Here are more photos of the Duchess of Sussex in that yellow Brandon Maxwell dress that everyone liked. She really did look good, and I hope this is the kind of style she goes for more often as a duchess: clean, simple lines, bold colors, conservative hemline. The poor woman hasn’t even been a duchess for two full months and people are already jumping all over her about everything, from fashion to hair to her (admittedly terrible) family. So what’s new on the Meghan-bashing beat? Well… apparently, Meghan has adopted a faux British accent. At first I didn’t hear it, but the more she talks in this video, you can actually hear it:
Meghan said my name, that’s me done😭 pic.twitter.com/167F2ubjUh
— Aya El Zeiny (@elzeiny99) June 14, 2018
I laughed a little bit, I cringed a little bit, and I got mad on her behalf a little bit. I think the weird accent thing probably started out as Meghan trying to adopt a “posh” American accent, so that she sounded like old-money Connecticut WASP, you know? Like, it started out as her Katharine Hepburn accent, which is exactly the kind of voice/accent I would adopt if I was around stuffy protocol people all day long, I would just do Hepburn-in-The-Philadelphia-Story all day long. But yes, then the Katharine Hepburn accent phased into a weird Madonna-esque fake-British accent through the course of a brief conversation. It’s not great. But she IS an actress. Even then, if you’re an American with an affection for BBC America or any British television show, I guarantee that you’ve tried out a British accent before, just to see if you could do it. I practice my fake British accent when I’m alone in the car. I think I’ve actually gotten it down.
The thing is though… everyone’s talking about her accent fakery and no one is talking about how genuinely sweet and down-to-earth she seems here. She’s actually introducing herself to random people with “I’m Meghan,” like we don’t know! She asks for their names too. Until she starts doing it full-on and talking about being keen for scones, I think we should just wait it out.
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.
I unconsciously pick up accents really easily. I spent a summer at a New Jersey summer camp as a kid and ended up with a New Jersey accent for a while. It happens! She’s not being fake…it just happens.
Yep, after living in London for four months I ended up with a horrible Eurotrash accent that slipped out when I was traveling and trying to think in other languages. It happened to a couple of my friends I was traveling with, too. It does happen.
😂😂😂😂😂 @ Eurotrash accent.
I wish you could post a sample of it here, I would love to hear it!
So do I. My best friend moved to Dubai, married a Brit and now lives in the FL panhandle and has a British/southern/midwestern crazy accent. My sister in law moved to TX years ago and started saying y’all like two weeks later. If you are around that 24/7 it’s hard not to pick it up.
I’m here to chime in about “picking up” an accent when emmersed. The ear stops “hearing” and the voice starts emulating. Especially as An actress she may have a natural chameleon tendency. I had an Aussie outback accent when I returned to the US from emmersion. Not fake nor practiced just human symptom of living in a particular culture.
It definitely happens. I had to live in Memphis for a year when I first got married and even my mother noticed how thick my Southern accent got after living there for a short while.
Also, I was a huge horse racing fan and had a crush on Triple Crown winner Affirmed’s jockey Steve Cauthen. He was from Kentucky and after winning the Triple Crown, he went to work for a British horse breeder and moved over there. I think he’d only been there for a year and when I saw him interviewed, you would think he was born and raised in England with the accent he had!
I don’t think she’s faking it. I think she’s been living there for eight months surrounded by people with this accent and this is the result.
I tend to think it’s unconscious, too. I definitely heard a mix of American and British inflections and the British accent seems very slight.
My husband is like this. He has a couple friends from the south and when he’s with them for any extended length of time he picks up their twang. It goes away later, lol.
I didn’t hear her sounding British, but I do know it can happen. It’s easy to unconsciously pick up a dialect when you’re around it all the time. In my first teaching job (a kindergarten class), there was this adorable little 5 year old from Tennessee. Well, after a while, when he’d twang at me, I’d twang right back! Didn’t do it purpose, didn’t even realize it until the mom brought in a video she shot of the class doing a project, and there I was, twanging along with him lol.
I think people really need to stop nitpicking on Meghan.
After watching The Crown and Downton Abbey I also had a british accent saying some words, can’t imagine if I was living there! lol
It’s natural…..so people are just more susceptible to adopting new accents than others. We moved around an awful lot growing up, but I have a wooden tongue and have kept the same accent my whole life. My younger brother, on the other hand, would always end up absorbing whatever new accent he was being taught in, within a matter of weeks. So it really does depend on the individual.
Speaking of other famous “accent thieves”, Lewis Hamilton gets in trouble constantly for allegedly adopting an American accent, even though he grew up in Hertfordshire.
I can never understand why anyone cares so much what accent someone else speaks in, as long as they’re coherent.
I really don’t know why Meghan is being accused of “trying to adopt a “posh” American accent” or faking a British accent. A lot of people who move to a new or different part of a country pick up the accent. When I went to college I moved from CT to GA and picked up a slight southern accent. It wasn’t on purpose it just happened. Meghan barely has an accent so if she was faking it, it would be more thicker and noticeable.
Grew up on the west coast, have lived in the south and now in the Midwest and you can hear it when I speak. “Oh yeah, dude y’all should try it!” But the oh yeah has an upper Midwest twang attached lol
I don’t think she’s trying to be posh or whatever, I think she’s moved to a new place and is totally immersed and doesn’t even realize it’s happening. I hope this doesn’t make her feel self conscious when she speaks now
“I unconsciously pick up accents really easily. I spent a summer at a New Jersey summer camp as a kid and ended up with a New Jersey accent for a while. It happens! She’s not being fake…it just happens.”
@Pamsicle. You are not alone. This is me, too. And it’s embarrassing. I actually find myself when in conversation with Brits, or Aussies, or Southerners adopting their accent without even meaning to, and it sounds like I’m making fun of them. Even when my brain is screaming, ‘Stop doing that!’ I still hear it come out of my mouth. Mortifying.
@S I feel this so hard! I do the same thing to people with accents (or any kind of different speech pattern really) and I die inside because it can come across as if I’m making fun, but I seem to be physically incapable of stopping. It’s mortifying.
I tend to pick up accents a bit too. And exposure will do that. A South African friend of mine moved to China to teach, married a Brit and most of her friends there turned out to be American or Aussie. She admitted that her accent went all over the place because of this (while still staying mainly South African). A Canadian friend moved to Zimbabwe years ago and married a local guy. She was a definite accent now that sounds like her husband’s. So I will give MM the benefit of a doubt – she is just absorbing the accent of the people around her. She’s an actress and therefore a mimic of all she sees.
