The recent skit by Saturday Night Live mocking Meghan Markle, along with her noticeable absence from the Met Gala, is being interpreted as evidence of her diminishing popularity in the United States.
According to royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams, the Duchess of Sussex seems to have developed a troubling pattern of falling out with Hollywood’s elite power players.
“Attending the Met Gala could have been a significant opportunity for her,” Fitzwilliams noted. “Where were the Sussexes? Reportedly having disagreements with figures like Lauren Sanchez Bezos, the Kardashians, and the legendary Dame Anna Wintour is no small matter.”
Longtime royal biographer Phil Dampier added, “It seems that the American public’s affection for Harry and Meghan has waned.”
Reports suggest that Meghan is experiencing difficulties as her ventures in television and business aren’t meeting expectations. An insider from Los Angeles recently commented on the Sussexes’ state, saying, “It appears neither of them is content.”
But it got worse over the weekend when Saturday Night Live made a series of brutal jokes at her expense.
Meghan was called a ‘terrorist’ in a news bulletin-style skit that suggested she had kidnapped Harry and his father King Charles’s US state visit was a front to ‘seek his release’.
And last night self-proclaimed fashionista Meghan was missing from the most dazzling evening in the fashion calendar – the Met Gala in New York.
Since 1995, the Met Gala has been organised and presided over by Dame Anna Wintour, who met the King and Queen last week and apparently ‘turned against’ Meghan shortly after she married Harry.
This year Lauren Sanchez Bezos and her Amazon billionaire husband Jeff were lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs of the gala this year.
‘She [Meghan] snubbed Lauren before the [Bezos] wedding. Meghan was invited to things by Lauren and didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to be seen with her because she thought she was trashy’, a source told the Daily Mail’s Alison Boshoff on Friday.
Fashionista the Duchess of Sussex at Paris Fashion Week last year but she was not at the Met Gala last night
Meghan was keeping Harry hostage and King Charles was in the US to free him, a brutal Saturday Night Live skit joked
‘The normally liberal SNL finds Meghan funny’, Richard Fitzwilliams said today.
‘One of Meghan’s most infuriating characteristics is the way she takes herself so seriously. She seems immersed in positivity. It’s relentless but cannot overlook the fact that, apart from her mother she has fallen out with both sides of her family.
‘She also has a disastrous habit of falling out with Hollywood’s top power brokers. Reports have indicated that Netflix’s executives don’t trust her and can’t stand her either’.
Meghan popped up in haute couture at Paris Fashion Week last year and has invested in a fashion website – but was not in New York yesterday.
‘Where were they when King Charles, Harry’s father, was on a state visit to the United States which has become famous? This would have mattered’, Mr Fitzwilliams said.
‘They might have been “half in, half out” on their “faux royal” visit to Oz, but when it comes to real influence neither have pull and SNL is right, she may have her hostage, but perhaps the best way of responding to her behaviour is to laugh at it,’ he added.
Royal author and commentator Phil Dampier said: ‘The fact they are becoming the subject of ridicule on what are normally woke or liberal platforms, be it TV or newspapers or online tends to indicate they are running out of options.
‘When many are struggling with the cost of living, their moaning and whinging doesn’t go down well.
‘At the moment Harry and Meghan are half in and half out, which is what the late Queen wanted to avoid, but I don’t think the public are buying it.
‘They are desperate to portray themselves as still working royals when they are not.
‘On their recent tour of Australia they cashed in commercially but carried out other engagements which were similar to the royals.
‘But it’s not authentic and people can see through that’.
Meghan flew alone across the United States to support her godson on the day of his First Communion on Saturday in the hours before the SNL skit.
The Duchess of Sussex was seen smiling as a group of children processed down the aisle of the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago on Saturday.
Natalie Martinez, a Chicago TV reporter whose daughter was also having her First Communion at the same Catholic mass, took a picture of her daughter walking past Meghan.
But it was only online for a short period before it was deleted by Ms Martinez.
The picture deletion was immediately compared to the row sparked when pictures of Meghan and Harry at Kris Jenner’s 70th birthday were mysteriously removed from social media.
The Sussexes were absent from all events during King Charles’s state visit to the US last week.
Yet they still found a way to insert themselves into the media discourse, the Daily Mail’s Alison Boshoff said.
A cover story in People magazine said their trip to Australia is being hailed as the blueprint for the couple’s new working model.
Speaking to sources in California, the story told of the couple’s life is one of wall-to-wall fallouts and alienation.
Meghan and Harry no longer have any bridges left to burn, the Daily Mail’s source said.
The insider said: ‘They have truly lost the plot. I hear she’s spiralling badly because she knows nothing is working. The whole thing about her [As Ever] stuff selling out isn’t true any more. I don’t think either of them are happy.’
The source said they believe the couple’s problems are worse than many suspect because of Meghan and Harry’s unfortunate habit of falling out with the very people who could help them make a go of things financially.
One of the prime figures in this list is Anna Wintour, who attended a charity gala with Charles and Camilla in New York on Wednesday.
Ms Wintour was at the Met Gala last night.
The source says Dame Anna turned against Meghan in 2019 when she collaborated with then British Vogue editor Edward Enninful on a ‘Forces for Change’ issue of the magazine.
There existed a long-time rivalry between Dame Anna at US Vogue, and Enninful at British Vogue, and Meghan picked her side – unwisely, as it turns out.
Enninful is no longer the editor of British Vogue. Wintour has stepped aside from day-to-day editing US Vogue but remains Global Editorial Director and Chief Content Officer at Conde Nast, and seems more powerful than ever.
‘Meghan pledged her allegiance to Enninful which p***ed off Anna,’ says the source, adding: ‘Anna hates her. Meghan doesn’t want to pay, and never returns things.
‘Also, Anna loves the Royal Family. She is a Dame. Anna would have hated how they [the Sussexes] handled their exit from The Firm.’
A source suggests Meghan has failed to make a potentially useful friend in Lauren Sanchez Bezos.
Lauren Sánchez Bezos and Anna Wintour together at last night’s Met Gala. Meghan and Harry are rumoured to have fallen out with both women
Other powerful figures offended by Meghan are the Kardashians, who are also close to Lauren.
The family’s matriarch Kris Jenner had her 70th birthday party at the Bezos house in LA in November last year.
The party happened to fall on the eve of Remembrance Sunday, and was attended by Meghan and Harry, as the Royal Family gathered at the Albert Hall for the annual Festival of Remembrance.
Surprise was expressed by some that the Sussexes would party on such a solemn landmark.
A row then blew up over pictures of them posted on social media by Jenner but later removed, apparently after a request by the Sussexes.
The Sussexes denied they had asked for them to come down; Jenner’s daughter Kim Kardashian said the opposite was true.
As a result, says a source, the Kardashians have also had enough of Harry and Meghan: ‘The Kardashians are over them.’
Kris Jenner, one of the most influential figures in the world on social media, hasn’t liked a single post on Meghan’s Instagram pages since last year.
