For some years now, Meghan has leaned rather hard into her status. Consumption has been conspicuous, signalled by the diamonds, the gold accessories, the Cartier watch and so on.
Offerings – even of ordinary foodstuffs like jam and tea – have been ‘elevated’ by fancy packaging and sky-high prices.
The chocolates in her infamously expensive As Ever advent calendar that went on sale last week cost nearly £6 each and are stamped with gold calligraphy, based on her own handwriting.
And yet, even as pictures emerged of her shrouded in £1,700 white trousers and hanging on to a £5,000-plus Chanel handbag outside Claridge’s in Mayfair on Wednesday, friends were briefing that this is actually a new ‘humble’ version of the Duchess of Sussex.
Not that you might immediately notice.
‘She is very conscious about how she wants pictures to land which is why you have barely seen her,’ says a friend.
‘She has honestly been trying to keep a low profile. I mean, on one level obviously if you meet someone at Claridge’s it will be noticed, but look at how quiet she has been on social media, how little she has been out.’
Indeed for a ‘public figure’, which is how her spokesman described her, she has been barely seen since she and Harry arrived by private jet on August 26.
Meghan and Malala were spotted in London yesterday after the duchess’s return to the UK
The Duchess of Sussex and the Nobel Peace Prize winner first met during Covid, six years ago
And yet now here she is, with a Nobel Peace Prize winner no less, the immaculately philanthropic figure, Malala Yousafzai.
Malala, who was a 15-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl when she was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 after advocating female education, is a charity powerhouse par excellence.
The pair first met during Covid, when Meghan was among the celebrity voices lending their heft to a campaign for female education in 2020. It was the first impressive link-up of many. Indeed, at times you get the impression that Meghan is a collector of influential female figures.
First, there was TV powerhouse Oprah, who was invited to her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry even though the pair had never met. Then there was Amal Clooney, the human rights lawyer wife of Hollywood star George, who also found herself in the pews of St George’s Chapel. Again, it wasn’t clear if they’d ever met either. Sources indicate that neither woman is in contact with Meghan now.
Another high-profile woman whose orbit Meghan entered was feminist icon Gloria Steinem, whose death last month she marked by posting an oddly self-referential tribute in which she shared three pictures of the pair together.
Other women with whom she has ‘palled up’ – philanthropist Nicole Avant, wife of Netflix boss Ted Sarandos, and designer Tracy James, married to former Paramount boss Brian Robbins – also appear to have become distant from her.
We shall see what happens with Malala, 29, who looked notably ill at ease alongside the duchess on the pavements of Mayfair.
Malala, who is now married and lives in Birmingham, runs the Malala Fund and campaigns to bring education to girls globally. The meeting at Claridge’s, where the two had a £95-a-head afternoon tea, has notably not been shared by Meghan on social media. A source close to the duchess said that it was simply a personal meeting and that there was nothing to be briefed out of it.
The meeting at Claridge’s, where the two had a £95-a-head afternoon tea, has not been shared by Meghan on social media
It is true that there appears to have been efforts by Meghan to have a lower profile since coming back to England. She and Harry were pictured together for the first time last week, walking into a Cotswolds pub. That was five weeks after their jet touched down in Birmingham.
Meghan has made a smattering of Instagram posts: one, on September 14, showed the Sussexes settling into their rural life, with the children in wellies and a snap of a blazing fire, plus the family fishing at a lake.
A friend said: ‘They are all really happy with how things are going, with the children at school, with where they are living, and with being in Britain. The place where they are staying is perfectly private and they couldn’t be happier with that. Things are going well with Harry’s family as well, but nothing more to be said there.
‘They are optimistic that there will be a revision of their security soon. It’s all good. Both Harry and Meghan are really delighted with the return.’
The friend adds: ‘The relocation to the UK is being served with a dose of humble pie though. There are genuine concerns from them both about how they are being received, how they want what they are doing to land.
‘They have been thinking about it and being very deliberate. They think that if they start posting stuff on Instagram it will land badly. It is part of a thought-out plan to keep their heads down between now and Christmas, when they will go back to California for the holidays. They don’t want to shove themselves down people’s throats.’
Some self-awareness of the couple’s deep unpopularity seems like a good place to start. Approval ratings have plummeted since their Windsor wedding.