My sister does this too, and of course actors pick up accents as a matter of course. I think it’s probably natural, but she should get a little more discipline around it and keep her American accent, because people find it charming.
Same – I still slip into a Boston accent w/ certain words after sitting next to a girl from there when I worked at a call center…8 years ago lol
Meh. People pick up accents all the time without realizing it. I lived in England for a year and ended up with a weird English/Philadelphia accent and has no idea until I moved home. I still slip into it when I speak to my English friends. My NYC born and raised husband still has a southern twang from his years living in the Florida panhandle 20 years ago. And I just got back from a week’s vacation with my southern sister in law and can’t stop saying y’all. Whatever. People are just looking for something to hit her with.
Yup. It happens so badly sometimes that even an extended amt of time spent at Heathrow during a layover can make it happen. I get so many strange looks from ticket agents and flight attendants and stuff, it’s so sad.
And then there was the time I visited the Netherlands. I’m not even sure wtf I was doing there, I think I was trying to speak Dutch (I don’t speak Dutch) but it came out as garbled rubbish every time. I think it’s just an instinctual thing. One of those things where you really want to fit in on a subconscious level, but it’s like…girl…wyd….
Totally agree that it’s possible she jist picked it up from living there, and even if it was intentional still I think no big deal. She’s got a lot of responsibility on her shoulders, she’s an actress, a bit nervous, new country, etc etc. totally not a big deal.
I had a boss who did that occasionally too, he was totally unaware of it. Unfortunately we worked front desk at a hotel and it did sound like he was mocking international guests.
It’s easy for some people to pick up accents without thinking about it. My brother is one of them. He lived in London for two years and came back with a British accent (which sounded so strange from a guy who grew up on Lawn Guyland). He’s now lived in Atlanta for more than 20 years and has a serious Southern Accent these days.
Within a few months, Meghan will have a full-blown upper crust British accent. She seems to have that kind of an ear.
Yes! In her defense, this just naturally happens after living in a place and interacting with people. My friend moved to Texas and came back to visit with y’all y’all y’all!
Absolutely agree: I traveled all over the U.S. as a young military dependent, and I unwittingly pick up accents incredibly easily. I have a sexy British man speaking directions on my GPS, and to my horror, at a rest stop on a long trip, I asked for my food order with a British accent! The truly embarrassing thing was, once I started, I felt like I had to continue with it! I KNEW this would happen to poor Megan sooner or later, and hope people don’t harp on her for it. ps: ACTUALLY, even during the wedding ceremony, when she had to repeat the vows, I told my husband, I’d have had a hard time not repeating them with the same accent as the minister used!!
I lived in London for awhile (years) and I couldn’t help but pick it up. I was teased when I moved back to the US. Sometimes words came in just to avoid attention. Once on the bus I said “thirty-five” and the bus driver had fun with that forever – it felt like anyway.
Yep. When I’m in certain “accenty” regions of the world (that is, where the accent is super diff from mine, e.g. UK or southern US), it actually takes an effort for me NOT to start picking up vowel sounds or intonations from other Englishes. That’s how linguistics works. We can all point to examples of friends or family who came back from living in, say, Memphis or Australia with some nifty new vowel sounds.
Some people never pick up the local accent; some people consciously try to mimic it for whatever reason; the rest of us just morph along.
Me, too. So much so that a colleague from Virginia thought I was a fellow Southerner on the phone. Nope, just came from living in a Midwestern town near the Kentucky border. I’ve only briefly visited in the DC area of Maryland and Virginia, never been further south.
I vividly remember a native-born Hoosier who had married an African guy and lived in Africa (can’t remember the country) where English was one of the official languages and was spoken with a kind of British accent with an added African lilt. That’s how this Hoosier talked now! It felt like a disconnect. But many people quickly lose the cadence of their native accent when immersed in a different one, it’s actually a problem for people teaching their native language in a foreign country. They have to have long visits periodically to try to maintain the original accent.
I doubt that she’s faking it. She’s around Harry all the time now plus she’s around other people with the same accent. She would have to exert quite an effort to avoid picking it up, and why bother?
Yeah, this is my thought too. my husband is british and when we go there i start picking up an accent too, I can’t help it.
Yes, Pamsicle! what she said ! 😉
it’s a natural human adaptation feature.
Is it not possible that she’s also just being affected by spending all day every day with English people? I lived in South Carolina for a year and when I would Skype my English friends they would say I sounded so incredibly American talking to my room mates because I was subconsciously mimicking the accent. I would meet people in bars and they didn’t realise I was English straight away
Yep. I’ve never understood this criticism of people who move to England and are surrounded my English people. Of course they’re going to pick up on the accent!
Americans even do this within the US. I have a friend from Louisiana who slips into the accent when she’s home for a visit and it’s strong for a few weeks after, but then it melllows out. It’s just human nature.
Every time I’m in holiday in the UK I end up adopting the accent within days. It happens.
When I was in the UK, I had a colleague who was Canadian and I would have never guessed. Locals could tell, I remember someone asking her on the phone if she were American and she responded with, “I’m Canadian, actually,” in what I thought was a halting London accent.
My parents were from London and I always thought their accents were thick as a brick. But when my mom and I went back to London, strangers there would say they could tell she had moved away and was living abroad. Huh? I never understood.
It’s not a British accent. I’ve watched Suits from day one. Over the series, she began to sound Canadian. She sounds very Canadian here. No British.
People always think they are better at other accents than they really are. My French ex husband lived in the UK for 10 years and swore that he had barely any French accent even though he really did. He would get so mad when people couldn’t understand him.
I think she sounds American still but with a bit of a strange twang. That happens to lots of people when they’re around people with different accents. My family all speak the Queens English (like the royals or what British people just call posh) but I live in Norfolk and find that accent slipping in when I’m speaking to someone else with a Norfolk accent. It’s not intentional and I don’t claim to have a Norfolk accent but certain works come out sounding lazy. I wonder whether she will start using British words.
She has a lovely voice (I do like the American accent), even with the poshed up accent but she’s an actress so I’m guessing she’s creating a public persona and the change in speaking voice is part of that or has just subconsciously picked up some of Harry’s speaking habits). As long as Megs doesn’t start sounding like Katie Keen’s uber posh accent that she was sporting for a while – she thankfully seems to have gotten over that and has started speaking in a more normal way.
