The Little Mermaid director responds to ‘insane’ Kate Middleton rumour: ‘Absolutely false’

Halle Bailey plays The Little Mermaid in Disney's newest film. Photo / Disney

Rob Marshall, the director of The Little Mermaid remake, has dismissed rumours that the movie makes a pointed reference to the Princess of Wales.

One reviewer who saw an advance screening of the film told the New York Post last week that “the film seems to draw a number of subtle yet plausible comparisons between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry and the two lead characters, Ariel (who is black in the new movie) and Prince Eric (who is white)”.

They pointed out one particular scene that seemed to take a swipe at Kate Middleton.

“Ariel has sacrificed her voice in order to get to the surface and [meet] Prince Eric. She can’t speak so he tries to guess her name ... His first guess is Diana. His second guess is Catherine, but after [Ariel gives a disgusted] reaction, he [concludes] ‘OK, definitely not Catherine’.”

This line does not appear in the original film, which was released in 1989. Instead, Prince Eric guesses the names Diana, Mildred and Rachel.

But Marshall insists the scene has nothing to do with the Princess of Wales, telling news.com.au at the film’s Sydney premiere last night that the rumour is “absolutely false”.

Halle Bailey, Rob Marshall and Melissa McCarthy at the Australian premiere of The Little Mermaid. Photo / Getty Images

“I don’t know where that came from, that’s the most insane thing. People are hilarious how they just dig and find things. There’s no truth to that whatsoever,” he said.

Marshall appeared at the premiere with Halle Bailey, who plays Ariel in the film, and Melissa McCarthy, who plays Ursula.

Meghan Markle referenced the original film in 2021 during her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, revealing that she identified with the main character amid her own struggles to fit in with the royal family.

“I was sitting in Nottingham cottage and The Little Mermaid came on,” said Markle.

“And who as an adult really watches The Little Mermaid but it came on and I was like, ‘Well I’m here all the time I might as well watch this’.

“And I went, ‘Oh my God, she falls in love with the prince and because of that she loses her voice’.

“But in the end she gets her voice back.”

Oprah replies to Markle: “And this is what happened here. You feel like you got your voice back,” to which Markle agreed.

Later in the interview the Duchess of Sussex told Oprah that her and Harry’s love story was “greater than any fairytale you’ve ever read”.