After Meghan Markle spoke out about the treatment she and her husband Prince Harry endured by the Royal Family on Sunday night, her Suits co-star and on-screen father, Wendall Pierce, slammed the interview with Oprah Winfrey for being “insensitive.” The actor, best known for his performance on The Wire, spoke with a British radio station addressing the bombshell interview while criticizing “everyone” involved for holding an interview during an ongoing pandemic.
The 57-year-old actor, who appeared on Suits as Markle’s father for 36 episodes, admitted to LCB Radio that the entire thing was inconsiderate due to the current climate. “Today, 3,000 people are going to die in America from Covid. A couple of hundred people are going to die, even this hour, in the U.K.,” he said. “[It was] quite insensitive and offensive that we are all complicit in this sort of palace… gossip in the midst of so much death. I think it is insignificant.”
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Adding how Markle and Harry’s interview elicited a Shakespearean kind of vibe while quoting a line from Macbeth with “full of sound and fury signifying nothing,” he went on to clarify how he was criticizing “everyone” involved — not just Markle and Harry. Pierce went on to insist the Royal Family should also not engage in such matters and instead “focus on the throes of death that we’re in.”
Shortly after his interview went viral for the comments about the interview being filmed amid a pandemic, the U.K. press and tabloids evidently used his words as an “attack,” with the Louisiana native taking to Twitter to slam them, particularly the Daily Mail, for its continuous vitriol and interpretation of his words. “I just discovered my words are being used as an attack. Well done, British Press. Clarity: The British monarchy is archaic in my American eyes. If slavery, colonialism and apartheid didn’t educate you that they are racist, you failed history,” he wrote in a series of tweets. “I was fortunate to tell Meghan personally I wish her all the best. Predicting this hellacious maelstrom (sic), I also told her she would always have a friend in me. Because I had no interest in the interview doesn’t change that.”
With the U.K. press and tabloids downplaying Markle’s admissions about suicide ideation, Pierce further adds how in no way is he “insensitive” to suicide. “Unfortunately, my family has suffered the pain of losing someone to suicide. I never was interviewed by the Daily Mail and their story manipulated my words in a radio interview. As I told Meghan, I support her and wish her all the best.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741.
