We’ve spoken about Tom Bower’s Harry and Meghan book, Revenge, many times before, but we found there are talking points most people haven’t covered.
Before we go into these Revenge talking points, we have to ask everyone to check out our review of the book. Also, this is a partial list.
Meghan’s Nickname “Flower”
An early made in the book is that Bower debunks Meghan’s claim that it was her mother who referred to her as Flower. Revenge states that it was Thomas Markle, her dad, who started to call her Flower, not Doria. It was later said that Thomas would refer to Meghan as ‘Bean’. This is due to her love of Jack and the Beanstalk when she got older.
Meghan did a Tig Talk with herself where she mentioned her nickname Flower was given to her by her mother. Doria, to us, doesn’t come across as someone who would give out nicknames.
The Buddhist Church – Thomas And Doria’s Wedding
Very early on in the book, Thomas Markle tells Tom Bower that Doria was insistent that they marry in a Buddhist church called the Self-Realisation Fellowship Temple. The question is why.
Doria doesn’t come across as religious the handful of times she has appeared in public. Also, if she was hellbent on marrying Thomas in a Buddhist church, why didn’t they raise Meghan to be a Buddhist? After all, she loves Yoga and talking to spirits.
The reason this Revenge talking point is interesting is because Meghan went to Catholic schools.
The Markle Family Tie To English Royalty – Descended From King Edward VIII
Another Revenge talking point is that Thomas’ side of the family can be traced back to England. They can also be traced to King Edward III. So, for Meghan to claim “I never Googled my husband”, “I didn’t look my husband up online” and “I didn’t know anything about the royals” is a total lie.
Remember that trip she took to Malta when she pretended to be Maltese? If she had actually dug deep enough, she would have learned she had English ancestry alongside her Irish ancestry.
The Racism Against Thomas Junior
Believe it or not, Thomas Markle Junior, experienced racism. This stems back to when he went to an all-black school where he was the only white student. Yes, that’s right folks. White people can experience racism. Shock horror, right? No, not really.
Meghan, who was only a baby at the time, wouldn’t have known this. Could she have stolen the whole racism narrative from her own brother?
The Black Neighbourhood Narrative
We’ve all heard Meghan claim that she was raised by her mother in a black neighbourhood. She might have been referring to a short time when she lived with her mother and maternal grandmother. This happened while her dad, who was her primary caregiver, worked 18-hour days.
Wisdom
While not an unexplored talking point, Tom Bower mentions in Revenge the claim Meghan made about having an ancestor who changed his last name to Wisdom from Ragland. Well, according to the author, this didn’t happen as the guy remained a “Ragland”.
Doria Never Complained About Racism
We’ve seen the clip from the Harry and Meghan Netflix docuseries where Doria was going on about how everything that her daughter allegedly went through as a royal, had to do with race. However, Tom Bower makes an interesting comment in Revenge.
He says that Doria never complained to Thomas about how difficult it was to be a black person in Westward Hills. This is where they were living at that point in Meghan’s life. When you look at the comment mentioned in Revenge, you can safe assumption that Doria had never been concerned about racism, when it came to her daughter. Though, she did note a situation where people believed she was Meghan’s nanny, not her mother.
However, as a child growing up, Doria faced some discrimination alongside her parents and half-brother due to segregation.
The Doll Story
Meghan would write on The Tig that one Christmas her dad had bought two Heart family Barbie doll sets. One set was black and the other was white. He pulled them apart and “customised” a family of four just for her.
However, this is not the story that Thomas recalled. According to him, he had given the gift to his daughter on her fourth birthday with her friends, mother and grandmother all present. He did not remember Meghan ever bringing up the issue of her race until this story was brought to his attention.
This is yet another lie of Meghan’s we can debunk.
Only Child
Remember when Meghan mentioned to Oprah that she’d grown up as an ‘only child’? Well, this impression came off as such because her half-sister, Samantha, who much older than her, was barely around.
The Barn
We know that Meghan likes to either exaggerate the places she has stayed or lived in. So, we’re not surprised when she claimed when she moved in permanently with her dad that they were living in a “cramped converted garage apartment”.
Thomas and Meghan lived in a converted farmhouse where there was plenty of space.
Doria’s Involvement And How The Procter And Gamble Story Helped Meghan Into High School
Doria didn’t have much of a role in Meghan’s life when she entered high school. She did not attend the interview that was required to get into the Immaculate Heart School. What Thomas Markle found interesting was the so-called ‘battle’ Meghan had with P&G over the Ivory dish soap commercial was the reason why she had gotten into the school in the first place.
Returning to Doria, she only attended an event at Meghan’s school once and that was before she graduated.
What Others Have Stated About Race At Immuculate Heart
A white teacher and a photographer said that race was never an issue at the school as only 30% of students were white. The rest of the student populace was made up of different ethnicities.
