What does Undine Spragg mean? Former Vanity Fair editor delivers five-word takedown of Meghan Markle 

Journalist Graydon Carter, a former Vanity Fair editor, recently shared his opinion about Meghan Markle, calling her “The Undine Spragg of Montecito.”

His remark seemingly alluded to the Duchess of Sussex’s life from being a Hollywood actress to becoming a part of the royal family and finally parting with them to settle with her husband, Prince Harry, at their Montecito estate in California. Carter’s comment appeared in a March 27, 2025, interview with Interview Magazine and was his gut reaction when asked about Markle.

For those uninitiated, Undine Spragg refers to the female protagonist of Edith Wharton’s novel, The Custom of the Country. In the book, Spragg is a Midwestern girl who tries to ascend to the posh New York City society.

Despite calling Meghan Markle, 43, “The Undine Spragg of Montecito,” the 75-year-old Graydon didn’t elaborate on why he called her so. The Air Mail founder's remark was part of Interview Magazine's Rorschach Test section, where people are asked about their "gut reactions to today's most pressing matters."

Earlier this month, while speaking with Page Six, Carter called Meghan Markle "slightly adrift on the facts and reality" and recalled his experience working with the Suits actress for the cover story of Vanity Fair in October 2017.

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All you need to know about Undine Spragg amid the comment on Meghan Markle

American author Edith Wharton based her 1913 tragicomedy of manners novel, The Custom of the Country, on the character of Undine Spragg. She is a young girl who moves from the Midwest and attempts to fit into the high society of Fifth Avenue, New York City, in the early 20th century.

Undine Spragg is the daughter of financier Abner E. Spragg and housewife Leota B. Spragg. She marries men such as Elmer Moffatt, Ralph Marvell, and Raymond De Chelles and then divorces them to climb the social ladder and become the “belle of the ball” in a new and big American city.

While she remarries Moffatt, a financier from Apex, she also has a son with Marvell, a NYC gentleman. Meanwhile, Raymond, a French aristocrat, marries Spragg after she becomes a widow.

Taking an excerpt from the book, the New York Post describes her as someone who backstabs and manipulates others but “feels little satisfaction in achieving her goals and often finds herself haunted by her failures.”

Undine Spragg is characterized by greed, vanity, and ambition, who despite earning a lot in love remains dissatisfied and unfulfilled till the end. GoodReads describes her as "vain, spoiled, and selfish."

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Graydon Carter has previously commented on Meghan Markle

In a mid-2023 interview with the Telegraph, Graydon Carter stated that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would "regret" leaving the royal family. He called Montecito a "lonely, beautiful place" where there was "nothing to do," adding the move would "come back to haunt them at a certain point."

Later, in an early 2025 interview with Page Six, Carter claimed he had "no idea" why they were doing a cover story on Markle for Vanity Fair in the fall of 2017 until it was pointed out to him that she was about to marry Prince Harry.

He further alleged Meghan wanted to talk about her "charities and philanthropy" rather than her future husband. When asked what the late Princess Diana would say knowing that her two sons, Prince Harry and Prince Williams, were not in touch, Graydon added:

"I would think she would feel great sorrow for her son to have been pulled away from his family like this, especially his brother but also his father… Anytime someone comes between siblings that's a disaster, horrible for a family."

This is not the first time Meghan Markle has been compared to Undine Spragg. In 2021, author Claire Messud told The New York Times Style Magazine that it wasn't hard to find "contemporary examples of tenacious social climbing all around us, whether in Hollywood or Washington, D.C., or at the fancy dinner parties of New York, Palm Beach, Dallas, or San Francisco."

"Consider the humbler or parochial origins of many a rich or powerful man's beautiful wife or girlfriend. For these women, marriage often works like a business, a carefully calculated investment in the future," Claire shared.

She added that the "present-day celebrity" who most reminded her of Undine Spragg was Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, or Rachel Meghan Markle of Woodland Hills, California, "as she once was."

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As of the time of writing, Meghan Markle hasn’t responded to Graydon Carter's comments, nor has she ever addressed Messud in the past.