Brian Cox doesn’t buy Meghan Markle’s ‘innocence’ in royal drama
The Scottish 'Succession' star, an avowed anti-monarchist, says in a new interview that Meghan 'knew what she was getting into' when she married into the royal family.
While Brian Cox once expressed sympathy for Meghan Markle, saying that the royal family had “driven” her and Prince Harry out of the U.K., he now says she “knew what she was getting into” when she married into the monarchy.
In a new interview, the “Succession” star offered a critical assessment of the American Duchess of Sussex, saying she “clearly” had an “ambition” when she married Harry and shouldn’t be surprised that their departure from royal life has caused so much drama and acrimony.
“The childhood dreams of marrying Prince Charming and all that (expletive) we see as fantasy that could be our lives in our dreams,” Cox said in an interview with Haute Living New York, published Wednesday.
The Scottish actor is no fan of the monarchy and has long called for it to be abolished, especially now that Queen Elizabeth II has died. “In my opinion, we shouldn’t have a monarchy,” Cox also said in the interview, per the Daily Mail. “It’s not viable; it doesn’t make any sense. (Expletive) it.”
With that, Cox said Meghan was fully aware when she married Harry that she was inserting herself into an archaic, centuries-old system — despite her famous claims to Oprah Winfrey that she didn’t even google her future husband while dating him.
Cox said the former TV actor should have known that the system wouldn’t change to suit her. He furthermore said he doubts people’s assumption that there’s an “innocence” about the Sussexes.
“You can’t go into a system where somebody’s already been trained to behave in a certain kind of way and then just expect (people in that system) to cut themselves off,” Cox said. “I mean, she knew what she was getting into.”
Cox’s comments about Meghan and Harry’s role in the ongoing royal drama come as the couple continue to keep fans waiting with their decision about whether they’ll attend King Charles III’s coronation in May.
The California-based Sussexes have spent the past three years criticizing the royal family as cruel and dysfunctional, even suggesting in their 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview that the family is racist. Nonetheless, their critics say they seem determined to remain publicly associated with the monarchy — a point that probably isn’t lost on the anti-monarchist Cox.
In recent weeks, the Sussexes asserted their children’s “birthright” to their royal titles when they announced that their daughter, Lilibet, had been christened “Princess Lilibet Diana.”
Back in early 2020, Cox was more on the Sussexes’ side in the royal drama, soon after they announced they were departing royal life to seek financial independence and to resettle in the United States.
“Let’s not beat about the bush, they have driven them out, and yes, I have no doubt at all, some of it is racist,” Cox told ES Magazine at the time, per the Daily Mail. Cox appeared to lay the blame on both the royal family and on the U.K. media. “It’s horrible what has happened to them.”
Around that time, Cox was campaigning for Scottish independence. Since then, he said he doesn’t consider himself a Scottish nationalist and doesn’t want to break up the United Kingdom. He said he hopes instead for a move towards towards federalism, in which Scotland has more control over its own affairs.
Cox’s anti-monarchist position, however, has remained. In 2020, he praised the late queen as “amazing woman.” He added, “But when she’s gone, the whole bloody shooting match should go, I really think so.”