Meghan faced ‘very real’ threats to her life in UK, says former counter terrorism police chief

A former police boss tells of the “disgusting” threats made against Meghan Markle amid a cringeworthy exchange with a TV host on her podcast.

A former police boss says Meghan Markle faced “many credible threats” to her life while she lived in the UK.

Neil Basu, who was the Met Police’s Assistant Commissioner of Special Operations until last year, called the threats “disgusting” and “very real”, The Sun reports.

Mr Basu told Channel 4 News that some of the people who had sent the threats had even been prosecuted.

Meghan Markle was under serious threat while living in the UK, it has been revealed. Picture: Getty

Asked if the threats were credible, he said: “Absolutely, and if you’d seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it… the kind of rhetoric that’s online, if you don’t know what I know, you would feel under threat all of the time.”

He said: “We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats.”

The top officer’s claims correlate with Prince Harry’s previous comments that he does not feel safe with his young family in the UK.

TV HOST FORGETS MEETING MEGHAN

It come after US TV host Andy Cohen joined Markle on the season finale of her Archetypes podcast but appeared to have forgotten having met her twice before.

At the start of the episode, called ‘Man-ifesting a Cultural Shift’, Markle mentioned how she had met Mr Cohen on several occasions when she was an actor on Suits.

But it quickly became apparent that he had no recollection of ever having met her when he greeted her with “nice to meet you” at the beginning of the interview.

“I met you before,” she said on the new episode which dropped on Tuesday.

“You’ll never remember it.”

Meghan Markle mentioned how she had met Andy Cohen on several occasions when she was an actor on Suits. Picture: Steve Christo / AFP.

He replied: “You’re joking”, to which Markle laughed and said: “Would I joke about that? This is great.”

“I met you twice,” she added.

“The first one is when Suits wasn’t even on, yet. And then when we had maybe season two or three, we were in New York.”

Andy Cohen joined Meghan Markle on the season finale of her Archetypes podcast series. Picture: AFP / Angela Weiss.

The TV host was shocked when Meghan Markle told him he had met her twice before. Picture: Getty

For the final episode of the season, Markle also welcomed Trevor Noah and Judd Apatow onto the show, along with Mr Cohen to discuss stereotypes that hold women back. It was the first time she had men as guests on the podcast, an idea she credited to her husband, Prince Harry.

“Now, if you’ve been listening to the past 11 episodes, you may have noticed that you haven’t heard many men’s voices. In fact, until now, outside a pop-in from my husband in the first episode, this show has featured exclusively women’s voices,” she, referencing when Prince Harry stopped by to say hello to Serena Williams.

“And that’s by design. It was important to us that women have a space to share their authentic and complicated, complex and dynamic experiences. To be heard. And to be understood.

“But through that process, it also occurred to me — and truth be told, at the suggestion of my husband — that if we really want to shift how we think about gender and the limiting labels that we separate people into, then we have to broaden the conversation … and we have to actively include men in that conversation and certainly in that effort.”

For the final episode of her podcast, Meghan Markle had male guests on the show for the first time. Picture: Getty Images

At the end of the episode, Markle reflected on the 12 episodes of her podcast and what she’s learned.

“I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but what’s come out of it for me has been illuminating. And also ironic. Because while this format is only audio and each week I use my voice, you can hear my thoughts without any visual, I feel seen,” she said.

“I had never considered that in using my voice, that I would feel seen. But I do. And so much of the feedback throughout the season from women is that they feel seen as well. As we heard today, that men see our experience differently now, too. They see us. They see us more clearly.”

The Duchess of Sussex continued: “The guests I’ve had join me have been so generous with their time and vulnerable in sharing their stories. And I found that in listening, really listening, I learned so much – about them, of course, but also about myself.

“Finding common ground and discovering that people that come from different worlds and have different life experiences still share so many of the same feelings. I learned how much more similar we are than different. So for example, I’m not Asian, but my goodness, did I connect to what I heard on the ‘dragon lady’ episode.

“And I don’t identify as ever wanting to dumb myself down. But in talking to Paris Hilton about the label ‘bimbo’, I learned that she didn’t either. Mariah taught me about her definition of being a diva.

“We celebrated the choice to be single with Mindy, and we talked about business and the B-word, how our mental health is weaponised against us, the pressures we feel to be a wife and a mum. The loaded misconception that often comes with being a woman of colour and the courage that it takes to step out and speak up, even when it puts everything on the line. I learned so much. And I loved it.”