Prince Philip routinely called Meghan Markle ‘The American’ according to royal historian Hugo Vickers’ new biography, while also privately referring to her as ‘DoW’ – his code for Duchess of Windsor
The late Prince Philip was well known for his blunt manner and frequent public blunders. The late Queen’s Greek-born husband was particularly notorious for his offensive remarks towards anyone he considered “foreign.” He once asked indigenous Australians if they were “still throwing spears” while he also described some particularly shoddy electrical work as looking as though it was “put in by an Indian.”
The prince’s infamous attitude even stretched to members of his own family. According to royal historian Hugo Vickers, who has recently released a new biography of the late Queen Elizabeth II, Philip would routinely refer to his grandson’s wife with a dismissive two-word nickname.
In his new book, Hugo reveals that Philip would simply refer to Meghan Markle as ‘The American’. He adds that the Queen had once “torn Meghan off a strip” after she had been rude to one of the royal gardeners.
However, on the Daily Telegraph’s royal podcast, Hugo diplomatically declined to comment when royal-watcher Camilla Tominey asked him if he thought Philip had “seen through Meghan’s theatrical ways”.
Prince Philip, who passed away in April 2021 just two months before his 100th birthday, had previously drawn comparisons between Meghan and another controversial royal from an earlier era, privately dubbing her ‘DoW’, his code for ‘Duchess of Windsor’, a reference to Wallis Simpson.
Speaking on GB News, royal expert Ingrid Seward claimed that Philip thought that Meghan bore an “uncanny” resemblance to Wallis, whose romantic entanglement with King Edward VIII precipitated one of the most dramatic crises in royal history. The Queen’s uncle Edward abdicated the throne so he could marry the twice-divorced American, reports the Express.
“He wasn’t simply referring to the fact that both were pencil-slim, dark-haired and glamorous American divorcees,” Ingrid said.
She added: “I think Prince Philip was very canny about people and he didn’t always see the bad in them, he tried to see the good in them.
“I think he just couldn’t get away from the fact [of the] similarities between Meghan and Harry and Edward and Mrs Simpson.
“There are so many similarities which is why he used to call her The Duchess of Windsor, I mean not to her face.”
In her 2023 book exploring King Charles’s bond with the late Queen, My Mother and I, Ingrid wrote: “One of the few wary of succumbing to (Meghan’s) charm offensive… was Prince Philip.
“From the moment he detected her apparent similarity to Wallis, he referred to her as DoW.”
Prince Harry, for his part, has stated that there has always been a “huge level” of unconscious bias within the Royal Family, and that it was only after living “in his wife’s shoes” for a period that he began to recognise the implicit racial prejudice amongst people of his social background.
In an interview with Black Lives Matter activist Patrick Hutchinson, published in GQ magazine, Harry lauded the “incredibly important” movement and revealed how, for a period of time, he had been unaware that unconscious biases exist within society.
“Unconscious bias, from my understanding, having the upbringing and the education that I had, I had no idea what it was,” Harry said. “I had no idea it existed. And then, sad as it is to say, it took me many, many years to realise it, especially then living a day or a week in my wife’s shoes.”
He suggested that prejudice was “learned from the older generation, or from advertising, from your environment”.
“Unless we acknowledge we are part of this cycle, then we’re always going to be fighting against it,” Harry added.
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