Prince Harry and Meghan are named among world's leading 'nepo babies'

Prince Harry and Meghan are named among world’s leading ‘nepo babies’ by US magazines profiling rich stars who enjoy gilded lifestyles after a leg up from their families

  • New York Magazine and stablemate Vulture have branded couple nepo babies
  • Harry makes the final shortlist for readers to decide on their overall favourite 
  • Duchess of Sussex is ‘child of the well connected’ because of her father Thomas
  • The Cut describes their vindicating explanations for every slight as ‘exhausting’ 
  • Variety claimed Harry and Meghan become a ‘one-trick pony’ with complaints 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been named among the world’s leading ‘nepo babies’ – the group of stars who enjoy gilded lifestyles after a leg up from their well-connected parents or mega-rich families.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are weathering a storm from some of their favoured US publications, who have become critical of their constant attacks on the Royal Family and delivered mixed reviews of their Netflix show.

In a feature called ‘The Year of the Nepo Baby’, readers of New York culture bible ‘Vulture’ have been asked to vote for their favourite with Harry in the running along with Jaden Smith, Zoe Kravitz, Sofia Coppola, Lily Collins, Drew Barrymore and others.

And New York Magazine’s cover feature on the ‘nepo baby-verse’ names Meghan Markle with Kristen Stewart, Chris Pine, Jonah Hill, Phoebe Bridgers and Evan Rachel Wood, as ‘industry babies’ whose parents helped them.   

The article says: ‘They didn’t inherit a famous name, but did inherit connections and knowledge of the business’, before a nod to Thomas Markle, who worked as a Hollywood lighting director who brought his now estranged daughter on set.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have been featured in a round up of the world’s leading ‘nepo babies’

Harry is listed with Zoe Kravitz, the daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet (pictured together)

German tabloid Bild said the couple’s  Netflix series contained a ‘brazen network of lies’

The Duchess of Sussex is among ‘children of the well connected’, because her estranged father Thomas was a lighting director who helped her various Hollywood  sets.

What is a nepo baby? Why are celebs upset about being branded one?

Nepo baby has become a term of derision, with the New Yorker using it refer to names including Maya Hawke, the daughter of actors Uma Thurman and Ethan Hakwe; Dakota Johnson, the daughter of Miami Vice’s Don Johnson and actress Melanie Griffiths, and Lily-Rose Depp, offspring of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis.

Miss Allen has appeared in two of her mother’s films, Elizabeth and How to Build a Girl.

The Smile singer has daughters Marnie, nine, and Ethel, 11, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper and is married to Stranger Things actor, David Harbour.

Her brother Alfie is also an actor who played Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones and most recently starred in Stephen Knight’s BBC drama, SAS Rogue Heroes.

 

Her Friday ‘treat’ as a child was said to be watching Thomas working as a lighting technician at ABC Studios in Los Angeles, and she even appeared as an extra on the hit show Married… With Children, starring Ed O’Neill as Al Bundy.

On social media Prince Harry has been branded the ‘King of the nepo babies’.

Vulture admits that despite the Sussexes’ decision to quit royal duties, Harry is ‘still very, very wealthy and privileged’, but adds sarcastically that his constant sniping at his family ‘helps fuel our society’s slow progress toward the socialist utopia promised to us by Star Trek’.

MailOnline can reveal a seachange in opinion on the couple in the US, UK and Europe.

The Cut, the magazine Meghan Markle chose for an interview on the eve of the Queen’s death, issued cutting remarks about the Sussexes’ docu-series.

The review for the the liberal New York magazine was written by Claire Lampen, who in September called King Charles ‘a big, fussy baby, a jerk to his staff’ and a ‘persnickety snob’.

But in her review of the Netflix six-parter Ms Lampen said: ‘There is something exasperating in complaining about an intrusive press to your personal film crew after having sold your story to the world’s largest streaming service.

‘Over six episodes, the Sussexes have rehashed the sum total of their life together and many of the articles written about it.

‘Ultimately, Meghan and Harry are more sympathetic characters than Charles, and certainly more than Andrew, with far less to apologize for. But that only makes their vindicating explanations for every slight more exhausting’.

The BBC also delivered what was, at times, a withering assessment. Culture editor Katie Razzall said: ‘Heavily trailed, hugely anticipated – but did Harry & Meghan make good TV? Plot spoiler alert. If you watched the trailers and thought Harry & Meghan, Netflix’s heavily-promoted new series, was going to be explosive, prepare to be disappointed.

