‘Don’t think either of them are happy’: Act after Meghan no-show seen as ‘more than a coincidence’
With the Duchess nowhere to be seen at a glamorous event, sources have revealed her secret struggle.
To the casual observer, it all seemed to go swimmingly: Prince Harry and Meghan’s Australia tour was a success, the beaming Duchess’ dresses got snapped up in seconds, and her scented candles inspired by her children’s birthdates garnered a whole heap of free advertising along the way.
But behind the scenes, an insiders say that Meghan and Harry are “wildly unhappy” amid a realisation about their future.
It’s a future fraught with difficulty – as Meghan’s glaring absence from this week’s Met Gala proved – for the former Suits star was a nowhere to be seen, despite her recent foray into fashion.
Indeed, there was a time when Met Gala co-chair and Vogue Global Chief Content Officer Anna Wintour may have been falling over herself to invite shiny royalty to the prestigious occasion.
However, it’s claimed that the Duchess of Sussex has a long-running feud with Wintour – a source going so far as to claim to the Daily Mail, “Anna hates her”.
And yet, with Meghan commercialising the outfits she wore to meet with survivors of the Bondi Beach massacre on the AI shopping platform she invested in, it could be argued that she’d do well to make Wintour her best friend right now.
On May 2, writing in the Daily Mail, Alison Boshoff said the Sussexes “no longer have the help of the powerful and influential protectors who could unlock a life of commercial plenty”.
It’s a staggering indictment of the choice they made when they chose to trash the Royal Family.
“Put simply, it means in the circles that matter, Meghan and Harry no longer have any bridges left to burn,” Boshoff writes.
And the knowledge of this is, according to sources, having a stark impact on Harry and Meghan.
“The whole thing about her [As Ever] stuff selling out isn’t true any more,” one insider told Boshoff. “I don’t think either of them are happy.”
Adding to the couple’s woes, is the fact that Harry has reportedly burned through a chunk of the estimated $20 million inheritance he received from Princess Diana and the Queen.
One source speculated to royal expert Dan Wakeford – former editor of People – that he and Meghan now have “five years, roughly” until their lifestyle “looks a lot different”.
It’s perhaps not what Meghan – who grew up in a modest home in California – was expecting when she married into royalty. Another source claimed to Wakeford that the couple are “wildly unhappy”.
“The picture that emerges is of a strategy and a commercial operation in freefall,” royal expert Tom Sykes writes on The Royalist substack.
“The fashion deals haven’t materialised. The brand partnerships haven’t come. The big names – Balenciaga, Dior, Chanel – have not called.”
The latest former advocate said to have “cooled” on the Duchess? Serena Williams – who did attend the Met Gala and posed with ex British Vogue Editor Edward Enninful.
Sounds harmless enough, but Meghan’s longtime friendship with Enninful is said to have ended after he allegedly snubbed her expectation to appear on the magazine’s cover.
“At a night like the Met Gala, nothing about who you stand beside is accidental – it is one of the most carefully observed stages in the celebrity world,” an insider told Radar Online.
“Serena choosing to spend so much time in close formation with Emma [Thynn] and Edward, both of whom have been linked to a cooling in their relationships with Meghan, inevitably reads as more than coincidence.
“Whether she intended it that way or not, the visual narrative suggests a shift in loyalties, or at the very least a rebalancing of where those personal alliances now sit.
“You have to remember how intertwined Serena and Meghan’s public images once were – they were regularly framed as confidantes, almost a united front navigating fame and scrutiny together.
“So when Serena appears in such a high-profile setting and that connection is absent, replaced instead by other prominent friendships, people are going to read into it.”