Meghan Markle 'testing water' as Democrat candidate says Basham

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Meghan Markle spoke to writer and comedian Robin Thede about how the term ‘b**ch’ is wrongly applied to strong-minded women. Robin, who made history when she joined The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore and became the first Black woman to be named head writer of a late-night show, uses the word positively in an attempt to reclaim the term. The Duchess of Sussex said: “Robin is one of the many women who’ve made a choice to embrace the b-word, and almost reclaim it.”

Robinthen went on to explain: “If we’re going to hear it anyway, we’re going to hear it in violent situations. We’re going to hear it in songs where it’s not being used positively. We’re going to hear it in the trolling comments. Then we have to offset that. Just numbers-wise, we need to offset it. 

“And I love that women have used this phrase ‘bad b**ch’ as a positive thing… Like, you look amazing, you’ve got a great job, you’re doing your thing. And so for me, I think about Lizzo, you know, she says is bad b**ch o’clock!

“I do think it helps offset all the negativity associated with it. And I do think it takes the air out of it. I know it does.” 

Meghan, however, said she didn’t feel the same way, admitting she “hates the word” and even refused to use it during the podcast — instead referring to it as the ‘B-word’. 

After hearing Robin’s explanation, she said: “I can’t! I mean, for a person who hates the word so much, this is giving me hives. Nevertheless, I will say, it’s all really interesting to me, what Robin is talking about. Because, as you may have guessed, I have zero interest in reclaiming this term. 

“But these women I respect, whose work I love, a lot of them are entirely comfortable with that; they want to do that to take the power of it.”

She continued: “It’s sadly, for whatever reason, really easy to resort to for a lot of people. It’s one of those labels that feels like it’s thrown around constantly. And while its usage certainly has undertones that say a lot about the person who’s speaking, there’s still a specific type of woman who tends to be the recipient.”

Robin added: “Even in 2022 and beyond, it’s still just used to describe a woman who goes after what she wants, who has an opinion that’s different from a man’s, who turns you down at the club.”

Meghan replied: “In other words, I think what Robin’s getting at — and what these people are implying when they use that very charged word — is that this woman, she’s difficult. Which is really just a euphemism, or probably not even a euphemism, it’s really a code word for the B-word.” 

The Duchess has her own experience of being labelled as ‘difficult’, having earned the nickname ‘Duchess Difficult’ in the early days of her working royal life, the moniker given to her shortly after her married to Prince Harry. 

Royal expert Victoria Arbiter previously explained the origins of the term: “It was coined in 2018 following rumours Meghan was quite difficult to work with. 

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“There were these 5am emails, several staff members claimed that they had been reduced to tears due to how she and Harry had spoken to them. These claims have been strenuously denied by the Sussexes.” 

Meanwhile, during her podcast, Meghan hinted that she has devised a strategy to stop the term from affecting her, noting that while others are using it in a positive way, there is another option. She said: “For some women, it’s all about embracing and reclaiming the b-word, taking the power out of it, maybe even using comedy to defuse it. And for others, it’s standing in there knowing and being unaffected by the implication of the word or its cousin, ‘difficult’.

“Powering through in spite of the pain, or even the insecurity it may cause. And sometimes using the dig for drive, getting them closer to their goal, building a business, a career.”

She suggested the labels are often used as a “deflection” from the “awesome” traits some women have, and also revealed she was inspired by her friends to explore the ‘difficult’ archetype that has plagued her for the last few years. 

She said: “I was just chatting with my girlfriends recently and I was asking them, for the show, what are the sort of archetypes you think we should discuss? And almost immediately, unequivocally — they all jumped to ‘difficult’ — that’s the word! You have to talk about difficult!”

Ms Arbiter claimed Meghan has been using her Spotify podcast to “push back” against some of the attacks on her reputation.

She told Australian morning show Sunrise: “Certainly, I think her podcast has been an incredible platform to push back against some of the wrongs she feels she has experienced…

“With the podcast, it is an opportunity to kind of get her version in there — probably not in quite the same blatant way that we have seen through the interviews, such as with Oprah Winfrey, but still an opportunity to lay it straight as she sees it.”

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