Emily Giffin: 5 Things to Know About the Author

Making her mark. Emily Giffin made headlines in May 2020 for criticizing Meghan Markle, but the author was well-known long before her controversial comments.

Giffin, 48, slammed Markle, 38, on her son Archie’s 1st birthday on Wednesday, May 6, after the former actress released a video of her reading to the little one. The Maryland native called the former Duchess of Sussex “unmaternal” and “such a phony” in a text message shared via her Instagram Story. “Happy Birthday, Archie,” she captioned a shot from the video. “Go away, Megan [sic].”

The writer went on to post a comment she wrote on an account called What Meghan Wants. “Adorable child and book. But… Holy ‘me first.’ This is the Megan [sic] show,” she wrote. “Why didn’t she film and let [Prince] Harry read? And why didn’t she take the moment at the end to say ‘He said daddy!’ Because that would make it about Harry for a split second. God forbid. Also, you want privacy for your child so you put out a video (by your authorized biographer) of him … wearing no pants?! Ooookay.”

Elsewhere on her Instagram Story, Giffin suggested that the Kensington Palace Instagram account made a “pointed photo choice” to use a picture that showed several members of the royal family, rather than just Harry, 35, and Meghan.

The Something Borrowed author revealed in July 2018 that she was thinking about writing a novel based on the royals. “I’m toying with the idea of something set in the world of the royals. Did you know that I like the royals? Did you know that? Maybe in the backdrop of the story line,” she told Us Weekly exclusively at the time. “I think as much as I love the monarchy, I lived in England, I got up early to watch [Princess] Diana’s wedding when I was 7 years old. … I watched The Crown, I’m obsessed with all things, I’m an anglophile.”

She added: “I think it would be really fun to set a book, a story, within that backdrop. Let’s say, for example, there’s an actress, and she gets to go on a blind date occurrence and then marries him. She’s really dysfunctional. I’m kidding. But that would be a good book.”

Scroll to learn more about Giffin, outside of her seeming disdain for Markle.