The Duchess of Sussex spoke with Fortune about the “vitriol and noise” she has faced in a video that was published hours before the televised debate between the president and Joe Biden.
Last week, husband Prince Harry joined her for the first time in tackling the November vote as the couple spoke out against hate speech and misinformation, instead backing peaceful protesters and scientists fighting coronavirus.
Some claim her election comments reflect a preference for the Democrats and argue the Sussexes should be stripped of their titles for breaching the convention that British royals stay neutral on politics.
Meghan told Fortune yesterday: “If you look back at anything I’ve said, what ends up being inflammatory is people’s interpretation of it. But if you listen to what I actually say, it’s not controversial.
“And actually some of it is reactive to things which just haven’t happened which in some ways I think you have to have a sense of humor about even though there is quite a bit of gravity and there can be a lot of danger in a misinterpretation of something that was never there to begin with.”
Meghan’s video interview with Fortune’s Ellen McGirt was broadcast just hours after a significant setback in her privacy and copyright lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday.
A High Court judge in London ruled she can be asked under oath about how much help she gave biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand with their book Finding Freedom.
She denies providing “extensive co-operation” and Scobie also submitted a witness statement saying the biography was unauthorized.
The newspaper is published by the same company that owns the Daily Mail, whose reporter Nikki Schwab asked Trump about Meghan’s election comments, Huffington Post reported.
The president replied at a White House briefing last week: “I’m not a fan of hers. I would say this—and she has probably has heard that—I wish a lot of luck to Harry because he’s going to need it.”
Meghan told the first day of the virtual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit the key to tackling big, important issues was to be “authentic.”
She said: “I think that is the takeaway, that I have found, is if you don’t listen to all the noise out there, and just focus on living a purpose driven life and knowing what your own moral compass is, there are always going to be naysayers.
“But at the end of the day, I used to have a quote up in my room, many many moons ago and it resonates now, perhaps more than ever, when you see the vitriol and noise that can be out in the world.
“It’s by Georgia O’Keeffe, and it’s ‘I’ve already settled it for myself, so the flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.’
“And the moment you are able to be liberated from all of these other opinions of what you know to be true, then I think it’s very easy to live with truth and authenticity and that’s how I choose to move through the world.”