She really does have a natural way with people, I guess the constant hustle and networking of HW served as prep for meeting the general public.
True, she could have an “at home” and “in public” accent: my parents (and me too, I suppose, although to a lesser extent) have this – a strong Moroccan accent at home and a much softer “refined” one when out and about in the UK.
Yep, this happens a lot with a lot of my African American and Mexican American/Puerto Rican friends too, so they tell me. It’s integration into white culture to avoid racism directed at them, while retaining that bit of identity when they want to.
She is great with people. Just listening to all that small talk almost made me break out into a sweat, it’s my worst nightmare, but she did so well.
I have a cousin living in England (we’re Dominican) and she has the strangest mishmash of a Dominican and British accent! Once you’ve lived somewhere a while the accent just kind of rubs off. It’s natural.
The Danish footballer Peter Schmeichel has a bit of a crazy mishmash accent too – a cross of Danish and Mancunian from his years of playing in Northern England.
My hubby has something similar . He’s from Kosovo , the first place he lived in the UK (where we met) was the West Country so he now 18 years later has a mix of the awful farmer accent (I have it I can say it) and his own more brusque tones 😂
Yup…I was an Australian in Vancouver less than a year and im giving hard ‘r’s like it’s going out of fashion. Not intentional per se but part necessary for people to understand you (can i have “water” please… noone can understand) and part adapting to surroundings
I love Australian accents! However when my Aussie friends said the name “Richard Gere” three times to me and I had to ask themselves to repeat themselves many more times, with them asking had I not seen Pretty Woman, before I had any clue who they were mentioning.
Seriously it cracks me up how much the soft r changes his name!!! Love those Aussie friends for code switching for me. Their American pronunciation of his name was priceless.
Of course she’s going to pick up an accent. She spends most of her days around British people. I’m from Ireland and my childhood friend moved to Birmingham 3 years ago and she now speaks with the strangest English accent. She doesn’t hear it, but I do because I’m so used to how she used to speak. It’s what happens when you live abroad.
I thought Meghan came across as really lovely and sincere in the video.
excuse me! I’m a Brummie and have a lovely accent ( and one of the oldest around originating in the Kingdom of West Mercia that existed over a thousand years ago) thank you so very much ! LOL 😁 Teasing aside, people pick up accents all the time, Meryl Streep once admitted she could have a phone conversation and by the end of it she would be speaking in whatever accent the other person had, much to the embarrassment of her children.
When I lived in England, I picked up an English accent as well – apparently to the degree that my mother said I’d begun to speak danish with an English accent. Lol 😉
It’s funny – I think some people are accent sponges and some aren’t. I (an American) lived in Scotland for three years and didn’t pick up a Scottish accent at all. Scottish and British slang, yes, but not the accent. I knew a decent number of ex-pats from the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and some people started to sound a bit Scottish while others didn’t. I think Meghan might just be an accent sponge (part of being an actress?), or it’s just a result of trying to fit in with her in-laws, subconsciously or consciously.
I think so too. I don’t think I would pick up an accent.
I agree with you! Languages always came easily to me. In elementary and high school, I took French and Spanish, and became fluent in both pretty quickly; my teachers said I was a “natural”. I think some people just have “an ear”, and pick up it up, nuances and all, pretty easily.
Some well-known prof of linguistics analyzed the tape word per word and said there was no accent at all. Can’t say I noticed anything.
Kaiser, when you practice a posh English accent in your car, try imitating Kate’s posh accent. Don’t forget to put some marbles in your mouth!😊
I have a fairly good ear for accents and languages and I don’t hear it at all! I was prepared for something really cringeworthy and then she just sounded normal!
Yeah I also don’t hear any accent.She just sound like her normal self
I don’t hear it either. It will probably come in time. I was shocked recently, hearing a recording of my voice, to hear my own NY accent (after decades of living here). Had no idea that I had it.
All I can hear of a British accent is Meghan saying “Thank-kew, thank-kew, thank-kew.” On another note, a few weeks ago I listened to a video of Autumn Kelly Phillips talking. I don’t know when it was from, but I was shocked! She’s got a very strong British accent now, but I can guarantee she didn’t start out with one when she first met Peter Phillips in 2003 — she’s Canadian.
I almost want her to come out, all guns blazing, 100% confidence, with the most aggressive, old school, plummy British accent……..just to blow some people’s heads off. Lol.
She should try for the Queens *old* accent.
omg that would be amazing!!!! I didn’t know how badly I wanted this until you said it….
lol……we can only wish…. 😀
I guess it possible she’s not faking it, but I remember the world laughing their asses of when Madonna seemed to start having the accent just as quickly. I have a Boston accent and it’s wicked funny when someone tries to fake it but fails
My history teacher once wrote that i speaks in an 20th century American accent, which doesn’t really fit 18th century England. lol That always made me laugh.
I watched the video several time and I cannot for the life detect an English accent. She sound like she always have done. Storm in a teacup and that is just another way for the media to rip her apart.
It has happened, am from Ghana, and mostly we Ghanaians learn British English, move to us when I was 16. Accent changes because you are around people. 😢 my African mom hate it. In her defense I used to write and read in my language now I don’t know anything 🤣
Akua —If you were immersed in your first language again, it would come back quite quickly. It’s just buried deep….
But if you were 16 when you switched countries, you might not have a complete adult vocabulary or be able to talk easily about things you learned later such as in school.
As a brit, I don’t think she has a British accent but possibly neutralising her American accent for her new role
+1
People are so over the top with accents I don’t get it. Just saw a video Shakira posted on her instagram and colombians are mad because apparently she’s speaking with spanish accent, so you live 10 years in Spain and you’re supossed to keep the accent of your birthplace? Meghan is surrounded with english people so most probably she will have an english accent.
She sounds the same way she’s sounded in all the pre-Harry interviews I’ve seen. I don’t hear a British accent at all. I do hear how friendly and kind she is with the people she’s talking with. If she eventually sounds more British I won’t blame her for that either-she’s going to pick that up a bit naturally from the constant interaction.
She definitely has an accent in the first few minutes but then by the end of the video the accent is gone. I wonder if its something that comes out when she is nervous and then as she gets more comfortable loses it? Like when she is nervous she is trying to make sure she speaks very properly and formally and it comes out as the posh accent?
