Twerk-Gate Erupts: Meghan’s Dance Video Melts the Internet (and Possibly Your Eyeballs)

0:03 Calorogus Shark Media. Hello and welcome to a special breaking news bonus episode of Palace Intrigue. As the Royals have the whole world. It's talking again. Whatever you do if someone sends you a video of Meghan Michael today, do not watch it, as you will be unable to unsee it, and Mike seek to rinse out your eyes and perhaps seek out a hypnotist. The Duchess of Sussex's once again stirred headlines at this time for dancing. Meghan Michael, dubbed the Duchess of Privacy by commentator Sarah Vine, has been heavily criticized for uploading a home video of herself and Prince Harry dancing to the viral hit the Baby Mama Dance while in hospital before the birth of their daughter, Princess Lilibet. The video, posted to her official Instagram account, shows Megan heavily pregnant, twerking and laughings. Prince Harry gamely bounces along beside her, a joyful, candid moment to some, but to others a baffling contradiction. Vine writes in The Daily Mail, the Duchess of Privacy herself twerking like some vulgar commoner while Prince Harry Dad dances around her like an over excited flamingo doing an elaborate courtship dance. It can't be real, can it not something you share with the entire world? Surely, especially when you know privacy. At the time of Lilibet's birth in June twenty twenty one,

1:33 the baby Mamma dance had become a viral sensation on TikTok, with expectant mothers using it as a lighthearted celebration of impending motherhood. Meghan's entry into the trend, albeit years later, appeared to have missed the mark with many. Social media response was swift and brutal. One social media user suggested something involving bleach, but we recommend against the bleach solution. Another declared, this is the most desperate and that's a critical thing I have ever seen from two people who wanted to protect their kids from social media and wanted privacy. A third asked, perhaps only half jokingly, whether the video was actually filmed last week. One user suggested Megan should have acted princessy instead of cringe, while another simply deemed the clip mortifying. Vine questioned whether the video was an attempt to reclaim the narrative, or perhaps she put it a kooky display of twerking designed to endear her to the masses. She concluded with a blunt assessment, it's hard to see what she wants to achieve, not just because it's crass and vulgar, but also because it really does remove any remaining leg she and the Prince might have had to stand on in terms of protecting their privacy.

2:45 Royal expert Whichard Fitzwilliams told The Express, when I first saw the video of a heavily pregnant Megan and Harry Twerking, I thought her Instagram account had been hacked and that this was a spoof. It was apparently taken in a labor ward four years ago. It is, of course, entirely up to Megan what she boasts. It is, however, our prerogative to judge. Behind the scenes here at Palace Intrigue, we at first thought it was a fake generated by AI. Of course, no moment in Sussex Land is complete without the arrival of the conspiracy theorists. Within hours of Megan Markel's hospital dance video being posted online, Sleuth's had begun dissecting the footage frame by frame, offering a litany of increasingly wild and wholly unstamtiated claims. Chief among them the persistent and long debunked rumor that Megan faked her pregnancy and wore a prosthetic belly, often referred to in such circles as a moon bump. Several commenters took to social media to argue, again without any credible evidence, that her baby bump appeared too high or the wrong shape to be genuine. Others insisted that Megan's energetic dancing at what was presumed to be nine months pregnant defined biological plausibility, dubbing her either superhuman or not pregnant at all. Some even suggested the video provided proof of a surrogate, alleging that the medical equipment visible in the background was not consistent with a labour ward, an assertion that medical professionals and rational observers would likely dismiss out of hand. Others claimed that Megan could not possibly have been in a genuine hospital setting because she was wearing her own clothes

4:17 and still had on jewelry. According to these self appointed experts, a woman in active labor especially one being induced would be dressed in a hospital gown and have had all the adornments removed. Some took it further, suggesting that Meghan's apparent lack of an IV drip indicated she was not being induced at all. One individual, claiming to be a nurse insisted she would have had a canula inserted into her hand, while another claimed she would have not been allowed to remain in her own clothing had she been undergoing medical procedures. Despite the deeply personal nature of the footage and its apparent intention to offer a lighthearted look at a family milestone, the clip has instead become further fuel for the more conspiratorial corners of the Internet. A reminder perhaps that in the world of Sussex's no image is ever just a moment. Royal insider Deep Crown points out, is this not exactly what Harry fled to avoid? Will remind DC that the privacy minded Harry put out a book called Spare, in which he wrote, nothing but joy and love In that room we ate and ate, and then did the baby mama dance around the hospital room?

5:25 More palace in just a Moment. If you like this program, add free go to caalaruga dot com, slash plus for more information, that's clrga dot com, or you can see the link in our show notes. Listeners on Apple podcasts can click the banner that says uninterrupted Listening right up there at the top of the page. Uninterrupted Listening. Just click that and for five bucks a month, you'll get Palace Intrigue along with twenty five plus other series on the network with hundreds and hundreds of shows without ads or feed drops, and Premium subscribers also already have early access to the first full season of our upcoming series Crown and Controversy, which covers the Royals beginning where the TV series The Crown left off, and you can get that all with your subscription, and we really appreciate your support behind the scenes here at Palace Intrigue. Megan is also been criticized for releasing a photograph of Princess Lilibet to mark her fourth birthday, in which Lilibet's face is slightly obscured by her mother's hair, yet still visible enough to provoke a comment from Royal observers. Angel Eleven, a royal biographer and frequent critic of the Sussexes, took to social media to voice her disapproval, saying they wanted privacy and to keep their children out of focus, and certainly wouldn't show their daughter's face only slightly hidden by her mother's hair. It's up to them or just her, but they have broken their own rules. Royal insider Deep Crown added, Harry's position has become rather untenable, hasn't it. One cannot credibly claim to have fled Britain to protect one's children

6:58 from media intrusion and proceed to photograph them for social media consumption. The boy who once walked behind his mother's coffin, who genuinely understood the corrosive nature of press attention, now seems to have forgotten his own hard learned lessons. This isn't about privacy, It's about control of the narrative. Harry wants to be both the protective father and the content creator, which strikes those of us who knew him in his palace days as deeply contradictory. I'm told his father finds this particular evolution rather sad that Harry, we once knew, would have kept that photograph in a private album, not posted for global consumption. Assuming the Duchess had even told him beforehand. A normal episode of Palace Intrigue went out this morning at the usual time, and there'll be one more bonus episode later today as Deep Crown wanted to address the story. Then we'll be back in the morning at our usual time, and there you have it. If you like to email us, who addresses the Palace Entry at gmail dot com. Please follow us a spot by Apple or the Apple of your choison. Leave us a nice review you enjoying the show. I'm Mark Francis my thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace Intrigue in good times.