Princes, rock stars and their wives : analyzing tabloid coverage of women married to celebrity men

Abstract

Half a century apart, two American women caught the attention of British tabloids for marrying British celebrity men: Linda Eastman, a rock photographer from New York wed Paul McCartney, the last bachelor Beatle in 1969. In 2018, actor Meghan Markle joined the royal rank when she tied the knot with Prince Harry Windsor in front of millions of tv-watchers. By the act of marriage, the women became subjects of extensive tabloid coverage in Britain. This paper looks at how one tabloid -- the Daily Mirror has approached covering Linda and Meghan. It examines how tabloid reporters constructed the life stories of the women for audiences and how the women have reacted to it in interviews. Spanning across decades from late 1960's to early 2020's, the paper analyzes how the Mirror has approached foreign women married to British celebrity men and questions the reasoning behind the tabloid's choices.