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Meghan Markle‘s unexpected trip to Paris Fashion Week took everyone by surprise, especially the British tabloids.
Her unannounced appearance at the Balenciaga show to support creative director and pal Pierpaolo Piccioli proved that the U.K. media has no inside source to know about her comings and goings. Just like Meghan and Prince Harry’s August 2024 trip to Colombia on behalf of the Invictus Games, the Sussexes are learning how to be stealth with their PR.
For the Duchess of Sussex, it’s a way for her to reclaim her narrative. She has a deal with Netflix that not only broadcasts her lifestyle show, With Love, Meghan, but they are also her distribution partners for her product line, As Ever. Her debut at Paris Fashion Week shows that she’s welcome with open arms in the world of haute couture, and she’s serious about fitting in.
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One look at her Oct. 5 Instagram reel from her trip, and you see how she was practicing her French on Duolingo ahead of the visit. Her 100-day streak had her set and ready to go — and that’s in addition to her English and Spanish-speaking skills.
Still, her arrival in Europe reportedly has the royal family a bit on edge. “If they really plan to spend more time here, it changes everything. It puts them back in the frame, and that’s not what anyone expected,” a source told the Daily Beast on Oct. 5. The palace doesn’t love it when the Sussexes wind up in the headlines more than they do, but the charismatic couple draws attention wherever they go.
Last year, when they traveled to Colombia, The Telegraph complained that the Royal Rota was kept at bay. “Unlike a traditional royal tour of old, the media were not invited, save for one handpicked reporter whose job it was to relay each event to newspapers and other outlets across the world,” the outlet complained. “The chosen journalist was an online reporter from US publication Harper’s Bazaar, who duly filed a brief overview of each engagement.”
After the way the British tabloids treated the couple during their time as senior royals, and after their official exit, can you blame Harry and Meghan? Even former critics understand the power the couple holds and why they are rewriting their story their way — even after a few missteps in trying to carve their path.
Tina Brown, author of The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor–the Truth and the Turmoil, explained that Harry and Meghan left a “charisma vacancy” at the palace after their exit.
“When I saw him and Meghan in Nigeria, I had a nostalgia. I felt this is what it could have been,” she told the BBC in May 2024 during their Invictus Games trip to Nigeria. “These two, who are enormously appealing to the public and who are very good at it, were out there in Nigeria, sort of looking really attractive and being appealing people.”
Meghan understands her power and how to use it efficiently and to her advantage now. And that might be bad news for the palace if the feud continues to simmer.
Before you go, click here to see more of Meghan Markle & Prince Harry’s milestones since leaving the royal family.
