Charlie Hebdo Slammed For 'Offensive' Cartoon Of Queen Elizabeth, Meghan Markle: 'Wrong On Every Level'

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo sparked outrage Saturday for its latest front cover, which shows a cartoon of Queen Elizabeth II kneeling on Meghan Markle's neck.

A caption on the drawing translates to "Why Meghan quit," while a quote bubble near the Duchess of Sussex says, "Because I couldn't breathe anymore," The Guardian reported. The cartoon, which was shared on the magazine's Twitter account, depicts Markle as George Floyd, the 46-year-old Black man who died in May 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.

Social media users criticized Charlie Hebdo over its cover, with some calling it racist. Dr. Halima Begum, chief executive of Runnymede Trust, a U.K. race equality think tank, didn't hide her disapproval of the artwork, describing it as "wrong on every level."

"The Queen as George Floyd’s murderer crushing Meghan’s neck?" she wrote on Twitter. "Meghan saying she’s unable to breathe? This doesn’t push boundaries, make anyone laugh or challenge racism. It demeans the issues and causes offense, across the board."

"Charlie Hebdo is a disgusting newspaper that promotes Racism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia and sexism. For years it has made fun of many serious social issues that exists in the world, whilst making millions of dollars," another tweeted.

"This is a vile display of anti-blackness and racism disguised free speech," a third user added.

"It shows the further devaluation of Black life. Black Death and trauma played for laughs. It is not thought provoking. Rather it furthers racist and thought," another commented.

"Not satire, not funny, not amusing, not freedom of speech...wrong on every level," another user added.

But some appeared to defend Charlie Hebdo and pointed out that the magazine describes itself as "satire."

"It’s satire," one commented, while another tweeted, "Anyone with a brain knows that ALL @Charlie_Hebdo_ covers are *intentionally* provocative. That’s their raison d'être. It’s called satire,"

"Isn’t the Magazine showing what happened to Megan as a metaphor? Where’s the offense? It’s not offensive to me," another wrote, though another replied, "I mean, as white people, we don't get to decide what's offensive when it comes to racism."

The controversial cartoon was released days after Prince Harry and Markle's sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey. Among their bombshell revelations during the tell-all was that some members of the royal family raised "concerns" and had "conversations" about how dark their child's skin color would be when he was born.

Prince Harry told Winfrey neither his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II nor his grandfather Prince Philip had been involved in these conversations, but the palace later addressed the allegations of racism in a statement. Buckingham Palace said the claims were "concerning" and would be investigated "privately."

Prince William also publicly denied the racism allegations, telling reporters Thursday, "We are very much not a racist family."