Before then-Meghan Markle met Prince Harry, she was a successful working actress on a popular cable drama. She was happy, moderately famous, making good money and well-respected in her industry and beyond. She got free clothes, she ran in elite circles, she traveled by private plane, she could afford to give herself an eat, pray, love summer. After two years of living in the UK, the Duchess of Sussex was likely clinically depressed and lived some of the darkest moments of her life, including contemplating suicide after being targeted by a palace-authorized smear campaign. She left that country, painstakingly built a new life for herself, and has spent the past four years healing and thriving. But, according to Richard Eden, Meghan is nothing more than a Hollywood wannabe because the Windsors are “24 carat celebrities.”
Meghan Markle now looks more like a Hollywood ‘wannabe’ than a member of the Royal Family, says Richard Eden. Writing in the latest edition of his Palace Confidential newsletter, Eden suggests that, in moving away from Britain, the Duchess of Sussex has turned her back on a life of genuine celebrity. And that success no longer lies within her own hands.
‘While the Princess of Wales stole the show in a striking scarlet cape coat as she greeted South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol at the start of his state visit to Britain, Meghan was courting the cameras on a red carpet in Los Angeles,’ he writes. ‘The contrast was striking. Members of the Royal Family walk down a red carpet when the other guests at a film premiere or theatrical first night have already taken their seats. But here was Meghan, who would have joined Catherine at the opulent state banquet at Buckingham Palace, instead walking down the carpet at the Power Of Women event.’
Unaccompanied by Prince Harry, writes Eden, Meghan ‘couldn’t have looked less regal… just another celebrity waiting to be interviewed by a reporter for Variety magazine. She posed for photographers like the wannabe starlet she once was, before being rushed along impatiently by another guest. Her interview emphasised that success is no longer in her own hands. She talked about the unnamed “exciting” new projects that her television company, Archewell Productions, “can’t wait to announce”. But if and when she does announce them will depend entirely on their paymasters at Netflix.’
It is all rather different from her brief time as a working royal, he writes – a time when the stars would line up to meet her, not the other way round.
‘Has there been any week in which it was demonstrated more vividly what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex threw away when they quit royal duties in 2020 to “find freedom” and find a fortune?’
Eden is just loud and wrong, but one quick fact-check – while Little Red Flashing Hood was making a horse’s ass out of herself in a cartoonish red cape, Meghan and Harry were actually in Canada, checking in the upcoming Invictus Games, watching a hockey game and visiting local charities. Meghan did the Variety event on November 16th, well before Kate flashed the visiting Korean delegation.
As for the rest of it… the Windsors are so utterly desperate to BE celebrities and to have what Meghan already had before she even met Harry – a name, a career, celebrity friends, legitimacy and purpose. King Charles and Camilla literally did a stupid appearance on American Idol during coronation weekend. The Windsors were desperately trying to attach themselves to Meghan when she went to Beyonce’s birthday concert. They’re terrified of the fact that Harry and Meghan are already global celebrities on their own, and that they’re tight with famous and powerful people like Oprah, Tyler Perry, etc.
The part which offended me the most was “Meghan, who would have joined Catherine at the opulent state banquet at Buckingham Palace…” The Windsors were so racist and so scared of Meghan, they didn’t invite her to any state dinners, and at the few state functions she was invited to, they almost always shoved her in the back. In Eden’s delulu vision of “how things would have been if the Sussexes would have stayed,” I can guarantee that Charles, Camilla, William and Kate would have all thrown huge, public tantrums about the very idea of Meghan attending a state dinner. It’s also funny because Kate was far from the star of the Korean tour – after making an ass out of herself during the day, she was pushed off behind a gaudy candelabra at the state dinner. Meghan could have had all of this…
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images and Variety’s IG.