The Telegraph has done that thing again where it squints at reality, decides it doesn’t like what it sees, and then writes the opposite. According to them, Meghan has spent years “badmouthing Britain,” which is a fascinating claim given that she has never actually criticised Britain or British people. What she has criticised, very gently considering the circumstances, is racism, tabloid harassment, and the monarchy’s habit of treating her mental health like an inconvenient admin error. None of these things are Britain. They’re things that happened to her in Britain … largely because the palace and press couldn’t cope with a mixed‑heritage woman marrying into the Firm.
But the Telegraph has decided that calling out racism is the same as insulting the nation. A bit like that time I complained about my landlord not fixing the heating and all the neighbours turned on me for hating the entire stree… oh, wait.
This drivel lets them pretend that Meghan’s decade of being publicly shredded somehow doesn’t count. In their version of events, she wasn’t the one being badmouthed; she was secretly the one doing the badmouthing all along. Which is a really, um, interesting reading of Jeremy Clarkson and Piers Morgan and William Sitwell and Amanda Platell.
The columnist responsible for this latest imaginative rewrite arrived at the Telegraph from GB News, which explains a lot. She seems to think that patriotism means defending institutions no matter what, even when the public no longer reveres them. Because if she’d paused for a moment to look at actual data, she might have noticed that pride in British institutions has plummeted since 2011.
Demos’ “A Place for Pride 2026 Report” noted that:
Net pride in the BBC fell from 48% to -11%. In Parliament it fell from 23% to -11%. For the monarchy, net pride more than halved, from 54% to 25%.
Britain isn’t rallying behind these institutions, we’re quietly edging away from them.
But if Meghan’s criticisms are legitimate, then the press has to confront its racism, its cruelty, and its role in driving a pregnant woman to suicidal thoughts. If Meghan’s criticisms are illegitimate, then the press can carry on pretending it’s the victim of her “attacks,” which is much easier and requires far less soul‑searching. So they pick the easy, lazy, dishonest second option.
Meghan didn’t insult Britain. She didn’t insult British people. She didn’t insult the country she lived in, worked in, and repeatedly praised. She criticised behaviour that harmed her and institutions that failed her. She criticised racism because racism is bad. And saying racism is bad isn’t an attack on Britain unless you think racism is British … which is a confession the Telegraph should probably keep to itself.