At any rate – I am not surprised by it if she does pick up a bit of a British accent – she’s living there and is surrounded by British people and I think its natural to have your accent reflect that. Like others have said accents change relatively frequently when people move.
Though I don’t hear any change from her usual American accent, I agree about how easily some people pick up on accents. Even though I speak with my East-African accent, I still pick up accents easily (not sure if I’m making any sense here). For example, ts are pronounced differently in north america (well in Canada and US) than they are in other English speaking countries and so, when I first came to this country, I pronounced Ts or words with T as we did back home. I would say Toronto as opposed to how its pronounced here “Tronno”. Now, its easier to say it the N. American way, and that is just one example. I was also listening to Julie Montague commenting on how Meghan would navigate her transition into the BRF etc and I noticed how she too pronounces her words more the British way than the N.American way. I think when you live with people that speak a certain way, you tend to pick up on the way they pronounce their words, I think is is what Meghan is doing as opposed to “faking” an accent.
Yes, living among people other than your own can affect the pronunciation and cadence of your speech. I’m from the Midwest U.S. and when I worked for four years in Texas I picked up the accent and used words of my Houston co-workers without making a conscious effort to do so. Friends would make fun of me when I returned home for a visit because of this “new accent.” Also, any time I’m around my out-of-town brothers for any length of time, or even after a long phone conversation with one, my husband notices a distinct difference in the cadence of my speech which is a familial trait. I don’t think Meghan is putting on. I’m sure she has no time for, or interest in, reading what others are nitpicking her to death about.
Yup. Been a Texan my whole life, and Houston is simply bizzare. I refuse to call the frontage road a feeder. Or slip in letters for no apparent reason like saying Tarter when it’s obviously Tater or the famous Kuykendahl. It’s a linguistic minefield here! I grew up in the Valley when whites were a minority, and I sounded 100% Hispanic. It horrified my mother so I held on fast and hard lol. I could switch it on and off as I grew up, and now my accent it mostly neutral. My northern friends, at first, couldn’t tell I was from Texas, but now crack up with how the neutrality tends to slide with each margarita. End of night might see an unschooled redneck or a foul-mouthed Texican.
I don’t hear it at all here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she starts to pick up some English phrases and a slight softening of her accent when she’s lived in the country for a while. She’s surrounded by people with the poshest accents, after all!
But she does have a lovely manner with people.
I’m not an accent sponge, though I’ll pick up the manner of speaking or writing.
I had two dormmates who rented a flat together in London for their study abroad. D picked up an accent pretty quickly, B never did. But while she never developed an accent she realized she could tell what other accents were ‘oh, you’re from the Midlands or this neighborhood in Belfast’ or whatever’ It amused the hell out of her UK friends because they’d never met an American who could pick that up.
A non English speaker tweeted this and the global media ran with it, pathetic.
*shrug* She sounds fine to me. I adopt accents quickly as well, when that’s what you’re around all the time I’m sure it’s quite easy for some people, almost impossible not to. Once I spent a week in Minnesota with my grandparents and it took several days for me to shake that accent and move back to my normal speech (slightly southern accent, or no accent at all). I dated a guy from Vermont but we lived in SE Georgia and every time he’d take a phone call from work, his accent would veer from North Eastern to Southern for the length of the phone call. He was like me, just naturally mimicking the accent he’s hearing. She’s around Brits all the time now, so I’m not surprised. I love love love her in that yellow dress, and she seems very nice.
She doesn’t have a British accent. This is how she normally sounds, although she is using some British phrasing where she is clearly repeating phrases she has had heard other people say about her wedding. She does have an LA Valley girl aspect to her own accent that I think confuses people who aren’t familar with that and are already being told to find the British accident before watching the video.
I’m a Puerto Rican that grew up in Chicago and have lived all over the UK on and off since 2001. My accent is ALL OVER THE PLACE. It just happens wherever you move to.
I have the lovely nasally flat Chicago accent 🙄
I only caught it on a couple of words, but she’s been living in England for months, so that’s no surprise. I know she’s an actress, but I don’t think she’s faking anything. I tend to pick up accents very easily myself. I have a very Southern accent with my immediate family, but when I visit my extended family from up north, I lose the accent within a day or two of hanging out with them. I had only been in the midwest for maybe a month at most when people started saying, “Wow, you don’t even have an accent!” when they learned I grew up in the South. If I lived in England for more than a month, I’m sure I’d sound very similar — still obviously American, but the words gradually start picking up that British cadence.
The only thing I noticed was the slight modulation of her voice, toning down the natural exuberance that’s normally there. This video was taken during her away day with the Queen, so perhaps Meghan was putting her best voice forward that day. It’s not unusual to do, most of us have several different voice tones like the “teaching” tone, the “talking to friends” tone, talking to “babies” tone and on and on. I guess though time will tell if she adopts an English accent or not.
Look I’ve picked up accents accidentally after being immersed in certain areas. Let a woman live.
She sounds a little Australian to me.
Hepburn used the Mid-Atlantic accent. I once read an interesting book on the history of it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent
I was just scrolling down to say the same thing.
I doubt MM will ever go for a full Mid-Atlantic accent. She will probably use her acting experience to speak slowly and enunciate clearly and a hint of British accent will creep in naturally over time.
She sounded normal to me. And as others have said, when you live somewhere long enough you start to sound like the native speakers. This is just a dust up over nothing. Just one more thing for the tabloids and haters to rail against Meghan about. I couldn’t be under the spotlight she’s under, my nerves couldn’t take it….cause you’re damned if you and damned if you don’t….the poor woman can’t ever win.
She’s out working, meeting with people & being quite lovely all around. Isn’t that the greater point? I hope she goes in on an accent now, just to needle the hecklers (I so wish she could).
It’s def there at the beginning and then smoothes out. Meh. A case of the nerves, proximity to strangers and being surrounded 24/7 by British accents…no biggie. People sure respond warmly to her, don’t they? I don’t believe you can fake Meg’s level of kindness. I’ve said it before but Harry hit the jackpot and the rf knows it.
Ridiculous. I’ve lived in the UK for 20 years, British husband, children, etc. NO British accent. You can’t change the way you speak unless you want to. It softens up, yes, I say different words, I even have a different inflection when I speak to people at work, but my accent is still Canadian and to think it wouldn’t be is absurd. Stop trying so hard!
20 years? And no change in accent? I don’t believe it. but if it is true , that’s just you. Very few people can hold onto their native accent in another country for 20 years. It changes naturally especially accents that are easy to pick up.
