Prince Harry Reacting to Shock Headline Goes Viral

Prince Harry recreating his shocked reaction to an infamous tabloid headline describing Meghan Markle as "(almost) straight outta Compton" has gone viral on TikTok.

The Mail on Sunday ran a story wrongly suggesting Meghan was from a "gang-scarred home" in Crenshaw, Los Angeles, in November 2016, days after the couple's relationship became public knowledge. The BBC reported Meghan in fact grew up in the more affluent View Park-Windsor Hills area.

The Duke of Sussex told their 2022 Netflix series Harry & Meghan: "Within that first week that it became public knowledge the first story was Harry's new girl almost, in brackets, straight outta Compton. And I was like 'woah.'"

The moment went viral after it was posted to TikTok with the message: "Prince Harry put out a statement against racial hit pieces toward Meghan only 1 week after their relationship went public. This has been happening since the very beginning."

The clip was liked 7,245 times and viewed 121,000 times and went on to show a snippet of Harry's interview with Anderson Cooper from 60 Minutes in January 2023 publicizing his book Spare.

Cooper asked Harry about a statement put out in 2016 through Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf that condemned "the racial undertones of comment pieces."

"You write that your dad and your brother, William, were furious with you for doing that," Cooper said. "Why?"

"They felt as though it made them look bad," Harry replied. "They felt as though they didn't have a chance or weren't able to do that for their partners. What Meghan had to go through was similar in some part to what Kate and what Camilla went through, very different circumstances.

"But then you add in the race element, which was what the British press jumped on straight away. I went into this incredibly naïve. I had no idea the British press were so bigoted. Hell, I was probably bigoted before the relationship with with Meghan."

In the Netflix show, Meghan also addressed the "(almost) straight outta Compton" story: "Well, firstly, I'm just not from Compton. I've never lived in Compton so its factually incorrect but why do you have to make a dig at Compton?"

"The direction from the palace was don't say anything," Harry added. "What people need to understand is as far as a lot of the family are concerned everything she was being put through they had been through as well so it was kind of a right of passage."

The 2016 statement read: "The past week has seen a line crossed. His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment.

"Some of this has been very public—the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.

"Some of it has been hidden from the public—the nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of papers; her mother having to struggle past photographers in order to get to her front door; the attempts of reporters and photographers to gain illegal entry to her home and the calls to police that followed; the substantial bribes offered by papers to her ex-boyfriend; the bombardment of nearly every friend, co-worker, and loved one in her life.

"Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle's safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her. It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm."

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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