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Abstract
In 2019–2020, Meghan Markle was one of the most intensely mediated mothers in the anglophone media. This article examines how U.K. and U.S. media representations of Markle negotiate, trouble, challenge, regulate, and reassert the boundaries and meanings of contemporary motherhood. Situating Markle’s mediated representations in the context of the increasing visibility and shifting meanings of motherhood in contemporary culture, and particularly in the context of the growing visibility of voices and accounts of “mothering while Black,” we examine the mediation of Markle’s maternity in three moments: (1) Prince Harry’s announcement of the birth; (2) Markle’s public outing with the baby, her later interview for an ITV documentary, and the lawsuit she filed against the British tabloid Mail on Sunday; and (3) the royal couple’s South Africa tour. We conclude by examining a fourth mediated moment—“Megxit”—and highlight the mediation of Markle’s maternity as a site that might open up a space for rewriting motherhood, and particularly Black motherhood, however limited that space may be.
Notes
2 See https://www.mother.ly/st/year-of-the-mother; https://www.acesconnection.com/blog/2020-is-the-year-of-the-mother.
3 See Nash (Citation2019), in which she argues that the mediated maternal figures and related aesthetics of Williams and Beyoncé have taken up a universal position that melds their political and personal discontent.
4 For example, poet Camille Dungy (Citation2017) describes overpacking for her infant daughter on one of their trips to Maine as an antidote to the unknown scenarios based on the potentially fickle weather.
5 See also Washington (Citation2020) for a discussion of how Markle moves “between, through, around, and within ideas of race” (p. 350).
6 To identify representations of Megxit we searched the same databases used for the previous three moments.
7 For example, referring to the queen’s doctors, Markle said she did not want “the men in suits” to supervise the birth and appointed her own delivery team, led by a female obstetrician (Hockaday, Citation2019).
8 On the cultural meanings and reception of One Born Every Minute, see De Benedictis (Citation2016) and Horeck (Citation2016).
13 See Duncan and Bidman (Citation2020).
15 See, for example, Betancourt (Citation2020).
16 Bailey (Citation2019).
18 See, for example, https://www.popsugar.com/fashion/Doria-Ragland-Nose-Ring-Royal-Wedding-2018-44862180; https://www.insider.com/meghan-markle-mom-doria-ragland-nose-ring-royal-wedding-2018-5 and https://www.essence.com/hair/royal-wedding-meghan-markle-mom-doria-ragland-locs-nose-ring/.
19 See, for example, https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a16405569/meghan-markle-mother-doria-ragland/ and https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/royals/meghan-markles-mom-kept-her-nose-ring-for-the-royal-wedding-—-and-people-are-obsessed/ar-AAxvhEe.
20 Source: https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/24/rare-glimpse-harry-meghans-nanny-royal-tour-south-africa-10801457/.