Meghan Markle is facing criticism after a small but noticeable detail from her latest Harper’s Bazaar interview caught the public’s attention. The Duchess of Sussex fronts the magazine’s December 2025 issue. During the interview, a staff member introduced her to the interviewer by her royal title — a gesture that one PR expert alleges was “embarrassing” and bad for her image.
Meghan Markle’s staff announcing her as Duchess is doing her no favors, says PR expert
During the interview with Meghan Markle, journalist Kaitlyn Greenidge described arriving at a friend’s home in New York, where a house manager announced, “Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.” The exchange happened even though only the two women were in the room. That small formal moment has sparked plenty of reaction online as well as among royal watchers, with some criticizing Markle and the rest defending her.
PR expert Renae Smith, founder and director of The Atticism, told Express that the introduction was a mistake. Smith said, “The announcement is the part that made my stomach drop. Being formally announced as ‘Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’ in a private home is so painfully performative.”
According to her, something like that does not just happen by chance. As such, “that would have been planned,” Smith claimed, adding, “There is no universe in which something like that happens spontaneously. She either agreed to it or requested it. Either way, it is tone deaf.”
Smith suggested that this kind of moment can seriously hurt Markle’s brand. She further stated, “From a PR perspective, it is messy (and the cringiest of cringe). And she is consistently messy. She desperately needs a proper brand strategist who has the authority to say no.”
Express explained that the issue is not about Markle’s “duchess” title itself — it is about the image it sends. What was formality instead came across as awkward and unnecessary, according to the PR expert.
