SANE founder says Meghan Markle 'playing the victim' doesn't help

‘I don’t think playing the victim helps’: Founder of mental health charity SANE says Meghan Markle should ‘find ways of living with whatever disability or disadvantage you have’ after Duchess told of her suicidal thoughts

• Marjorie Wallace was asked about Meghan revealing she had suicidal thoughts
• The founder of mental health charity SANE said she doesn’t like ‘victimhood’
• Ms Wallace added she doesn’t ‘respect’ those who ‘take victimhood as a career’
• She made the remarks on Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women podcast this month 

Charity founder and investigative journalist Marjorie Wallace has revealed she doesn’t like ‘victimhood’ when asked about Meghan Markle saying she had suicidal thoughts.

The 80-year-old, who founded mental health charity SANE inn 1986, said while she doesn’t like to ‘condemn’ anyone, she doesn’t ‘respect people who take victimhood on as a career’.

Ms Wallace, who made her name with her reporting on the thalidomide scandal, remarked that people have to ‘find ways of living with whatever disability or disadvantage you have’.

A close confident of the Earl of Snowden for more than 40 years, the veteran journalist said everyone ‘whether they’re privileged or they’re poor’ has troubles in their lives.

Marjorie Wallace, pictured here at a screening of ‘The Silent Twins’ in London in December, said she ‘doesn’t ‘respect people who take victimhood on as a career’

She made the remarks after being asked about Meghan Markle revealing that she had had suicidal thoughts on her Netflix documentary (pictured)

She made the remarks on Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women podcast, where she discussed her career and personal life which has seen her become a campaigner for people with disabilities and those who are disadvantaged.

In the podcast, the topic of conversation turned to Meghan Markle and her decision to discuss in her Netflix documentary with Prince Harry that she developed suicidal thoughts as a working member of the Royal Family.

When asked by Johnson about whether she thought it was wise to reveal this, Ms Wallace said: ‘I don’t like to condemn anyone. 

‘I’ll tell you what I don’t really like, and this is nothing to do with the Netflix series, is that I don’t like victimhood and I’ve never played it myself in my life.

‘Yes you can have terrible times, and I’ve had terrible terrible times with my children, with my life, with my divorce – all kinds of terrible things. 

‘But I don’t really think playing the victim card helps, whatever you’re a victim of, and I don’t really respect people who take victimhood on as a career.

‘That’s not my stoic philosophy, I think you’ve got to find ways of living with whatever disability or disadvantage you have. Everyone has it whether they’re privileged or they’re poor.’

Ms Wallace, who was awarded a CBE in 2008, for her services to mental healthcare, had been a close confident of Antony Armstrong-Jones, the 1st Earl of Snowden for decades.

Meghan tearfully revealed she had had suicidal thoughts as a member of the Royal Family during her interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.

The Duchess of Sussex told Oprah she ‘couldn’t be left alone’ and told her husband she ‘didn’t want to be alive anymore’ before claiming the Buckingham Palace HR department ignored her plea for help because she wasn’t a ‘paid employee’.

Meghan first revealed she had had suicidal thoughts in her interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 (pictured)

Describing how she considered ending her life believing it ‘was better for everyone’, Meghan said: ‘I knew that if I didn’t say it, that I would do it. I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. 

‘I remember how he just cradled me. I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help. I said that ‘I’ve never felt this way before, and I need to go somewhere’. And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution’.

She said that after confiding in her husband, she was forced to go to the Royal Albert Hall for a charity event in January 2019, claiming photos from that night ‘haunt me’. 

She told Oprah she later reached out to one of the best friends of Diana, Princess of Wales, because she felt unsupported by the palace.

She said: ‘When I joined that family, that was the last time I saw my passport, my driving licence, my keys – all of that gets turned over’. Meghan said Harry had ‘saved my life’ by agreeing to move to Los Angeles.

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