She’s not trying to do anything. It happens.
I lived abroad for six years and my American accent never changed at all.
Re English accents, aren’t there many variations of it depending on where you’re from? Just like we have many different accents in the US.
Thank you. For children yes their accents change but for adults no, unless you choose to. And there’s nothing wrong if an adult wants to change her accent for whatever reason. Kate did it and Meghan is doing it nothing wrong with that, it’s a personal choice.
That’s…not true at all.
Sorry, Annabanana and Jo – your experience is more unusual than you think. You’re going to be constantly misjudging people if you don’t pay attention to the experiences related here.
If people could consciously choose to maintain their accent, they usually would. Especially teachers of foreign languages, who struggle with the loss of their native cadence when speaking their own first language. It just happens when many people are immersed in a different language or accent for any length of time.
Language is a defining characteristic of humans, so this isn’t really unexpected. Adults often are not so flexible about learning the vocabulary and grammar of a new language, but they obviously still mostly have the residual flexibility of picking up new accents in their native language.
I lived in the UK on and off for about 4 years and I picked up a lot of British inflection. My friends noticed it when I was back in Canada but it disappeared after a while back in my home turf. Some people ARE accent sponges, others not so much. We’re not all cookie-cutter identical when it comes to how our brains transmit language.
But she never picked up a Canadian accent despite living there for years.
@Nickname11: There is no “one” Canadian accent – they differ by region. In Toronto where she lived while filming, Canadian and American accents are so similar that sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart. Toronto is so close to the US that there is little discernible difference.
Meh.. i feel the same about Meghan’s british accent (if she has one) as i do about Kate’s, utterly unnecessary
(especially since Meghan being an actress already has a beautiful speaking voice) but understandable.
I think some people get riled up, because whether we like it or not, accents says a lot about your social class. And when someone who has been celebrated for being one of us, suddenly decides that their regular way of speaking (which is also our way of speaking) isnt good enough anymore, it is seen as an insult to their origins (and by extension us) and met with mockery for “trying to be better than they are”.
However can we blame them for trying to fit in with those that are part of the world they now inhabit? Isn’t it what we all want? To fit in? And Meghan, in a fish out of water situation, gives the impression that she really wants to be liked and is eager to please.
So let her speak in whatever accent she pleases, if she keeps her American accent great and if she adopts the accent of those around her, so what?
On a separate note, how inane is that conversation in the recording above? I cannot imagine standing for hours waiting for another human being to turn up in order to compliment them and then have a conversation about the weather. I know gossiping on a blog isn’t the height of intellectualism but seriously..
I don’t know what Kate sounded like before her marriage. Have some people said her accent has changed? If it has, and they don’t like that change for some reason, then they shouldn’t like it if Meghan’s accent changes. What’s good for one is good for the other.
Me, I don’t care one way or another. NBD. I think it’s perfectly understandable if it does happens.
Kate sounds posher than the Queen now and did not sound like that before. There are a few YouTube clips that have her speaking from pre engagement and she doesn’t sound like she does currently. She didn’t move countries so it’s very odd that she would have a different accent than her sister and parents as she remains in constant contact with them.
She may not have moved countries but the type of people she started hanging out with (other than family) after marriage is completely different to what she was probably used to. She may have felt it was necessary to be posher in order to fit in, the same way Meghan may be feeling now.
This constant mockery of Kate is a little tiring, but yes i’m sure you’ll say that if only she worked harder then you wouldn’t criticise her for *insert basically anything here*
Kate sounded like Pippa pre-marriage. Find one of the Pippa interviews on YouTube and it’s clear how much Kate has altered her way of speaking to sound posh.
I’m from Minnesota but lived in Texas for several years. Everyone in Texas would tease my broad Minnesota accent but if I was outside of the state and mentioned that I lived in Texas people would say, “I knew it – You sound like a Texan.” I think it’s a combination of people picking up the accents they’re surrounded by and other people projecting accents onto you.
I’m also from Minnesota and I lived in the UK for 2 years. Everyone in the UK who had seen Fargo thought I sounded just like Frances McDormands character but when I came home to visit my friends and family said that I sounded incredibly British. Then when I returned to the UK my English friends all said that sounded aggressively American until it faded away again. I only noticed my British twang on occasion like when I started pronouncing words like Tomato and Scone like a Brit lol
She sounds the same to me but either way, this is a none issue. If you stay somewhere long enough, you’ll pick up an accent. I went to Alabama for two weeks and my mom laughed at me when I returned to NY and she said I sounded country. Meghan’s been in London full time since last year November. That’s nearly 8months. Long enough to pick it up.
Her voice sounds completely the same as it always did.
My husband does this. I think it’s because his parents speak Spanish so he is use to adapting to who he is talking to. When he talks to his parents even in English he talks with a slight accent and is kind of softspoken and quieter. With my family he talks in a different way, and then with his friends who are all from Alabama in a slight country accent and his voice is LOUD. It’s so funny.
I think there’s actual aural science that basically proves we assimilate and pick up accents naturally. I was in England for a month and I started ending all my sentences with ‘isn’t it’ and ‘wasn’t it’ and yes, talking about the weather and gardening. Meghan has always seemed a bit “put-on” to me but I also think she’s making huge efforts to fit in and do a good job, so I don’t fault her here.
She sounds totally normal to me. I’ve always thought she had a lovely voice, that hasn’t changed.
I agree with everyone who said that some people’s accents are more “slippery”.
I have an friend who lived in Britain from 3 to about 9. Many years after moving back ( to Texas! ) – she still has a British accent.
I lived in UK for one year at 19 and straightaway picked up an accent which I then lost shortly after returning ( and yes, I was completely ragged on by my US friends for being pretentious )
They say your accent is fixed at 7 but I think that’s not really true for some of us, I am not sure what that says about my general sense of self but there you are.
It is true. your accent is fixed at 7 and even when you move to a completely different area and live there for years and even when your accent adapts then you can still hear some slight variations of your first accent in your voice.
Meghan adopted a fake posh british accent in a few weeks and personally I think that that reeks of a lying attitude.
“Reeks of a lying attitude”…..wow…just wow. Why don’t people just let Meghan live her life without all the invective and hate.
First of all, she doesn’t have a fake posh British accent. She’s probably unconsciously picked up certain inflections after visiting and living there for several years. It happened to me. Secondly, there’s no need to accuse her of “reeking of a lying attitude”. It’s vicious and completely unwarranted.
