The Duchess of Sussex had a couple of awkward moments at the SXSW Festival in Texas. Meghan Markle was on stage discussing serious issues like the “toxic” trolling she and Prince Harry experienced when they were senior royals.
The mum-of-two got emotional talking about her pregnancies and the “cruel bullying and abuse” she and Harry faced online. Meghan was on stage with journalist Katie Couric, actress Brooke Shields and diversity equity and inclusion consultant at Peoplism, Nancy Wang Yuen.
Errin Haines, who hosts The Amendment podcast, led the event’s opening talk, called Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen. But people on social media noticed two awkward moments – Meghan’s reaction to a joke by Shields and what seemed like a missed hug.
Awkward ‘prostitute’ comment
While on stage, Meghan told a story about how she stood up against a commercial she thought was sexist when she was only 11 years old. She said: “I was about 11 years old and I had seen a commercial on TV for a dishwashing liquid that said ‘women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans’.”
“The boys in my class at the time said ‘yeah, that’s where women belong, in the kitchen’ – and at 11 I just found that infuriating. I wrote lots of letters and put pen to paper and they ended up changing the commercial to ‘people all over America.'”.
She added: “It’s funny to look back at it now because that was before social media where you had a reach that was so much greater. It was just an 11-year-old with pen and paper.”
“But it just goes to show that if you know that there is something wrong and you are using your voice to advocate in the direction of what is right that can really land and resonate and make a huge change for a lot of people. Your voice is not small, it just needs to be heard.”
Shields humorously stated: “When I was 11, I was playing a prostitute. I wish I had known you.”
When Brooke was a kid, she played the role of a prostitute’s daughter in the 1978 movie Pretty Baby.
Meghan giggled, saying: “A little different,” with a big smile. She quickly pulled herself together and continued the discussion.
A somewhat uncomfortable ‘hug snub’?
Just before the debate, a slightly awkward moment caught the attention of social media users. Meghan, they claimed, extended a hug to the moderator that was “denied”.
Reacting to this footage, one person wrote that it was “very telling”, while another remarked on the “smooth block”. A third commented: “She’s really pretty good at recovering: hugs rebuffed, grabbing for a microphone.”
A fourth person mentioned: “She still hasn’t realised that just because she is a ‘hugger’, many others are not. And many only hug people they know and like.”
Someone else added that she needs to “get over the hug thing”.
However, many X users stood by the Duchess amid the alleged snub. One of them defended Meghan by stating: “You know it’s International Women’s Day today. Maybe take a break from being a bully to a woman you don’t even know.”
Another user countered: “No she doesn’t [get denied a hug], you’re really clutching at straws now. As you can see Meghan just puts a hand on her shoulder! ” While a third user admired: “How positively she had handled the situation.”
Meghan has described herself as “a hugger” while recalling her first meeting with Princess Kate, Prince William’s wife. In the second episode of their Netflix series, she said: “When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot. I was a hugger. I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.”
