A bestselling American author who publicly apologized after calling Meghan Markle "phony" and "unmaternal" in 2020, has been praised by Queen Camilla, receiving a personal letter from the royal after the pair were introduced at a literary event earlier in the year.
Emily Giffin, author of the 2005 New York Times bestselling novel, Something Borrowed, has revealed to her social media followers that she had received a personal letter from the queen in July.
In an image of the note posted to the author's official Instagram account on August 28, Camilla thanked Giffin for sending her a copy of her new novel, writing that she would "much look forward to reading in the peace and quiet of Scotland."
The queen told the author it was a "great pleasure to meet you" during her second annual Queen's Reading Room literary festival at Hampton Court Palace earlier in the summer, and that she hoped "our paths will cross again in the near future."
It is not known whether Camilla was aware of Giffin's past comments about her stepdaughter-in-law, Meghan, at the time of writing the letter.
Newsweek approached Buckingham Palace and representatives for Meghan Markle and Emily Giffin via email for comment.
Giffin faced backlash in 2020 after uploading a series of critical posts to her Instagram account directed at Meghan, after the duchess marked the first birthday of her son, Prince Archie, by releasing a video of herself reading him a story.
The video was released by the Save With Stories initiative, a collaboration between Save The Children and No Kid Hungry set up during the COVID pandemic to support children's physical and educational needs during the nationwide school closures.
A text exchange Giffin posted to her Instagram stories in response to the video labeled Meghan "unmaternal" and "such a phony."
In a separate post she described the video of Archie as being "the [Meghan] show" and questioned why the duchess hadn't let Harry read on camera.
The posts earned swift backlash from fans of the royal couple who had split from the monarchy just months earlier and relocated to the U.S., with some saying the author's criticism was "racist."
Giffin issued a swift apology to Instagram, posting an old image of herself posing with cardboard cutouts of Harry and Meghan.
In the caption she said she regularly posts in an "unfiltered way," and that she is "very interested in the British monarchy."
"To be clear, I absolutely loved that a biracial, American woman was marrying into the Royal Family," she wrote. "It seemed a wonderful, happy thing for everyone. I celebrated their wedding by hosting a gathering here at my home and posting many, many photos. Further, I was appalled by any signs of racism against her.
"Over recent months my feelings about BOTH Harry and Meghan changed. But I can say from the bottom of my heart that my criticism of Meghan has never had anything to do with her race.
"Further, I understood why she wanted to leave the monarchy and carve out her own path. I do, however, find fault with the way BOTH she and Harry handled things, and those feelings bled over in later posts, including the ones today.
"I can see how some of my posts may have felt mean-spirited, and could be construed as having racial undertones. It was not my intent, but I understand that intent and impact are two very different things. And I am truly sorry for that negative impact."
A month later Giffin was quoted by USA Today as saying that her comments had been "mean."
"I need to be more careful about the impact of my words," she said, per USA Today, adding that to express legitimate criticism is valid, but that her reactions to the May 2020 Meghan video were not valid.
"They were just mean…I'm going to do better," she said.
At the time, Meghan did not publicly respond to Giffin's criticism or apology.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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