So much for Meghan Markle's political influence! Duchess' controversial lobbyist letter pleading for paid family leave fails to make an impact as Biden drops proposal from his $1.75T plan
So much for Meghan Markle's political influence! Duchess' controversial lobbyist letter pleading for paid family leave fails to make an impact as Biden drops proposal from his $1.75T plan
- Joe Biden announced a new framework for his Build Back Better reconciliation bill on Thursday morning, revealing he's dropped paid leave for parents
- Progressives had advocated for national paid leave for 12 weeks for new parents
- The President said earlier this month he would need to cut that down to four weeks as he struggled to gain support for his infrastructure plan
- On Thursday, he announced that he has dropped paid leave for parents from the plan in a compromise to push the Build Back Better plan through a vote
- His announcement comes days after Meghan, 40, sparked furious controversy when she penned a letter to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer about paid leave
- The Los Angeles-born Duchess published an extraordinary 1,030-word letter via supportive media outlets, saying paid parental leave should be a 'national right'
- She said that her own family had struggled when she was younger despite her middle class upbringing in which she attended private schools
Meghan Markle's attempts to influence Biden's $1.75 trillion infrastructure plan have fallen short, it was revealed on Thursday, as the President announced he has dropped paid leave for new parents from his bill, just days after the Duchess penned a lobbyist letter pleading for it to be made a 'national right'.
The 40-year-old mother-of-two sparked furious controversy earlier this month when she turned lobbyist by writing an open letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer advocating for paid family leave.
Meghan's extraordinary 1,030-word letter, which was written on the Sussexes' new post-Megxit letterhead, sparked furious controversy - and saw the Duchess accused of using her British royal title to try and meddle in US politics.
Some also suggested that she was using 'tactics of an aspiring politician' and adopting a 'ruthless streak' to try and influence Biden's Build Back Better bill.
However her efforts have now been proven in vain after the President announced on Thursday that he has cut his proposals for paid national leave for all new parents from his infrastructure bill, which has been tangled up in Congress for months, in a bid to push it forward.
In the letter, which was handed out to several of the Sussexes' preferred media outlets, Meghan, who grew up in a middle class family in Los Angeles, said that she was writing to Pelosi and Schumer not as an 'elected official' nor a 'politician' but as an 'engaged citizen and parent... and as a mom'.
In one of the most astonishing parts of her letter, she suggested that her own family was impoverished, even though her father was an Emmy award-winning lighting director and she was educated at private primary and secondary schools.
She painted a picture of humble beginnings and saying that her family struggled when she was young - despite her well-documenting middle class upbringing on Thomas Markle's $200,000-a-year salary.
'I grew up on the $4.99 salad bar at Sizzler,' the Duchess of Sussex wrote. 'I knew how hard my parents worked to afford this because even at five bucks, eating out was something special, and I felt lucky. I started working (at the local frozen yogurt shop) at the age of 13.'
She continued: 'I waited tables, babysat, and piecemealed jobs together to cover odds and ends.'
However, Meghan failed to mention the $750,000 California state lottery win her father scooped in 1990, which funded her secondary education at $9,412-a-semester Immaculate Heart High School in LA.
Meghan also attended a private primary school - Hollywood's Little Red Schoolhouse nursery, which now costs between $20,000 and $28,300-a-year - from age two on her father Thomas' and her airline steward mother Doria's salaries.
She went on to study at Northwestern, in Illinois, which would have cost between $24,000- and $28,000-a-year for tuition when Meghan studied there from 1999 to 2003.
The Duchess of Sussex published an open letter to the House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader on October 20, in which she referenced her own childhood and her life as a mother
Also missing from the letter was any mention of the sprawling $14million mansion in Montecito, California, where Meghan now lives with husband Prince Harry and their two children. The couple's series of lucrative deals with Spotify and Netflix, thought to be worth well over $150million, were also omitted.
Meghan did concede that she has not had to struggle in the same way that other parents who are not offered paid leave have, however she admitted that both she and Prince Harry, 37, felt 'overwhelmed' after they welcomed their second child, Lilibet, earlier this year.
'In June, my husband and I welcomed our second child,' she said.
'Like any parents, we were overjoyed. Like many parents, we were overwhelmed. Like fewer parents, we weren't confronted with the harsh reality of either spending those first few critical months with our baby or going back to work.'
Meghan and Harry were able to take four months family leave after the birth of their daughter Lilibet in June this year, retreating to their Montecito home for several months before returning to work in September.
The Duchess was also able to take time off after having Archie in 2019, staying at home for four months before returning to work.
The couple also reportedly used nannies to look after their children in the UK, and hired and fired several after Archie was born in 2019.
Read More Here: Daily Mail
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