Since “Megxit”, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been enjoying a much more laid back life in Santa Barbara, California, and spending their attention on making content for those with a Netflix subscription along with Markle having her own lifestyle brand. Living in the United Kingdom and adhering to the rules of being part of the Royal Family was a big part of her life, however, and she recently shared one “silly” thing she had to do at the time that didn’t really feel like herself.
The U.K Royal Family is known for having a lot of traditions with prim and proper ways of doing things that would surely be an adjustment for anyone outside of their circles. Enter Meghan Markle, who married Prince Harry back in 2018, and had some adjustments to make, chiefly with being the Duchess of Sussex and dealing with a lot more public attention and scrutiny. Here’s what rule Markle pointed out while on The Circuit:
I had to wear nude pantyhose all the time. Let's be honest, that was not very myself. I hadn't seen pantyhose since the '80s, when they came in the little egg? That felt a little bit inauthentic, but that's a silly example.
Markle made the comment about pantyhose while speaking to Bloomberg journalist Emily Chang about what “tension” she might feel about “trying to be relatable while also being a Duchess." Markle said things were different several years ago when she “couldn’t be as vocal” before bringing up the pantyhose of it all with a light giggle. As the Duchess continued:
But it is an example of when you're able to dress the way you wanna dress and you're able to say the things that are true and you're able to show up in the space really organically and authentically, that's being comfortable in your own skin. And that's, of course, had different chapters in my life. But right now, no, I don't feel that I need to prove anything.
Meghan Markle makes a good point that it was perhaps not as easy to be her authentic self when she couldn’t speak as freely and had rules when it came to her dress. Now that she, Prince Harry, and their children are no longer living in the U.K. with the Royal Family, she feels more comfortable with being inside her own skin and truly shows up as herself within her life.
While she calls the pantyhose rule a “silly example,” it feels like a smaller way for the Duchess to express how she perhaps felt curated and regulated by the Royal Family before she and Prince Harry decided to step back from being senior members of the family in 2020. Markle’s comments come as she and Prince Harry just signed a new Netflix deal following their tell-all docuseries and Meghan’s viral cooking show.
All the while, rumor has it that the rest of the Royal Family is “reluctant to engage in reconciliation efforts”. Months ago, a source claimed that “nobody trusts” Prince Harry or his wife in the Royal Family right now after they haven’t held back about their issues with the royal lifestyle publicly. Despite continued tensions, it sounds like Markle is living her best life and being genuine to herself.
