Royal Family Changed Meghan Markle’s Dialogue in ‘Suits’ Script, Series Creator Reveals

Meghan Markle’s time on the USA Network drama Suits is undeniably her most notable acting role to date. Now, in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the series creator, Aaron Korsh, has revealed that the Royal Family got involved with the series after Markle began dating Prince Harry. He states that the Royals got ahold of scripts and had some of Markle’s dialogue changed.

Korsh says he “was as excited in some ways as everybody else,” when Markle began dating Harry, adding with a laugh, “I mean, your initial reaction is, like, ‘We’re dating a prince!’ But the security and all that stuff, we shot in Toronto and the writers room was in L.A., so other people were dealing with that.” He then brought up the dialogue changes, recalling, “I will say, and I think Harry put this in the book, because I heard people talking about it – [the royal family] weighed in on some stuff. Not many things, by the way, but a few things that we wanted to do and couldn’t do, and it was a little irritating.”

Thinking back on a “particular line of dialogue” that apparently caused royal concerns, Korsh explained, “I’ll just say what the line was. My wife’s family, when they have a topic to discuss that might be sensitive, they use the word, ‘poppycock.’ Let’s say you wanted to do something that you knew your husband didn’t want to do, but you wanted to at least discuss it, and in just discussing it, you wouldn’t hold him to anything he said, you’d be like, ‘It’s poppycock.’ So, in the episode, Mike and Rachel [Markle’s character] were going to have a thing, and as a nod to my in-laws, we were going to have her say, ‘My family would say poppycock.’”

“The royal family did not want her saying the word,” Korsh said. “They didn’t want to put the word ‘poppycock’ in her mouth. I presume because they didn’t want people cutting things together of her saying ‘cock.’ So, we had to change it to ‘bulls—’ instead of ‘poppycock,’ and I did not like it because I’d told my in-laws that [poppycock] was going to be in the show. There was maybe one or two more things, but I can’t remember.” When asked exactly how the royal family was “getting or reading scripts,” Korsh replied, “I don’t know how they got ’em. I was aware that they were reading them because I got the feedback, but I don’t remember the process by which they got them.”

Korsh also clarified that it was not Markle who had to break the news to him about script changes. “Meghan did not call me. I can’t remember. It might have been the directing producer at the time, or her agent,” he said. “Whoever it was, they didn’t like having to tell me any more than I liked having to hear it. But listen, when they explained it that way, and I’m pretty sure it got explained to me that it was about that [splicing potential], I had some sympathy because I wouldn’t want somebody doing that to her either. And the thing is, I didn’t think anybody really would, but also I don’t know. People are crazy.”

Finally, Korsh added, “The other thing that I’ll say is when you’re making and running a show, any time that anybody tells you that you can’t do what you want to do, [being irritated is] your initial reaction. People will often ask me who I most relate to in the show, and I relate to all of them, I’ve had moments of all of them. But Harvey was a dick when he didn’t get his way, and when I didn’t get my way, my reaction would be to be like, ‘This is bullshit!’ But then five minutes later, I’d be like, ‘Well, OK, it’s pretty reasonable. Whatever.’”