Karl Jenkins, a 79-year-old Welsh composer, stressed in a telephone interview on Thursday that he is No Megan Markle.
“No, I certainly am not,” Jenkins said, adding that he is “a 79-year-old.”
Why would someone mistake the composer for the Duchess of Sussex? The allegations began after the coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey on Saturday. Mrs Markle it was notbut Mr. Jenkins, a classical composer who was knighted in 2015, he attended because one of his harp compositions was being performed.
Mr. Jenkins, who has a shock of shaggy gray hair and a prominent bushy mustache, said he wore his usual prescription aviator glasses with tinted lenses at the ceremony.
But for some people, their disheveled hair and the oversized glasses looked like a costume. In social mediaThe pranksters claimed that Jenkins was Markle, who Buckingham Palace had said would not travel to London with Prince Harry for the ceremony, but would stay in the United States with their children.
On Tuesday, after some tweets speculating that Mr Jenkins was a duchess incognito received hundreds of thousands of views, he posted a video on TikTok in which he said he was not Ms Markle in disguise.
“This is just what Meghan Markle would say in disguise,” reads the comment with the most “likes” on her video.
In an interview from London, Mr Jenkins, who said he had met Ms Markle twice, spoke to The New York Times about her unexpected brush with internet fame.
The following interview has been lightly edited and abridged.
How did you find out that people thought you were Ms. Markle?
My music publisher informed me the next day of this kind of upheaval on social media. I couldn’t believe it, really. In my neighborhood, three different groups pointed at me and said, “You were at the Abbey!” They’re buying me drinks.
How did you prepare your coronation look?
My hair, glasses and mustache are an accessory. I’ve had the same look since I was 18, so there’s nothing sinister or made up. My glasses are not sunglasses, they are prescription glasses, which I had tinted a bit because I had cataract surgery last year.
How do you feel about people obsessing over your appearance?
I don’t know whether to see it as a compliment or not. It’s actually quite ridiculous, because the security required to enter the Abbey at the coronation was immense. You had to show a passport, a driver’s license and a utility bill with an address corresponding to your name. No one in any kind of disguise could have gotten through that security.
Which responses have been the funniest for you?
There was something in me stealing the crown jewels. That seemed a bit absurd. There was one who called me the coolest guy in the Abbey, which is pretty good for someone my age.