@moonpie, the “accent is fixed at 7” is not as cut and dry as people think. I know a Filipina that came to Canada as a 12 year old. When she speaks you can’t tell at all, she sounds like a Torontonian. So the accent is fixed at 7 is not accurate, every individual is unique. My daughter’s best friend is married to a Mugaanda guy that can’t even string 6 Lugaanda words together. He was brought to Canada at 9 years old, his mom was trying to learn English herself so never spoke Lugaanda with him and his sister. Sister was 11 when they moved to Toronto. Sister can speak a few Lugaanda words but you can’t tell that she or her brother were born in Africa. They speak just like any Canadian born and raised in Toronto. Would you say these people exhibit a lying attitude as well?
Secondly, only those that know Meghan personally can testify as to whether or not she picked up a Torontonian accent, you can’t tell by just looking at some pictures of her or listening to a few clips of her speaking. You don’t know how she sounded/talked prior to Suits do you?
And lastly, I don’t know Kate Middleton so I don’t know how she spoke prior to marrying William. If she changed her way of speaking to sound “upper class” that would be problematic, and it sure is not at all comparable to Meghan if she is adjusting to sound like any Londoner regardless of class. The intention of one to “sound as of upper class” is not comparable to one adjusting to “sound as a Londoner”. There is no one British accent, they have numerous accents, a Londoner doesn’t necessarily speak like a Scotsman etc.
And for people that say “on I moved to this place and lived for 20 years but mine didn’t change etc”, that is you and you are not Meghan and Meghan is not you. And I’m speaking as a EASL person. Nothing is entirely impossible, we are each created uniquely each with unique gifts and abilities. What you can’t do someone else does with such ease or no effort at all.
Slowly but surely I’m becoming a duchess Meghan Stan. She’s so lovely and classy. Anyway so I’m married to a Moroccan man. I visit him (long story involving visa) and his family twice a year until he secures a visa and even after he’s here we’ll still make a yearly trip. So they all speak darija which is a broken Arabic/French. The ones who speak English have a French accent so after being around them for a few days I start talking like them too. Now I’m not full blown French accent, but I do find I talk differently for a day or so after I return. Of course my American accent (specifically southern) comes back just as naturally, but I think by being around a certain type of accent you tend to adopt it. I’m sure they’ve made her take etiquette classes and I’m sure they’ve involved speaking, so between that and being around British accents all day it’s likely she’s just adapting. At least that’s what I want to believe. Duchess Meghan Stan’s such as myself will defend her with words and sarcasm to the end!
Lol. Everyone have a great Sunday.
When Kate upped her accent to sound more posh british I was disappointed.
Now Meghan upped her accent to sound more posh british I am disappointed.
There is nothing wrong with some elocution lessons to speak more clearly or to improve ennunciation. But to adopt a fake accent is like lying about who you are.
I think it’s something that will naturally happen due to full-on language immersion. Meghan is essentially surrounded by all upper class and aristocratic Brits now. She’ll echo what she hears. However, what would be Monty Pythonesque funny if we were ever to hear hervand Kate talking to each other and they started mirroring their accents back and forth. That would be hilarious.
Well Moonpie I’ve listened to the video several times and she sounds quite normal. She has merely soaked up some of what she has heard spoken around her for the last 2 years. I don’t understand your hatred – isn’t that a wee bit harsh lovie? (said in a fake posh British accent…)
There is a load of difference between Meghan picking up a slight British accent because she lives there now and Kate’s ridiculous fake posh way of speaking that she suddenly acquired post engagement.
… I love Celebitchy, the comments threads are witty and sassy, without being monolithically bitchy. It is my go-to site when I want to take a break from all the work related tabs on this screen, well done Team Kaiser ! That said, I’ve been watching some documentaries about the BRF and I’m beginning to find them completely and utterly despicable. I wish the people of Britain don’t take to Charles, and a movement to end the monarchy begins at some point in the coming years after Queen Elizabeth passes. Even though Meghan comes across ( despairingly ) amiable, it’s all too fake and orchestrated. ( PS : I’m not a Kate supporter, I cannot tolerate any of them, really ! ) I’ve just begun to watch The Crown on Netflix and my disdain only deepens … I would appreciate if the others, here, who share my view / views can recommend any articles that would further my understanding of this family and their irrelevance in this day and age. Much warmth from India … 🙂
They are all basically freeloaders, in my opinion.
I enjoy the fashion chat, but I would not one penny of my money to go to supporting these people and their so-called work. What a scam.
… indeed minx, indeed … a sham horror of an institution, pathetic.
My brother lives in another country and is now fluent in the language. So he rarely speaks English unless he comes back to the US or when I go visit. Because he isn’t used to speaking English, he does talk with a weird accent. His words are clipped, there is just a certain inflection to them. So I get this. And no shade from me because I know how it works. She could very well pick up a full on British accent eventually. That’s all she is surrounded by.
Well, I am keen on scones and not afraid to say so! Judge away.
I have listened to the recording few times and I don’t hear an accent. What word does she say that sounds British?
I hear it when she says “thank” in thank you.
Yeah I’ll never crap on anybody doing a ‘fake’ accent. I’m not a native speaker but over the years I’ve managed to turn my absolutely ass-sounding natural accent into an unholy native-queen’s english-hell’s Irish’ accent. It’s gotten good enough that I’ve had people tell me to stop ‘faking it’. Heck off, if I spoke with my ‘natural’ accent, not one of these people would be able to even understand my spoken English. Think Hydraulic Press Channel except the ‘s’ is hissier and everything is 100% worse.
It only got worse when I stayed in Scotland for a month and within a week I was mimicking the speech of the locals. With some people it just… happens. So, this is my shoutout to the commenter Jo upthread. Since I spend so much of my day having to speak in English, my native language has acquired an ‘english’ accent. My mom and friends keep pointing it out, and I do catch myself pronouncing the letter ‘t’ ‘wrong’. Your experience isn’t universal, Jo.
Anyway language is language, no shade. Speak however you want, it’s only the content of your speech that matters.
I didn’t bother to listen to the audio because I don’t care if she is or not. I presume it will rub off on her as she becomes immersed in the culture and it’s a great accent anyway so really who cares?! I care about the fact that she is putting herself out there, meeting people and being very positive in her new role where everyone is watching her every little move. Meanwhile her shitty turncoat family are trying to come up with more ways to sell her out and she is trying to settle into a new life with a new husband and famous in-laws who require a litany of behaviour protocols just to interact with them. And she is still smiling – I would be an utter wreck in her shoes.
