Social media reacts to Meghan Markle podcast

Meghan Markle has been trending in South Africa following her podcast where Twitter feel she misrepresented the nation.

Meghan’s podcast Archetype dropped with her first guest, tennis champion and close friend Serena Williams. Meghan recalled how her infant son Archie narrowly escaped danger after a heater in his room at their Cape Town residence allegedly caught on fire.

Despite Cape Town having several world-class hotels, Meghan revealed in her podcast that the family stayed in a “housing unit”.

On the podcast she said: ‘When we went on our tour to South Africa, we landed with Archie. Archie was what, four and a half months old. And the moment we landed, we had to drop him off at this housing unit that they had had us staying in.’

His then nanny had taken the four-and-a-half-month-old with her downstairs to get a snack before putting him down for a nap. While she was downstairs the heater in his nursery caught fire, in a room with no smoke detector.

Meghan recalled being told the news on visit to the Nyanga township, just after giving a speech. ‘We finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say there’s been a fire at the residence. What? There’s been a fire in the baby’s room,’ she said. ‘We came back. And, of course, as a mother, you go, ‘Oh, my God, what?’

Speaking to Serena, she recalled: ‘Everyone’s in tears. Everyone shaken. And what did we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement. I said this doesn’t make any sense.’

These comments have caused a social media uproar with the hashtag #voetsekMeghan trending for over a day. Many have expressed that Meghan is both tone deaf and misrepresenting South Africa by feeding into the ‘poverty Africa’ narrative.

 

Also see: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to step back from royal duties