The Photographer, who was a frequent visitor to the school, said that he didn’t recall Meghan associating with African-American students. He also stated that students did not see or consider her mixed-race.
Meghan, The Leader
Remember what Meghan said about being a loner with no friends to the point she had to keep herself busy at school during lunch? Well, according to her teachers, she was proactive and ‘was a leader amongst her friends.’
She also forgets that she had Nikki, who was her best friend. It gets even better.
Not only did Meghan show people compassion by giving a depressed student a note telling them they were ‘wonderful’, but she also was voted as student president and Homecoming Queen. For that to happen, you have to stand out. There are photos to back this up.
Due to her increasing popularity, Meghan became controlling at school and at home. She was the master of ceremonies at school.
The ‘Queen’
When the son of a Bolivian president was at her school, Meghan would boast for a few days that she was going to be ‘Queen of Bolivia’ because she befriended the guy.
Jealousy Towards Other Girls Who Got What She Wanted
We’ve all heard that Meghan is jealous of Catherine because she has the life she wants and so on. However, what if we told you this came up because Meghan, while she was at school, would become green with envy if another girl got the part she had auditioned for? Not to mention, she grew envious of a girl who had been hired by a Hollywood studio and two others who had auditioned for the film Trace of Red.
When Did Meghan’s Diva Antics Kick In?
If Tom Bower’s Revenge is correct, Meghan’s diva behaviour started in 1999 when she had to pick between going to a camp or being the lead in the school play. Her drama teacher told her she couldn’t do both. Angry, Meghan ordered her dad not to do the lighting as a form of revenge.
However, Thomas went against her and did the show as he had promised the school. Outraged, Meghan moved in with her mother for “a few weeks”. It’s also noted that the performance she did in the boy’s school production Damned Yankees was the only production that Doria attended.
Meghan Wanted To Attend Princeton
Here’s a Revenge talking point that most people, including us, missed. Meghan’s first college choice wasn’t Northwestern. It was the Ivy League school, Princeton. Yes, you read that correctly.
Meghan wasn’t the brainiac she thought she was and while she had good grades, they weren’t good enough to get her into Princeton. However, she did get into Northwestern as we already know, which was her second choice and had a good drama program.
What Meghan doesn’t want people to know is that she hates being denied anything. So, when she got that rejection letter from Princeton, who wants to bet she was on the cusp of throwing things?
Meghan Started Going By Her Real Given Name: Rachel
For a while during college, Meghan went by her given name; Rachel but she refused to explain why she’d stopped going by her middle name as she had always been known. At the time, and by pure coincidence, Jennifer Aniston’s career had taken off on the sitcom Friends where she portrayed Rachel Green.
Declining The Theatre Invite
The head of the voice programme at Northwestern gave Meghan an invitation to join the theatre. Markle turned her offer down. For those who might not know, many actresses who have gone on to be nominated and won at the Oscars, such as Meryl Streep, got their start in theatre.
It’s also stated that Meghan has never once in her whole life mentioned a theatrical show she was inspired by.
No Reference To Mixed Race On Acting Resume
Thomas Markle noted that Meghan’s acting resume did not reference her ethnicity as being mixed.
Meghan’s Racism Narrative Started On The Tig… It Seems
Meghan is obsessed with labelling people as racist. She once wrote, presumedly on The Tig, that she had a negative and somewhat racist encounter with one of the girls she met in her first week at Northwestern. She alleged that this girl made a negative connotation about her mixed-race heritage.
However, a professor at Northwestern University whose primary focus is African-American theatre, denied that there was racism at the college which has over 15,000 students. Though, the professor did share his neutral observation of Meghan during her time at the school.
The Internship
According to Tom Bower, Meghan got in contact with her Uncle Michael – one of her dad’s brothers – to arrange an internship for her at the American embassy in Argentina. Meghan claimed years later that she worked in Buenos Aires.
Mike Markle had set her up to be a junior press officer in a gig that lasted five weeks.
However, Samantha, Meghan’s sister later claimed that Meghan had not been employed by the embassy but was attending a school that had ties to the embassy.
Also, Meghan took the Foreign Service Officer test but failed. If she had passed this test, she would’ve had to participate in a more demanding exam to be able to work for the State Department. One requirement for this test was mathematics skills, one Meghan lacked as she had known no interest in numbers before.
Cliché
The reason for the internship was that Meghan felt unsure about becoming an actress as she didn’t want to fall into the cliché of women from Los Angeles wanting to become actresses. However, she decided to continue her acting pursuit upon her return from Argentina.
Drew
Meghan claimed that she was approached by an agent known simply as Drew who had been intrigued by her performance in a student production she had filmed. However, no one had been able to find this ‘Drew’ character.