I think she’s happy so she’s beyond caring about those nitwits, including her father. She cares about her husband, her mother and her new life. No sensible person blames her for those idiots. And the more time passes the less newsworthy the Markles will be because they have no new information to spew.
The DM is reporting that the nephew has been given a reality show about his pot farm. It will supposedly play on both sides of the Atlantic.
It’s a KH accent.
She’s sweet and beautiful and she can have any accent she wants!
In watching the video, I do think Meghan’s presence will be good for Kate—specifically from a public service perspective. I’m hoping that it will stir Kate to practice more on being a better public speaker and more engaging even if those things don’t come naturally to her. Just try a bit harder.
She’s lovely, her voice is lovely, and she was very kind to people waiting to meet her.
We speak the way those around us speak. She’s neither Madonna-ing nor Lohan-ing it, so I say, carry on.
I thought it was adorable when she asked the woman’s name and then said, “I’m Meghan!” yes, dear, we know. WE KNOW. <3
That was so sweet and endearing. She is a charmer.
Trust me, spend enough time in the UK and you really do start talking like them ! If all you hear day after day are British accents, it’s very easy to start talking with one.
You can tell by her body langauage she absolutely adores him. It warms the heart.
Yes I am happy for Harry as she really cherishes him. I liked his other girlfriends but he has something really special with Meghan and he seemed really alone for a long time. I was in my teens and twenties during the Diana years and will never forget weeping for William and Harry the day she died. It was their loss that hit me the hardest.
I don’t hear anything different. She’s fine. Very engaging with people.
She’s an actress. She is probably really good at mimicking accents and it happens when you are around people who speak differently the way she is. She is immersed in all things English right now. I was in England for two weeks and found nyself pronouncing things differently. Husband is from the South and I am originally from Canada and I very quickly found myself saying y’all and fixin not long after we met. It is normal.
She just has Madonna’s foreign accent syndrome.
When in Canada, I start to sound Canadian. In the southern US, I pick up their twang. In Jamaica or Grand Cayman, my voice will start to inflect in a similar way. Same when I’m in London. I grew up in the Midwest. I don’t mean to do it, I catch myself mid sentence sometimes and have to work on stopping!
I am a very empathic person, and my brain just starts to reflect what is being given to me, I think. I work hard to just keep me sounding like me when I visit other countries, but I think people with great empathy, who are able to meet others in their space, will do the same thing with their voice, even subconsciously. Megan is probably similarly empathic, and since she is an actress, it probably just makes it harder for her to keep sounding like herself. But I don’t think she is actively trying to sound British at all.
+1
I literally searched “find in page” to see if any comments had mentioned this. I think it’s similar to people mirroring body language to make others feel at ease. Some people just communicate on a more empathetic level.
I feel Meghan is obliged to speak British English. It would be rude and strange to take on a role in the British royal family, serving the country and the Commonwealth, and not bother to learn to speak the language. And American English is indeed different from British English, with different pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling.
Meghan’s changing from American English to British English is nothing to apologize for or explain away as accidental or unconscious.
And given that she needs to speak British English, it makes more sense to speak like other royals, courtiers, etc., than to take on an accent from another region or class.
British English is hardly it’s own language though. And there’s a vast world of diverse dialects of English, even within the British Isles, so what sort of British English do you think she should speak? Do you suggest that Meghan adopt a Yorkshire accent? Or the working class Liverpudlian lingo? A Glaswegian Scottish accent? Something from the West Country? Or Welsh? Heck, even the Queen doesn’t speak in a straight BBC RP accent, so if you think Meghan should adopt her vocabulary and word sense, that’s much more German inspired, so that’s not even British.
one time I met a guy who had a hybrid accent – texan and british. It was Incredible!
I hear it very slightly but it’s not Madonna bad. It’s not even Paltrow bad! I think it’s natural to pick up an accent, especially when your spouse has one. I ain’t mad at her. She’s sweet and personable to her peons, so she’s alright in my book. Lol
There is no way I could move to the U.K. and not, eventually, start picking up some of the accent. I almost think it would be more trouble trying not to pick up the accent. I don’t think she is doing anything embarrassing.
Frankly, I listened to the video and I don’t hear anything. Then again, I didn’t hear anything whenever people pointed it out with Kate also. I always felt like people have a misconception when it comes to posh aristocratic accents anyway. It doesn’t actually sound all that “crisp” and “articulate.” It’s more of a posh mumble (you sound like you’re speaking through a mouth full of marbles) and it’s hard to understand if you’re not used to it. If you’ve ever listened to Charles or Camilla, that one video where they’re doing the weather report is a good example.
It’s a strong attempt at a Mid-Atlantic accent. Pretty much no one under 80 uses it, and the royals have a very different accent.
I don’t care what accent she uses, but let’s not pretend this is just something she’s naturally picked up from Harry and her new British friends. This is a very, very specific, rarely used, extremely unnatural accent. It’s not something you unknowingly start using, it’s something you train yourself to use.
It could be a few factors. It can be hard not to subconsciously start speaking what you’re constantly hearing. Though I’ve been in the States for 16 years and people have no doubt I’m not a local. But if people were misunderstanding her she might have started pronouncing things a little more British… I have to put a hard American pronunciation on Netball otherwise even my friends still think it sounds like I’m saying Nipple.
It’s totally normal. A friend of mine moved to Scotland years ago and has picked up a bit of a brogue. I’m from the south but will pick up a bit of whereever I am if it’s been more than a couple of days. My Montana-born Oregonian husband has a southern twang from living in the boondocks of NC for so long. I actually laughed on our first date when I found out where he was from originally. His family has the most neutral non-accent ever but the two of us sound like hillbillies in their presence. I’d imagine at least I would start with a slight British accent if I were there for more than a few days or weeks.
I just hear a little drawn out “you” when she said her first “thank you.” But she still lately sounds like her American self. Maybe people are hearing the other British people speak and mistaking them for Meghan? I think she looks and sounds great. Really connected to the public.
Scoff if you will, but I live over there part of the year and within a few days the cadence slips into the way I talk.
That doesn’t mean I suddenly sound like a different person, but my regular voice does change in a small but noticeable way.