‘Their currency might begin to wane as they struggle with the law of diminishing returns. They may still want to battle royal institutions and the media, but it may turn out that their real battle will be with ongoing relevancy’.

‘She has her mother’s eyes. And agent’: Dakota Johnson, Maya Hawke, Zoë Kravitz, and more stars with famous parents were mocked on New York Magazine’s The Year of the Nepo Baby cover


Lily-Rose Depp with her mother Vanessa Paradis attend the Chanel Cruise Collection 2020. Melanie Griffith, Dakota Johnson, and Don Johnson

Iris Apatow, Leslie Mann, Judd Apatow, and Maude Apatow

German tabloid Bild accused them of ‘lying’ in the Netflix series.

The newspaper said its review: ‘Prince Harry and Meghan Markle make some explosive statements. However, THEY are not correct. Because: In the past, the two told their story very differently. BILD has researched and knows exactly when the emigrant couple lied, how the two constantly contradict each other and what is really true…’

It is a marked contrast to coverage when the couple appeared on Oprah in 2021.

The tabloid had praised the ‘honesty’ of their ‘so powerful’ interview with Oprah, who they said was even ‘surprised’ by ‘so much truth’.

Hollywood bible Variety also appears to have turned on Harry and Meghan after it ran a piece suggesting the pair’s repeated complaining about the Royal Family had made them a ‘one-trick pony’ which was ‘due for the glue factory’.

An article on the VIP section of the publication’s website said some scepticism was ‘warranted’ as to whether the pair had ‘gone to the well one too many times with their oft-repeated tale of mistreatment at the hands of England’s royal family.’

The piece written by Andrew Wallenstein, the president and chief media analyst of Variety Intelligence Platform, questioned ‘how much more meat could possibly be left on this bone’ particularly after Harry’s book, ‘Spare’, is published early next year.

That book will follow the pair’s infamous Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021 and the recently released six-part Netflix documentary series, both of which turned fire on the royal family.  

The article appeared in the Variety Intelligence Platform, the publication has previously been supportive of the couple

Harry and Meghan’s repeated complaints about the Royals have made them a ‘one-trick pony… due for the glue factory’, according to Variety

The article provides an insight into how the Sussexes are being perceived by parts of an industry they have now committed themselves to

The article provides an insight into how they are being perceived by parts of an industry the Sussexes have now committed themselves to.

The Netflix documentary proved to be a hit for the streaming service with nearly 2.5 million people watching the first episode on the day of its launch in the UK.

But Variety’s piece predicted that by the time Harry’s book comes out, people may see that a ‘backlash already starting to grow really accelerates as the couple’s strategically timed disclosures start to come across too carefully choreographed’.

He added that ‘even the dimmest of minds among their fans’ would eventually ‘tire’ of their ‘Oh, woe is us’ routine’ as they ‘play the victim card again and again’.  

Wallenstein predicted that by the time Harry’s book is published, many may see that a backlash ‘accelerates as the couple’s strategically timed disclosures’

The article questioned ‘how much more meat could possibly be left on this bone’, after Harry’s book Spare comes out next year

Mr Wallenstein, who even compared the pair to a ‘burlesque act’, wrote that if the pair carried on complaining about being victimised, it risked being seen as a ‘tone-deaf message’ to be giving out from their ‘posh’ estate in California, when there was ‘economic insecurity’ around the world.

In the piece titled, ‘It’s Well Past Time for Harry and Meghan 2.0, he wrote: ‘There can only be so many revelations left to share with the public now that the couple have exiled themselves away from their fractious coexistence with the monarchy.

‘Given that they’ve beaten this horse to death, perhaps this one-trick pony is due for the glue factory.’

He added: ‘Their game plan has always been, Come for the sob story, stay for the high-minded uplift.

‘But that’s a shaky strategy for keeping an audience around that probably doesn’t care about anything either of them has to say that isn’t royal gossip.’

The piece said despite it being said that the pair’s deal with Netflix, said to be worth $100m, would not include a reality show that was ‘exactly’ what their show had been.

Earlier this week it was revealed Harry and Meghan will executive produce an already commissioned show called ‘Live To Lead’, which interviews ‘leaders’ who are ‘committed to making a difference in the world’.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister and one of the guests, put out a statement saying signed up for the project well before the Sussexes were onboard.

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