Harry’s memoir Spare, their Oprah interview and the wholesale trashing of the Royal Family and the ‘institution’ in the hit Netflix docu-series Harry & Meghan have turned many against the couple. If they really have arrived seeking peace and reconciliation as their friends say (plus an English schooling experience for children Archie and Lili), then a dose of quiet humility – and a dose of quiet, full stop – would appear reasonable.
At the children’s school, Meghan, 45, has been making friends with other parents. There are apparently some plans for a big Thanksgiving lunch with other American mothers at the children’s school at the end of November – there is certainly a big contingent of US expats locally. This, again, will be kept private.
Meghan needs all the support and good PR she can get. The couple left the UK in order to carve out a ‘progressive new role’ in 2020, leaving them free to earn their own money.
However, their Netflix and Spotify deals have come to an end and their Archewell charity essentially closed.
As revealed in this paper in August, Meghan’s keeping up her promotion of her As Ever lifestyle brand, which is not on sale outside the US.
Apparently, there is some ‘tacit acceptance’ that they need to earn a living, and that this can be done more or less within the Sandringham agreement drawn up after they quit the UK, as long as the commercial activity is outside the UK.
Last week, she announced her new festive range, and opened pre-orders for a £112 chocolate advent calendar that is only available to buy in the US.
The calendar – ‘inspired by her Montecito home and garden’ – features a festive illustration of the £11million mansion she and Harry called home for six years.
Prince Harry meanwhile has undertaken a number of charitable engagements, including appearing at a benefit for Ukraine and at the Invictus Spirit awards, without Meghan.
Yesterday, he released a video about grief for the charity Scotty’s Little Soldiers, of which he is a patron. It was filmed over the summer, in California.
Yet the Sussexes might not be as settled in the UK as they appear.
Sources say that it is ‘likely’ that Harry will quit the country (again) if he doesn’t get the improved taxpayer-funded security which he has been demanding for years.
Harry’s belief, apparently, is that his case is unimpeachably strong in terms both of need and entitlement and so he thinks he will get it.
I’m told: ‘He is a target not because of a lifestyle choice he made but because of who he was when he was born.’
However, the friend adds: ‘If he doesn’t get it [police security] then yes I do believe he will go back to Montecito for good and that could be as soon as half-term.’
In which case, this week’s surprising tete-a-tete in Mayfair may be Meghan’s last visit to Claridge’s for some time.
FASHION VERDICT: She’s the duchess of stealth-wealth style
On an autumn day in Mayfair, the young woman who survived an attack by the Taliban and the duchess who survived her stint as a working member of the Royal Family looked very much in sync: even their clothing – smart trousers and tailoring in browns and creams – seemed to be co-ordinated.
These days, Meghan Markle combines her philanthropic work with growing her lifestyle brand As Ever and has positioned herself as a fashion influencer who may yet design her own luxury clothing range.
Only a few days ago she launched an As Ever advent calendar costing £112 on Instagram, wearing an ivory cashmere sweater, Argent olive green bias cut silk skirt, blush Aquazzura ballet pumps and jewellery, the total value of which was estimated at £75,000.
Yesterday, Meghan dressed in similarly stealth-wealth style, pairing a Crew cashmere sweater in ‘wheat’ by Los Angeles-based luxury label Co Collections (£630) with silky fluid ivory wide-leg ‘Masina’ trousers by Ralph Lauren (£1,700) with Saint Laurent ivory and tan ‘Chris’ loafers (£795) and a toffee brown draped ‘Maxime’ cape coat by Tove costing £1,695.
Including the jewellery – her necklace alone, a Lovers Duet Diamond and Emerald Chain necklace by Logan Hollowell retails at £16,262 – and her Chanel handbag, likely to cost upwards of £5,000, yesterday’s outfit added up to a cool £26,082.
You wouldn’t expect Malala, the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize, to have the same interest in fashion, but she has hired a stylist in the past – Denna Giannini – for special occasions such as the British GQ Heroes Awards, and she knows how to make an entrance.
Yesterday, she wore a pair of brown-and-beige striped flared trousers with a tailored beige blazer and pointy-toed brown heels and looked on point for autumn. Ivory has become Meghan’s year-round signature, brown and beige are the new black for autumn: who’s to say fashion wasn’t a point of discussion for the duo on Wednesday, too?
SHANE WATSON
