It's the same way the bourgeois were "middle class" before the French revolution.

They were the 1%, just not the 0.1%

Everyone else was so much poorer, that they got lumped together whether they lived on the streets or had steady work and a home and could support a family comfortably.

So in a way, yeah, she's right.

She's the 1%, but because wealth inequality is so out of hand again, that's kind of middle class again.

When people hear "middle class" it's easy to think "average" but that's not how it's being used.

It's more about wealth distribution when used like she's using it.

When you start bringing "royalty" into it, no amount of money gets you into that demographic. You could have more money than a duke, but you're still not a duke. At least unless the king/queen starts selling titles again.

At that point it becomes less about wealth, and more about legal power.

She bougie as fuck by any definition, but there's a way to view what she said as rational, you just got to think of it like you're a world famous millionaire who still isn't at the top of the food chain. Miles ahead of any random person, but she doesn't hang out with random people, in the crowds she runs in, she's middle of the pack.