The same things happens if I’m in the South. Perhaps it’s my exaggerated desire to fit in, perhaps its the same reason we grow up with a dialect that specifically reflects where we grew up.
But it happens.
If picking up an accent is so normal and easy how come Madonna received so much criticism years ago when she lived in England married to Guy Richie? Or why does Sophia Vigara not sound like an american?
Because Sofia Vegarra is Sophia Vegarra. She is not Shakira who moved to the US as a young adukt but speaks English as fluently you can’t tell she is EASL. Different unique individuals.
Sophia Vegara does not have an American accent because it would ruin her whole schtick. She sounds the way she does on purpose.
My mother is Latinamerican but has lived in the US for some time now and says the same thing about Sofia Vergara – it’s part of her role.
I pick up accents fast, I don’t even notice but other people gleefully point it out 🙄😝
I had to stop binging on Mad Men because I started to talk with that weird transatlantic-esque accent or whatever that they all speak with. Downton Abbey made me speak like the dowager duchess. But when I’m around real people with accents, suddenly I sound like Scarlett at the barbeque at 12 Oaks, it’s so dumb. I don’t sound THAT Southern until I get around non-Southerners and then forget it. So… I mean… Folks need to GTF off of Meghan.
And she didn’t sound THAT out of hand to me, anyway. And the reason people went in so hard on Madonna is because she is kind of an ARSEhole.
@b-n-c: Hah, your comment cracked me up.
And +1,000 on your final sentence.
Lmao to your last sentence
Some people pick up accents very easily, some don’t. I lived in the US for 10 years and didn’t even pick up a twang. I have a harsh Australian accent and would’ve loved it softened a little 😉
She seemed really sweet. Her voice /accent was fine. All I could focus on was how wrinkled her dress was. For that amount of money I would be super unhappy if my dress creased like that.
It happens all the time, especially to those who are great listeners, sensitive and empathetic. This phenomenon strikes me almost like the opposite of xenophobia. As with body language, people getting along begin to mirror each other, so Meghan likely feels more comfortable around Brits than before.
You said this much better than I. Thank you.
I just wrote the same thing about mirroring upthread before I saw your comment. I agree!
Meghan shouldn’t do that…people will make fun of her. Be who you are.
I honestly can’t hear a difference between how Meghan sounded pre-marriage and how she sounds now. I did hear a change in Madonna’s accent but I may have been more familiar with her pre-Brit voice than I was Meghan’s. While accents may be “set” early in life for most people, I think that means that after a certain age, most people are unlikely to *completely change* accents. In other words, after a certain age, most people are unlikely to be able to change their speech enough to be mistaken for a native of the new country/region. (And I’ve not read any comment saying s
Meghan truly sounds like a native of any part of Britain!) But I don’t think that means inflections, cadence, sporadic pronunciations. etc can’t and don’t often change unconsciously at almost any age if surrounded by people with different speech patterns. I know it has happened to me. I do find it odd that some have said Kate’s speech change (I can tell a definite difference between her engagement interview speech and later on) is the same as Meghan’s (that I admittedly can’t hear) because Kate wasn’t changing countries and had been around William and his aristo friends for almost a decade before they married.
Off topic–Samantha is really over the top now isn’t she? Calling Harry names, saying he should have married Cressida because Samantha knows “she was more like Diana.” Honestly, it’s really so over the top nuts….
The more excited I get the more “country” I sound. I think her talking this way is purposeful but not necessarily British. I do think it’s intended to sound more “posh” and we’ve seen it with Kate.
With regards to her sweetness, I picked that up pretty well immediately. I don’t think Kate is disingenuine. I just think she’s not as good at it.
I listened to the video and thought she had an American accent.
I can’t hear any supposed British accent, apart from the fact she is clearly enunciating all her words. Give it some more time and it might become more obvious but as of right now I can’t hear it.
And people adopting accents happens all the time. Look at Porta de Rossi–you never hear her speaking in her native Australian accent, I wouldn’t even know she was originally Australian. I adopted (*shudder*) a Long Island accent after about 6 weeks at a summer camp surrounded by other counselors from Long Island. It’ s the Teresa Caputo accent (Long Island Medium) and I could hear my inflection on certain words and it drove me crazy because I do not like that accent (sorry Long Islanders).
I don’t hear it yet. But I get flustered when several people are talking or if there’s background noise. Meh. I don’t even care. Language is fluid. I have friends in other countries, and we pick up & start using each other’s slang in texts. When I see them in person, I’m sure we start to sound a bit alike. Meghan is now surrounded by a different accent 24/7. She’s going to change the way she speaks to fit in and to be better understood, IMO.
Yep, whenever I talk to my mom on the phone I suddenly sound like I’m in Fargo.
American here, grew up in NYC with a very neutral accent speaking English and Spanish.
From 21-24 I was in a long distance relationship with a British guy. He would come to NYC for a few weeks at a time to visit me and I would go to the UK for quite some time to visit him. When he would come here, he’d start using words like “cool” and “school” (as opposed to “wicked” and “uni”) coz he was only around me and my family and very few British people. He’d go back to the UK and everyone would tell him he sounded American. Once, when we were backpacking through the Continent for a few weeks, he really picked up my American accent and said urinal (American pronunciation with the short I like “in” instead of the British pronunciation with a long I, like “wine”) and his mom really kicked off at him for sounding American!
Vice versa, I’d go there and people would make fun of my accent and vocabulary, I couldn’t say sweatshirt (jumper), bathroom (toilet), trunk (boot), etc. So I really started to pick up the vocab and accent since I wouldn’t be around another American for weeks, sometimes even a whole month! There are videos of me on my trips there, and there’s definitely a mid-Atlantic thing going on. An American friend came to visit and my ex said I went completely, even shrilly, American when I started speaking with her.
Now he and I haven’t been together for a long time and I haven’t been to the UK in ages but I still tend to go British around British people without realizing it and I still sometimes use really British words just coz of preference. Point being, most people pick up an accent when they’re immersed in that accent, and don’t even realize it. It’s not a bad thing, and if anything I think it’s a defense mechanism. Makes you more part of the group if you’re feeling like an outsider.
It’s quite easy to pick up an accent when you’re around it 24/7. I spent a month in England and picked up some of their inflections and almost all of their phrases (“lift,” “coach,” “toilet,” etc.). Not uncommon or strange at all.
I think Meghan is an absolute sweetheart. I love how genuine she is with people.