LONDON — Journalist and author Catherine Mayer has pushed back against what she describes as a pattern of hostile media coverage directed at Meghan Markle, arguing that the Duchess of Sussex has been unfairly cast as a villainous figure in coverage of the British royal family since her 2020 departure from official royal duties.

Mayer, speaking to the Express, said she wrote her latest book partly out of concern that broader lessons from Markle's experience with the British press have gone unlearned. "My fear is that the world has learned very little indeed from Meghan's experience and that's another reason I wrote the book," Mayer said. She went on to question the intensity of public hostility directed at Markle specifically. "As I say in it, you don't have to like her or watch her shows, but what on earth has she done to earn the hatred meted out to her?" Mayer said.

Mayer argued that the broader pattern of negative coverage directed at royal women carries consequences that extend well beyond any single individual. "Telling these negative stories about royal women, whipping up hostility towards them, has a long pedigree as my book shows, and it always goes badly not only for the women in question but for all women," she said.

Drawing a historical parallel, Mayer suggested that some of the narratives constructed around Markle echo centuries-old tropes used to characterize women perceived as threats to established power structures. "It's a way of promoting reductive views of women as scheming seductresses or........

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