Jennifer Tilly’s Real Housewives quip drags Meghan Markle back into ‘Googled Harry’ debate
Meghan Markle has been pulled into a fresh round of online debate after actress Jennifer Tilly made a pointed joke while discussing new cast members joining The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The comment, delivered this week during an Entertainment Tonight interview, compared the newcomers’ claim that they had not watched the series before signing up to the Duchess of Sussex’s past insistence that she did not research Prince Harry ahead of their first date.
Speaking about newcomers Amanda Frances and Bozoma “Boz” Saint John, Express reported that Ms Tilly quipped their insistence was “like Meghan Markle claiming she never Googled Prince Harry”.
The comparison revived discussion around Markle’s previous public remarks about the early stages of her relationship with the Duke of Sussex. During the couple’s 2017 BBC engagement interview, Markle said she did not grow up with the same understanding of the monarchy and that her only question to the friend who introduced them was: “Well, is he nice?” She later repeated the point in her 2021 interview with Ms Oprah Winfrey, saying: “I never looked up my husband online. I just didn’t feel the need to because everything that I needed to know, he was sharing with me.”
Reaction online was mixed, with some viewers criticising the remark and others treating it as a throwaway reality-TV gag. The moment comes amid ongoing scrutiny of the Duchess’s media profile, including claims about streaming performance in recent reporting on Netflix viewership.
For The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, the exchange emerged as new cast members discussed how much of the long-running series they had watched before joining. Frances has said she saw only one episode before filming and avoided bingeing to prevent preconceived ideas, while questions about those claims have continued to circulate among fans and cast-watchers alike.
