During her time as a working royal, some of Meghan Markle’s reasonable-for-anyone-else privacy decisions, like not publicly releasing the names of her son Archie’s godparents, sparked outrage among the British tabloids because it was a deviation from what Kate Middleton and other royals did.
Oprah asked Meghan, during an unaired clip released by O the Oprah Magazine (which you can watch above), about criticisms that Meghan was too private for a royal. Dating a royal, “you’re going to have to lose privacy. That’s part of the deal,” Oprah said.
Meghan explained yes, to a certain degree, but there’s a certain level of privacy every person is entitled to. “Well, it’s two things here,” she said. “I think everyone has a basic right to privacy. Basic, right? And we’re not talking about anything that anybody else wouldn’t expect.”
“So if you’re at work and you have a photograph of your child on your desk, and your coworker says, ‘Oh, my gosh, your kid’s so cute. That’s fantastic! Can I see your phone so I can see all the pictures of your child?’ You go, ‘No. This is the picture I’m comfortable sharing with you,’” Meghan began. “And then if they double down and say, ‘No, but you already showed me that one. So you have to show me everything. You know what, I’m just gonna hire someone to sit in front of your house, or hide in the bushes and take pictures into your backyard, because you’ve lost your right to privacy because you shared one image with me.’ That’s sort of the flawed argument and operating mechanism that they’re confusing people to think.
“I think life is about being able to share our stories and share parts of our lives that you’re comfortable with,” she continued. “There’s no one who’s on Instagram or social media that would say, ‘Because I shared this one picture, that entitles you to have my entire camera roll. Go ahead and look through it.’ No one would want that. So it’s about boundaries. And it’s about respect. They’ve created a false narrative. I mean, I’ve never talked about privacy. I think that’s just a basic understanding.”
