Did Meghan Markle Develop an English Accent? Hollywood Dialect Coaches Answer

The video in question was taken by a woman who met the Duchess of Sussex during her June visit to Cheshire. She shared the video of her brief exchange with Meghan on Twitter, and the internet immediately erupted.

Take a listen below:

Publications including People, E! News and USA Today all posted articles posing the question, "Does Meghan Markle have an English accent?" TooFab didn't hear anything distinguishable, so we turned to the experts for their analysis.

Claudette Roche at TheAccentCoach.com analyzed the video clip by honing in on Meghan's statement, "We all had a great day, I think. The sun was shining..."

"As an ex-Brit, if I was pressed, I could find some English pronunciation in all, day and shining, but they could simply be anomalies that everyone does with speech," Roche told TooFab. "We don't use the exact same vowel phrasing every single time. Megan may modify her accent in time, but I am fairly sure she will do her best not to do so. It is a natural occurrence, so one cannot fault her. When so many people surround you with a different accent, one is bound to modify."

"Check back with Meghan in a year," Roche added.

Hollywood and Broadway dialect coach Joel Goldes explained to TooFab that the "accent" people are hearing can be a change in Meghan's intonation. Goldes also pointed out that "we tend to hear what we expect to hear."

"Part of whether one hears an English accent from Meghan Markle here is whether one expects to hear an English accent," Goldes said. "We tend to hear what we expect to hear, so if you tell yourself that her accent has changed, you'll hear a changed accent."

"An accent is also the product of mimicking the sounds around you, and it sounds as if she mimics the more English intonation of the people talking to her," he continued. "She also does use a more English vowel sound when she says the word all: 'We (ohll) had a great day,' 'Very lucky (ohll) around.' The words 'shining' and 'much' also sound more English, but that's to be expected as she's around English people much of the time."

Meghan may have also received formal training that could be impacting her intonation. A former Kensington Palace reporter, who did not want to be named, told TooFab that Meghan received training for six months from Queen Elizabeth's senior adviser, which could have included lessons in diction and tone moderation.

Meghan has been living in London since November 2017. She married Harry in May of this year.