'You Sound Like a Troll': Anti-Meghan Markle Royal Author Storms Out of TV Debate While Criticizing Duchess' New Product
Is royal expert Angela Levin a "troll"?
The author of 2018's Harry: A Biography of a Prince took part in a TalkTV debate with presenter J.J. Anisiobi, who pushed back against the outspoken commentator when she was critiquing Meghan Markle's promotion of her new strawberry jam.
Anisiobi told Levin: "It sounds like you've got a vendetta against Meghan Markle."
"Angela, with respect, you sound like a troll, you sound like a social-media troll. Everything you can point out that's incorrect..." he added.
"That's very rude; you don't call someone a troll with respect," Levin responded. "That's without respect. Let me talk about something else: Abigail Spencer who is also a friend of Meghan's, she has [was] given the sixth jar of jam, right? And we see her lying on the grass, hugging it with a dog close by. It was a very sort of set-up thing; that's one when she's sitting up. I thought how ridiculous; this is a jar of jam. Why are we getting hysterical about a jar of jam?"
"Who's hysterical about it?" Anisiobi replied. "It's PR; she's trying to sell something this is called advertising?"
"I know what PR is," Levin cut in.
The presenter shot back with: "With respect, you clearly don't. You're saying it's so set-up? It's a PR stunt."
The argument continued with the author becoming visibly agitated with the host.
"You're here to fight me, so why don't you say goodbye?" Levin stated. "Thank you so much. You're very rude. I don't really listen. Goodbye."
"I'm not here to fight you. I'm just laying out the truth to you," Anisiobi responded.
"No, Angela, you don't want to be challenged. You won't be challenged, and you won't be scrutinized. I'd like to know... Oh, and she's gone," he observed as the scribe walked off set. "You see, this is what happens. When you challenge people, when you go to them and you say to them, here's some facts, here's some truths, some people don't like it.
He concluded: "If people can't answer the truths, what do they do? They hang up."
After the "awkward" exchange, actress and Meghan fan Narinder Kaur posted on X: "Well done @jjanisiobi about time someone called her out. Angela Levin can dish it out but can't take it."
Bestselling Harry and Meghan biographer Omid Scobie shared: "LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL [laugh out loud]. Sorry, but the royal beat is so unserious."
Ever since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the U.K. in early 2020, Levin pivoted to mostly criticizing the royal rebels in her commentary. After several, extensive interviews with Prince Harry for her biography on him, the scribe is also considered a "leading authority" on analysis of the fifth in line to the throne.
Newsweek reported on the TalkTV walkout.