Meghan Markle has a friend by her side after an old video she posted from the day her daughter, Lilibet, was born garnered a mixed response.
In the video, shared via Instagram on June 4, Lilibet’s fourth birthday, a pregnant Markle, now 43, and husband Prince Harry, are in the hospital dancing to the viral “Baby Momma Dance Song.” Though Markle closed the comments section, fans have reacted on social media, calling it “cringe.”
“Imagine, for a moment, what it would feel like to have some of the happiest and most vulnerable moments of your life turned into ammunition for hate,” Markle’s friend and tech entrepreneur Christopher Bouzy told Newsweek in a story published on Wednesday, June 11. “Every maternity dress and every baby video becomes ‘evidence’ for strangers obsessively trying to prove your pregnancies were a sham. It is sickening and cruel.”
Markle explained in the caption that she and Harry, 43, were desperate at that moment to finally welcome Lilibet. (The couple also share son Archie, 6.)
“Both of our children were a week past their due dates… so when spicy food, all that walking, and acupuncture didn’t work – there was only one thing left to do! ????,” she wrote.
Critics claimed the way Markle was moving in the video and holding her belly didn’t make it appear she was uncomfortable like a soon-to-be mother normally would be, leading some trolls to allege her pregnancy was a hoax.
“We cannot ignore the real-world impact that this kind of sustained conspiracy harassment has,” added Bouzy, 50.
After noting that Markle previously battled suicidal thoughts, which she has been open about, Bouzy said, “One doesn’t have to stretch to see a link between that despair and the ceaseless torrent of vilification she endured.”
“Beyond the personal toll on Meghan and Harry, there’s a broader societal damage to consider,” he concluded. “When conspiracy theories like these flourish, they corrode our collective grasp on reality and decency.”
While Bouzy didn’t engage with the trolls directly, Real Housewives of Potomac star Candiace Dillard dove right into the discourse to defend Markle.
“Actually, at 9 months pregnant, I was leg pressing three times my weight, doing pull ups twice my weight and walking several miles on a treadmill,” she wrote in response to oneuser who said the way Markle was moving was impossible for a woman nine months pregnant. “So stfu and just say you hate that a Black woman married a white prince.”
Candiace, 38, also shared a photo from her own labor in October 2024, when she welcomed son Jett with husband Chris Bassett, writing, “Misogynoir has no expiration date.”
