(NewsNation Now) — Meghan Markle has a plan to bring legislators together for a cause that she’s championing, but one royal watcher says what the duchess is actually doing is undermining the royal family.
According to Politico, the duchess of Sussex has been cold-calling senators, asking that paid family leave be kept in the House’s “Build Back Better” reconciliation bill.
“We didn’t elect her,” royal watcher Hilary Fordwich said on “Dan Abrams Live.” “Who has wanted her to be in that position? That’s an issue for Americans to decide.”
The royals, according to the queen’s official website, must remain strictly neutral with respect to political titles. The duchess stepped back as a senior member of the royal family in early 2020, but retains her title and she’s using it.
West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito received one of her cold calls. Capito told Politico that she picked up the phone expecting Joe Manchin, her fellow West Virginia senator, as the number came up blocked. Instead, the voice she heard on the other end casually said, “This is Meghan, the duchess of Sussex.”
“Prince Harry can’t obviously control his wife because he knows very well that you can’t be a renegade royal over here in the United States because you’re breaking …. centuries of the royals staying out of politics,” Fordwich said.
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand allegedly gave Markle access to the numbers. Gillibrand told Politico that more cold calls from the duchess are coming.
“They left the UK,” Fordwich said “There was this Mexit move obviously, as we all know, and that was to avoid all the publicity, that was to avoid being in the spotlight, that was for a quieter life. This isn’t a quieter life, smiling and dialing senators.”
Maine Sen. Susan Collins told Politico that Markle’s comments didn’t have much of an impact.
“I was happy to talk to her but I’m more interested in what the people of Maine are telling me,” Collins said.
Fordwich believes Markle’s PR firms likely encouraged her to make the calls.
“Reportedly, Prince Harry was in a panic mode when he heard about his grandmother being hospitalized, but what does he think this is going to do exactly to her health?” Fordwich added.