Meghan Markle Slammed Over Tabloid Comment: Duchess Should Have 'A Warning Label,' Journalist Claims

Meghan Markle was criticized by a journalist shortly after she took aim at the tabloid media

On Tuesday, the Duchess of Sussex joined The New York Times DealBook Online Summit in New York City. While discussing the position Markle holds at the helm of her and Prince Harry's Archewell Foundation, host Andrew Ross Sorkin, who is editor-at-large, columnist and founder of DealBook, mentioned having "read all sorts of crazy things about being a boss" in the tabloids, prompting the duchess to advise him to steer clear of gossip because it was not "healthy."

"Hopefully, one day [tabloids] come with a warning label like cigarettes do. Like, 'This is toxic for your mental health,'" Markle said.

The Sun executive editor Dan Wootton slammed Markle on his GB News show over her comment, calling her "duchess of woke" and a "hypocritical Hollywood wannabe." He also claimed that Markle was "absolutely desperate to get into the British tabloids" before she met Prince Harry.

Wootton alleged that Markle took out one of his close friends, whom the host claimed was a showbiz columnist with the British tabloid The Sunday People, to brag that former soccer player Ashley Cole was pursuing her "just so she could get into the said tabloid."

"Meghan, I think you should come with a warning label," Wootton added. "Don't trust anything that comes out of this woman's mouth."

Wootton also discussed Markle's comment with some guests, including British political commentator Calvin Robinson, who is a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. Robinson claimed that the duchess was a "hypocrite" and "milked the tabloid press to get where she is today."

Meanwhile, Markle has not only been critical of tabloids, but she's also taken some of them to court.

Back in February, a British judge ruled in the duchess' favor in a privacy and copyright infringement case involving five articles published by U.K.'s The Mail on Sunday in 2019 that reproduced parts of a handwritten letter she sent her father, Thomas Markle, following her royal wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018.

Lawyers for the Mail on Sunday's publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited, appeared before the U.K. Court of Appeal Tuesday to challenge her win.

When asked about the court case Tuesday, Markle, who shares 2-year-old son Archie Harrison and 5-month-old daughter Lilibet Diana with Prince Harry, told Sorkin, "In terms of this appeal, I won the case and this issue, frankly, has been going on when I had no children at all, I now have two children as you know. It's an arduous process," according to People.

Markle also said that the case was about her "standing up for what's right," regardless of how difficult it is.

A day after her appearance at the summit, Markle glided down the red carpet as she joined Prince Harry at the 2021 Salute to Freedom Gala at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City. She stunned in a red halterneck gown designed for her by Wes Gordon, the creative director of Carolina Herrera, while the duke looked dapper in a classic black suit.