Succession’s Brian Cox says Meghan’s marriage into royal family is a ‘fairytale gone horribly wrong’

The actor has previously said that ‘we shouldn’t have a monarchy’

Brian Cox has claimed that Meghan Markle’s marriage into the royal family is a “fairytale that went horribly wrong”.

In a new interview with the Radio Times, the Succession star said that he understood why Meghan was attracted to marrying into the royal family, due to its “fairytale” image.

Reiterating his calls for the monarchy to be abolished, Cox, 76, said: “They’re the product of an institution which is moribund and shouldn’t exist any more.”

“But that’s a difficult situation where [Meghan] comes from, and it’s understandable that she sees something – and it does look like a fairytale. But it was a fairytale that went horribly wrong,” he said (viaThe Times).

Cox added that he considered Harry and Meghan to be “victims” and that the royal family “fundamentally, in this day and age, doesn’t make any sense”.

It comes as a contradiction to Cox’s comments made last month, when he said that Meghan “knew what she was getting into” when she married Prince Harry and subsequently joined the royal family.

“You can’t go into a system where somebody’s already been trained to behave in a certain kind of way and then just expect them to cut themselves off,” he previously told Haute Living New York.

Brian Cox has previously called for the monarchy to be abolished (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

“I mean, she knew what she was getting into,” he added. “In my opinion, we shouldn’t have a monarchy. It’s not viable; it doesn’t make any sense... F*** it, move on.”

The Troy actor has now said that those comments were “taken out of context” and that the pair were instead “victims”.

In 2020, Cox told ES Magazine that the British royal family should be abolished after the Queen’s death to rid its “feudal hold on our culture”.

At the time, he praised Queen Elizabeth II as an “amazing woman”, but said that monarchy “should go” when “she’s gone”.

The Independent has contacted representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and Cox for comment.