Meghan Markle’s close friendship with Ivanka Trump has been deliberately excluded from the royal tell-all book, a critic says.
Finding Freedom, which chronicles the couple’s relationship and their decision to step down from royal duties, “conveniently airbrushed” the connection to protect Markle’s “mission”.
Craig Brown, a British satirist and critic, speculates the royals were more involved with the book than they let on, and leaving out the tie to Ms Trump was in the Sussexes’ best interests.
“The authors of Finding Freedom conveniently airbrush Ivanka from the record, perhaps fearful that the Trump formula for success and happiness might jar against Harry and Meghan’s new mission to build a humanitarian legacy that will make a profound difference in the world,” Mr Brown wrote in The Daily Mail.
In her now-defunct blog, The Tig, the Duchess gushed about her new friendship with Donald Trump’s “staggeringly beautiful” and “intelligent” daughter.
“When we have drinks, I will make sure I order whatever she does – because this woman seems to have the formula for success (and happiness) down pat,” Markle wrote.
“Don’t get me started on her jewellery collection: The late-night ‘window shopping’ I have done on my computer, snuggled up in bed with a glass of wine, staring longingly at her beautiful designs.”
Duchess, actor, ghostwriter?
The omission speaks volumes, according to Mr Brown, particularly when Finding Freedom authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand claim to have interviewed 100 of the royal couple’s closest friends.
Mr Brown said that a Trump tie had the potential to undo the hard work the authors put in to focusing on the flattering details about Markle’s fairytale life.
“In many ways, this is an old-fashioned royal book, full of fluff and gush, in which nothing is so banal that it cannot be glorified by the Royal touch,” Mr Brown wrote.
“We hear, for instance, that she is ‘the type of girl to grab a smoothie after a hot yoga or Pilates session’ and that ‘her morning ritual’ starts ‘with a cup of hot water and a slice of lemon, followed by her favourite breakfast of steel-cut oats (usually made with almond or soy milk) with bananas and agave syrup for sweetness’. Hold the front page!”
Many are beginning to wonder why the supposed ‘tell-all’ book omits such a controversial link, yet comfortably waffles on about Markle’s fashion and style choices in great detail.
“I may be wrong, but my guess is that whenever they ascribe a quote to ‘a source close to Meghan’, that source is really Meghan herself,” Mr Brown said.
Friends no more …
The friendship between Markle and Ms Trump soured on its own when Markle took aim at Donald Trump during the 2016 election when appearing on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.
“It’s really the moment I go, ‘We film Suits in Toronto and I might just stay in Canada’,” Markle said, pledging to vote for Hillary Clinton.
“Yes, of course, Trump is divisive, think about female voters alone.
“I think it was in 2012 the Republican Party lost the female vote by 12 points – that is a huge number, and with as misogynistic as Trump is, and so vocal about it, that’s a huge chunk of it.”
When asked about Markle’s comments, Trump retaliated.
“I didn’t know that. What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty.”
Despite speculation, a statement released by the Sussexes maintains the two did not contribute to the book.
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not contribute to Finding Freedom,” the statement said.
“This book is based on the authors’ own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting.”
