The Economist 1843, a bimonthly magazine had come up with Meghan Markle in a sleeveless dress as its cover in their recent edition with a caption “ will Meghan Markle modernize the monarchy?’Since then social media is spreading wrong information saying that Saudi Arabia has censored the cover before sending it to the book stands for circulation. The Saudi Ministry of Media did not instruct the censoring of a magazine cover showing the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, in a sleeveless dress.

Images of the latest issue of The Economist’s 1843, a bi-monthly culture magazine — allegedly shot at a newsstand in Saudi Arabia — where Markle’s dress was blacked out with a marker-pen have been circulating on social media platforms and via WhatsApp since yesterday. The images have raised questions given that this form of censorship — which remained in place for decades — is no longer practiced in the kingdom. The bookshop employees denied the fact that this never happened and would have happened when some individual might have done a circling of the photograph with black ink or someone would have photoshopped it before spreading in the social media.

The media is already speculating on Meghan Markle about her new roles after getting married to Prince Harry. Markle will never be as popular as Diana, for she lacks the reckless fragility that made the princess so mesmerizing and so dangerous. She may struggle, too, with the royalists’ natural constituency. Markle brings huge strengths that could help shore up the monarchy, especially among the young who tend to be indifferent to the institution. She has a background and an experience of life that should help bind the royal family to its subjects, and a genuine, unfakeable passion for the causes she espouses. If she is allowed to be herself – the small girl who stamped her foot at sexism 25 years ago – the British people are likely to grow even more affectionate towards her. That will be valuable to the monarchy, for it will need all the goodwill it can muster in the uncertain years ahead.