Meghan Markle Reveals the Royal Rule That Made Her Feel ‘Inauthentic’

When Meghan Markle sat down with Emily Chang for Bloomberg Originals’ The Circuit, she seemed more at ease than she has in years. The Duchess of Sussex, now 44, has made a habit of turning interviews into deeply personal reflections, but this time, the tone was different. She wasn’t simply defending her past or clarifying headlines; she was peeling back a layer of herself, sharing something at once trivial and symbolic.

Chang asked her a deceptively simple question: What is the one truth about yourself that you want people to know? Meghan’s pause felt deliberate, as though she was weighing the gravity of the moment. Then, with a small laugh that hinted at both nervousness and relief, she confessed:

“No one’s ever asked me that. What a great question. The one thing—I think when I sit with it for a second here—I just want people to know that I’m a real person. And I think a lot of that gets lost in what can be super dehumanizing.”

For a public figure whose identity has been dissected, distorted, and debated, Meghan’s plea for recognition as “real” carries weight. She spoke of her friends—those she has known since she was seventeen—who still text her about articles filled with speculation. She mentioned the daily rituals of motherhood, the school runs and drop-offs that ground her, reminding her of her place outside of palace walls and news cycles.

But it was her reflection on her royal years that brought the most surprising moment of the conversation.

“I had to wear nude pantyhose all the time,” she laughed, half incredulous even in hindsight. “Let’s be honest, that was not very myself. I hadn’t seen pantyhose since the ‘80s, when they came in the little egg? That felt a little bit inauthentic.”

It might sound like a trivial detail, but to Meghan it symbolized a larger struggle: the tension between individuality and institution. Clothing, after all, can be armor, can be code, can be restriction. For Meghan, it was all of those things. Pantyhose were not just pantyhose; they were a rule, and rules were everywhere.

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The Rule of Appearance

Behind the polished images of balcony waves and state dinners lies a world governed by centuries-old customs. In Meghan’s telling, even the smallest protocols could strip away one’s sense of identity. The pantyhose rule was one such example. It wasn’t about fashion—it was about conformity.

“It’s a silly example,” she admitted, “but it is an example. Because when you’re able to dress the way you want to dress, and you’re able to say the things that are true, and you’re able to show up in the space really organically and authentically, that’s being comfortable in your own skin.”

The Duchess explained that this idea of comfort in authenticity had marked different chapters of her life. From acting in Hollywood to transitioning into the royal family, and later stepping away with Prince Harry in 2020, each era had forced her to renegotiate what it meant to be herself.

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Dehumanization in the Spotlight

The broader point Meghan was making had less to do with hosiery and more to do with humanity. She described the endless stream of headlines, the tabloid culture that spins stories faster than they can be lived.

“When you look at the clickbait culture and how much is written about someone, it’s like, no, my friends have to read those things,” she said. “Like, I have real best friends. I’m a real mom.”

Her words carried a tone of both exhaustion and insistence. For Meghan, the challenge has always been the gap between the narrative created about her and the lived reality she inhabits. That gap is where the sense of inauthenticity grew—not only in pantyhose, but in silence, in smiling when one does not feel like smiling, in standing still when one longs to run.

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A New Chapter

Today, Meghan frames her story not as an escape from the monarchy but as a reclamation of her voice. The founding of As Ever—her lifestyle brand—seems less like a business venture and more like an experiment in living without the invisible dress code of the Firm. She describes it as a space to share “organically and authentically,” words she returned to often in her talk with Chang.

Her laughter over pantyhose may appear lighthearted, but it serves as a metaphor for something larger: the quiet ways women, especially those in public life, are asked to mold themselves to expectations that may never fit. To resist, to choose one’s own clothing, one’s own words, one’s own path, is to reclaim the small freedoms that build an authentic life.

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The Bigger Question

Perhaps the most poignant moment came when Meghan turned the question back on her audience:

“And how would you want someone to treat a real person in your life that you cared about or loved or respected?”

It is a question less about her and more about the culture that consumes her. The pantyhose, the tabloids, the scrutiny—they all serve as reminders of how society forgets that public figures are, at their core, simply people.

Meghan Markle’s revelation may not change minds overnight, but it underscores the paradox she has always lived within: extraordinary visibility and extraordinary invisibility at the same time. For her, authenticity is not a buzzword—it is survival.

And sometimes, it begins with nothing more complicated than refusing to wear pantyhose.