Royal TikToker Points Out Comparisons Between Meghan and Kate

• TikToker Amanda Matta says people often use language with subtext to compare Meghan and Kate.
• Matta said some of this language includes referring to Middleton as an “English rose” or “regal.”
• “You’re just describing an upper class, British white woman,” Matta told Insider.

The Duchess of Sussex has been compared to the Duchess of Cambridge by the British tabloids since she married into the royal family in 2018.

The royal TikToker Amanda Matta is calling out what she says is “racist language” used to differentiate the two royals.

Matta, who is known for her royal-themed videos on Twitter and on TikTok, where she has over 597,000 followers, first spoke about the topic in a video posted to TikTok on December 7.

In the video, Matta shared a comment that was made on one of her previous videos which read: “I just feel that Kate has something very regal about her.”

“Yeah, that’s her whiteness,” Matta said in the video, which has more than 1.8 million views at the time of writing. “That thing that you just can’t put your finger on that Kate has that Meghan doesn’t, you’re talking about her white skin.”

“Sometimes commenters will dress this up as, ‘Kate has class, Meghan doesn’t. Or Kate is genuine, and Meghan isn’t.’ But we didn’t all sit down and have a conversation with Meghan, and then with Kate, and collectively come to that conclusion,” she added.

Speaking to Insider, Matta said she wishes she had used a comment directly comparing the two duchesses as an example in her video since she said these often can have racist undertones.

“In these contexts where Kate and Meghan are being used to play off each other, that is the language that often gets used,” Matta told Insider. “Kate is classy. Kate is regal. Kate is an ‘English rose’ is one that often gets pulled into the conversation, but you’re just describing an upper class, British white woman.”

“You know, some people in response to that video say, ‘I don’t hate Meghan because she’s Black, I hate her because she’s American,'” Matta added. “And in both of those cases, you’re saying the same thing, that you think she’s ‘low brow.’ You think she’s lesser than Kate either because of the color of her skin or where she was born.”

 

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Earlier this month, British tabloids received backlash for using their coverage of the Duchess of Cambridge’s 40th birthday to criticize Meghan Markle.

Some articles that were written as tributes to Middleton also openly blasted Markle, describing her as less qualified to be queen than her sister-in-law.

“Even Kate Middleton’s birthday is another opportunity for the UK press to abuse Meghan Markle, put her down in favor of the “acceptable” white duchess,” the journalist Stephanie Guerilus wrote on Twitter.

Matta addressed one of the articles — which she referred to as “racist royal journalism”  — in a TikTok video, posted on January 7.

“Meghan really gives me ‘rich and unbothered’ vibes these days, and I think that’s what’s making people mad,” Matta said in the video.

During an interview with Oprah Winfrey in March, Markle said the royal family had excused the media’s treatment of her by comparing it to the struggles Middleton faced early in her royal career.

“Kate was called ‘Waity Katie,’ waiting to marry William,” Markle said. “While I imagine that was really hard — and I do, I can’t picture what that felt like — this is not the same. And if a member of his family will comfortably say, ‘We’ve all had to deal with things that are rude,’ rude and racist are not the same.”

Royal women throughout history have been pitted against one another

Matta told Insider that the tabloids’ treatment of royal women like Markle can be traced back centuries.

“There’s always been a desire to have a scapegoat when it comes to the royals,” she said.

 

Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images

“You can take this back centuries to where there was a royal mistress, and it was okay to critique them because you couldn’t critique the king because that would be treason.”

“While there aren’t royal mistresses anymore, there are still the wives of the royals, right?” she added. “And this exact same thing, minus the racially charged language, happened between Diana and Sarah Ferguson. There’s always been this comparison between two women because it’s fascinating.”

Princess Diana married Prince Charles in 1981 and Sarah Ferguson married Prince Andrew in 1986. The women had known one another since childhood, and appeared to have a close relationship while members of the royal family.

Speaking of how Markle and Middleton’s relationship mirrored Diana and Ferguson’s, royal biographer Andrew Morton told Vanity Fair: “I anticipated that the narrative would change to ‘sisters at war’ after a honeymoon period.”

“Why was it predictable? Because young royal sisters-in-law, as it was with Diana and Fergie, are set up for failure. They’re compared to one another incessantly — in what they wear, how they behave — in a way that never happens to royal men,” he added.

“In many respects, it says more about the way we deal with women in the media than it does about any big row going on.”