By Molly Claire Goddard
8:06am PST, Nov 20, 2025
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While sitting down in New York City with writer
Kaitlyn Greenidge for
Harper's Bazaar, Meghan Markle made a bold impression. "We're in a grand brownstone on the Upper East Side that belongs to one of Meghan's friends. When I enter, the house manager announces, 'Meghan, Duchess of Sussex,' even though we appear to be the only other two people in the house," the journalist claimed.
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According to royal expert
Tom Sykes, Meghan Markle's attempt at pomp and circumstance seems embarrassing. "Assuming the house manager didn't spontaneously wake up and think, 'I shall announce Meghan, Duchess of Sussex at every opportunity today,' we must conclude this absurd scene has been choreographed by Meghan for the benefit of the journalist," he wrote on
The Royalist's Substack. "It feels like a desperate attempt to drill into the journalist that Meghan is to be referred to in the copy as the 'Duchess of Sussex,' not Meghan Markle from
Deal or No Deal."
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Tom Sykes also noted that although association with the royal family is significant in England, it doesn't hold the same weight in the United States. "This is absurd and particularly because it is all unfolding in America, where British peers always used to know far better than to flounce around waving titles," he wrote. "It's deeply uncool and painfully embarrassing. For more than a century, British aristocrats have understood that whatever magic a title carries in Britain, it evaporates instantly in the United States."
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Meghan Markle has been accused of using her title for financial gain multiple times since she and
Prince Harry left The Firm in 2020. "Having slammed the royal family for years now, she really wants to use the title Sussex and she wants to use Sussex royal as her branding, which she was told she wasn't allowed to, but it feels a little bit hypocritical to rely on that royal fame to sell products and maintain notoriety," reporter
Charlotte Griffiths told the U.K.'s Channel 5.
