Meghan Markle Will Reportedly Snub Donald Trump On Upcoming U.K. Visit, Will Use ‘Maternity Leave’ Excuse
When Donald Trump makes his first official “state visit” to the United Kingdom in June, there is one member of the British Royal Family that it now appears he will not have the opportunity to meet — Trump’s fellow American, Meghan Markle. According to reports in the British media, Markle is looking for an excuse to avoid meeting Trump, and has found one in her “maternity leave.” As The Inquisitr reported, Markle is said to be considering a six-week maternity leave, set to end on the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, which is June 8.
That would cause her to miss Trump’s state visit, which is scheduled to take place over three days — June 3, June 4, and June 5, according to the BBC.
Trump also visited the U.K. in July of last year, but that trip was labeled a “working visit,” according to CNN, as opposed to an official, ceremonial “state visit.”
“I’m told that there are no plans for Meghan to meet President Trump,” Duncan Larcombe, an expert on the royals, said this week according to The Sun newspaper. Larcombe claimed that Markle’s absence from any Trump events would not be a “snub,” but added that the Duchess’s maternity leave appeared “quite convenient” to excuse her from meeting Trump.
Whether Markle’s husband, Prince Harry, will attend a state dinner with Trump had yet to be determined, but royal experts said it would be “odd” if he, too, snubbed Trump on the state visit, according to The Daily Mail newspaper.
Members of the British Royal Family are strongly discouraged from expressing political views and preferences, and the queen herself is not even allowed to vote. But prior to entering into a romantic relationship with Prince Harry, followed by her marriage into the royal family, Markle — then a television actress — made no secret of her distaste for Trump, as the site Refinery 29 has documented.
In various interviews and social media posts, Markle has condemned Trump as “misogynistic,” and “divisive,” telling talk show host Larry Wilmore in May of 2016 that she was considering simply staying in Canada when her TV show Suits filmed there, if Trump won the election later that year.
She also said, during the 2016 election campaign, that she supported Democrat Hillary Clinton “not because she is a woman, but because Trump has made it easy to see that you don’t really want that kind of world that he’s painting.”
She had also previously spoken out against Brexit, the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union, a move that Trump has said he supports, according to The Guardian.
