Dame Joan Collins Slams Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Live TV

Actress and author Dame Joan Collins is not a fan of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and she is not shy about it either. On Monday, Collins was a guest on Good Morning Britain where they discussed the royals’ recent visit to the U.K. She asked dryly: “Do we need to give any of them more oxygen?”

Queen Elizabeth II bestowed the title of “Dame” on Collins back in 2014, and the GMB hosts asked pointedly if she had opinions on “any other duchesses” in the headlines that day. She joked: “Who could that be? I have no idea.” She weighed in on the recent conversation between Markle and Mariah Carey, where Carey called Markle a “diva” and Markle perceived it as an insult. Collins did not agree with this interpretation.

I see #gmb @susannareid100 is still the b that she is, as for #joancollins this dried up old haaag, needs to keep her mouth of #MeghanofMontecito pic.twitter.com/QKKLAe77v3

— Jozaphen_ Imisioluwa,oluwasegun Sussex (@jozzzaphen) September 5, 2022

“I think it’s rather nice to be called a diva now and again,” the 89-year-old actress said. “I mean, it’s supposed to be a compliment, actually.” Markle previously discussed this nuance on her Archetypes podcast last month.

“When she said ‘diva,’ she was talking about the way that I dress, the posture, the clothing, the ‘fabulousness,’ as she sees it. She meant ‘diva’ as a compliment, but I heard it as a dig,” she explained. “In that moment, as she explained to me, she meant it as chic, as inspirational. And how one very charged word can mean something different for each of us, it’s mind-blowing to me.”

The British press is still dissecting this observation as they do with all of Markle’s comments and behavior. Collins is not new to that news cycle – she has often been a critic of Prince Harry and Markle over the last few years. Collins got her start in the entertainment industry through her father who was a talent agent in the 1940s and 1950s. When it comes to the royal family, she is particularly noted for playing the queen’s mother, The Grand Duchess Alexandra of Oxford in the 2015 drama The Royals on E!

As for Markle, she and Prince Harry officially stepped down from their positions as senior members of the royal family in January of 2020 and moved to the U.S. They have been working in the entertainment industry ever since, but the British press never took its eye off of them. Their visit to the U.K. has led to a massive surge in new coverage of their post-royal lifestyle.