honest, we wouldn't blame Markle if she simply skipped meeting Trump in favor of grabbing a quick nap.