Why are Meghan Markle and Camilla Parker Bowles being trolled after Queen Elizabeth’s death? TikTok videos are slamming the duchess and queen consort – but praising King Charles’ ex, Princess Diana

Sep 21 , 2022

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Camilla, queen consort leave Westminster Abbey in London on September 19, after the state funeral service for Queen Elizabeth. Photo: AFP

Social media users criticised Prince Harry’s wife and step-mum through Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral and beyond, picking at their clothes supposedly worn at the event

Netflix’s The Crown kicked off a new wave of negativity among Gen Zers for its portrayal of Charles and Camilla’s relationship, while Markle has dealt with online harassment and bad press for years

As millions mourn the queen’s death, Meghan Markle and Camilla Parker Bowles have once again found themselves the targets of online harassment and misinformation campaigns.

TikTok videos ridiculing Markle during the live broadcast of the queen’s state funeral on Monday, September 19, garnered millions of views. Another series of videos criticised Markle’s funeral attire and accused her of copying an old outfit of Princess Diana’s, even though the video – viewed more than 22.5 million times – predated the funeral itself and used photos from the 2019 Remembrance Day.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends a garden party at Buckingham Palace, with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, in London, Britain, in May 2018. Photo: Reuters

For the Gen Z users who primarily populate TikTok, fictional portrayals such as The Crown (which kicked off a fresh bout of online harassment of Camilla after its depiction of the affair) and TikToks about the royals contribute to a fresh distaste for the queen consort.

Engagement-driven algorithms tend to amplify polarising videos rather than stanch them, and online abuse and misinformation tend to go viral at an alarming rate – whether it’s misinformation about Markle’s funeral attire or the conspiracy theory that the queen died because of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Emerald Fennell as Camilla Parker Bowles in season four of The Crown. Photo: Handout

Slideshows of Camilla captioned “the new queen” or “his wife” juxtaposed with photos of Diana captioned “the real queen” and “his ex-wife” have been set to contemporary music and watched by hundreds of thousands of people. The hashtag “Cowmilla”, referring to the queen consort, has been used on videos directing online harassment at Camilla as well as videos solely criticising Markle.

TikTok users have been pitting Camilla, queen consort, against Princess Diana in a new wave of online harassment after the queen’s death. Photo: TikTok

The Sussexes quit social media due to ongoing harassment in January 2021, but Markle said she was finally “ready for her next act” and teased a return to Instagram in an interview with The Cut last month.

Markle has been a lightning rod for online abuse and a British tabloid staple since she began a public relationship with Prince Harry in 2016, leading to the couple announcing they would “step back as senior members” of the British royal family in January 2020. In October of that year, Markle described the online abuse as “almost unsurvivable” in an appearance on the Teenager Therapy podcast.