Video of Meghan saying she’s a royal is completely bizarre

A short clip has popped up on social media showing Meghan Markle making an extraordinary claim that goes against everything she’s said.

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Oh my, how much can change in 15 short days. On August 29 the world learnt that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex had given her first print interview in five years entitled ‘Meghan of Montecito’, with the introduction declaring, “She’s left the Firm behind … Now she’s ready for her next act.”

KAPOW! Here was Meghan ready to chart her own course! Ready to leave those fusty Brits and their strange views on leg-crossing behind!

But sometimes a great headline buts up against those pesky things, facts, because details about this “next act” were thin on the ground (despite the journalist’s best efforts) and instead we got some absolute clangers from the Duchess.

The headline writers of America might have been ready for Meghan to move on, but the duchess still seemed willing to say plenty about the family and institution she and Harry are supposed to have left in their rearview mirror, including the line “Just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy.”

And yet here we are two weeks later, the Sussexes are moored in the UK after the death of Her Majesty last week and a new video shows that Meghan seems to have really changed her tune.

Remember that royal family? That “hierarchy” that she and Harry were “upsetting” by simply breathing and writing empowering messages on bananas? Bizarrely, Meghan now seems willing to identify as very much part of it.

The video, 26 seconds in length, was recorded over the weekend when, in a truly extraordinary turn of events, Meghan, Harry and William and Kate, Prince and Princess of Wales took part in a walkabout outside Windsor Castle. The quartet, ever-so-briefly dubbed the Fab Four way back when, was back: back to do a spot of hand-shaking, crowd-greeting and hugging. If you squinted and looked past the black outfits, it could nearly have been 2018 all over again.

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Kate, William, Harry and Meghan aka. the Fab Four reunited on Saturday. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

However, obviously, the entire royal universe has tilted wildly on its axis in the years since then, with the Sussexes having metamorphosed from loyal Palace troopers to the world’s leading anti-Firm opposition force. (Bet the founders of the UK campaigning group Republic wish they were half as effective as the Sussexes at stirring up antimonarchy sentiment.)

So much water – angry, hurt, deeply emotional water – has passed under the bridge for both the Waleses and Harry and Meghan in the last few but no matter, during that walkabout all arms had been laid down to honour the Queen.

Respect was the order of the day for a woman whose life was defined by her staunch commitment to duty while everyone else ignored the cognitive dissonance of the Sussexes suddenly being back on the sort-of royal job. (Oprah who?)

Which brings us to the video which shows a brief interaction between Meghan and a member of the public named Amelka. First, the Duchess warmly asks the woman her name, before going on to say, “Thank you for being here, it means so much to the family, we appreciate it, thank you.”

Then, after asking how long Amelka had been waiting (two hours), she says: “Oh goodness, OK, well hopefully you will be able to get back home soon. We appreciate you being here.”

I bet Suits is hoping Netflix got this clip 📸🎥 pic.twitter.com/ahso5dXI4B

— HarrysGreySuit (@hrrysgreysuit) September 13, 2022

Did you spot it? “We.” Two “we’s” in fact.

Hearing Meghan say that word, identifying as a member of the royal family after years of, along with Harry, assailing the House of Windsor is extremely jarring. Whoever thought we would see the day that the Duchess of Sussex so easily claimed membership to a group that she and Harry have repeatedly targeted, a group that she has accused of racism and a heartless disregard for her mental health

Of course, Meghan is still a part of the family, a fact that Queen herself made abundantly and repeatedly, saying the Sussexes “will always be much loved members of my family” in 2020 and then following that up in 2021 when declaring that they “remain much loved members of the family.”

(It’s impossible not to wonder here how this might have gone over with the rest of the royal family. Is someone currently Heimlich-ing Princess Anne after she swallowed a butterscotch while scrolling through Twitter and coming across this?)

The Queen said harry and Meghan “will always be much loved”. Picture: Tolga Akmen / POOL / AFP.

What his video really brings into focus is the fact that the duke and duchess have never seemed to have any problem with the hypocrisy of all that having cake and eating it too malarkey. Time and again the couple seem to have blithely refused to trouble themselves with squaring away their attacks on the Palace with their willingness to trade off their royal status.

If I was to list all the comments, statements and sound bites the couple has given the world since Megxit which are critical of the royal family in some way, news.com.au might have to look at getting bigger servers. They clearly have an axe to grind and grind it they have been assiduously been doing for years now.

Meghan and Harry have repeatedly slammed the royal family since going to the US. Picture: Chris Jackson / POOL / AFP.

And yet never once have they stopped using their Sussex titles, which Her Majesty gifted Harry, and thereby Meghan, on their wedding day. Every speech of theirs, interview and outing has, as far as I have seen, involved their full royal appellations being slapped on everything with healthy abandon. (The notable exception to this is her podcast Archetypes on which she is simply ‘Meghan’.)

Titles might grate badly against our democratic, modern sensibilities but they still impress; they still carry with them that magic dust of royalty; and that, obviously, makes very valuable things indeed.

Harry and Meghan have cut multiple big business deals since getting to the United States in 2020, which some estimates have put at topping $200 million. Would Netflix, Spotify, the billion-dollar mental fitness platform BetterUp and Penguin Random House have been quite so enthusiastic to work with them and open their very fat wallets if they were just Mr and Mrs Mountbatten-Windsor?

It boils down to the fact they seem willing to happily claim membership of the royal family when it suits their purposes and then to present themselves as outsiders when that is the more expedient option.

Harry and Meghan might not have found that “next act” of theirs as yet but with the accession of King Charles III, ironically, the royal family very much has.

Daniela Elser a writer and a royal expert with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.