One of my favorite things that the Duchess of Sussex has done this year is introduce her ShopMy page. Meghan and her team are constantly updating it too, especially when Meghan posts a new Instagram. Within 24 hours, the team updates the ShopMy account and IDs whatever Meghan wore in that IG post. It’s so smart, even though the Sussex Squad is exceptionally good at hunting down designer IDs in record time. Well, over the weekend, Meghan posted some great photos from the Beyonce concert. We knew that she wore a Carolina Herrera denim dress, which looked so sexy on her! But I didn’t even look closely at her jewelry (beyond her wedding rings). As it turns out, she wore two necklaces, and one of them was some kind of homage to Princess Diana. You can see Meghan’s ShopMy update here.
Meanwhile, those Beyonce-concert pics still have Salt Island really mad. You always tell the level of fury by how much they avoid endlessly reprinting new photos – they did that with Invictus earlier this year, because the Sussexes looking happy and fine weren’t part of the larger narrative the British press is trying to sell. But at least one Daily Mail columnist is admitting the obvious: the Sussexes won. They won because they’re happy and free. From Liz Jones’s column (which was suspiciously buried):
If a picture is worth a thousand words, one in particular – an immaculate, pink polished hand on his chest, he in turn beaming down at his wife with a look of sheer adoration – spoke just two very important ones: ‘We’re happy!’ And, oh, a couple more words, this time from Meghan (we know how loquacious she is): ‘I’ve won.’
She’s had a torrid few weeks of negative podcast reviews and ridicule – for taking several hours to do the school run, even though she has a nanny, for example. Criticism of unfulfilled orders for her products. Of the ill-advised use of an HRH on a gift card. Mockery at the almost unanimous panning of her With Love, Meghan Netflix series (although I found it strangely soothing and harmless).
Well, at the end of that tumult, here was the couple we’d been led to believe were cowering in a panic room, showing that all the criticism was like water off a duck’s back. Here they were, mingling in the crowd at the stadium in LA for all the world as if the last five years of arguments and brickbats and tears had never happened. These two aren’t brittle cast-iron Le Creuset after all: they are clearly made of Teflon.
Yes, Harry is still estranged from his family, but from the look of him, maybe a different, smaller family – his wife and two children – is all he needs…And I must admire Meghan in particular. That she can emerge, shimmering, almost covered in silver droplets, from the ocean of online trolling to appear carefree, undimmed, smiling, takes real guts.
I’ve written before that Meghan is not a monster, so let’s just give the woman a break. Rather than continue to attack this young woman we should see her, and Harry to some extent, as examples for those young people who might sit alone in a bedroom, broken by what they read about themselves online, seeing no way out.
Actually, I was sympathetic to Harry’s BBC sit-down with the BBC. Only one fellow newspaper commentator agreed with my take, saying that the rest of the Royal family – as Christian and as the ones with the power – should offer an olive branch to their troubled son. To the Windsors, I say ‘be a team, a united front’. This is your way out. The only way. California looks more fun than Kensington. This snapshot tells anyone being abused to rise above.
And to Meghan: ‘block out the noise!’ (Meghan has said she sees only about one per cent of what’s written. Megs. Sweetheart. I hope you read this). Turn your phone off. Find someone who has your back. Because happiness really is the best revenge.
There have been other glimpses of this too – subtle acknowledgements throughout this year in particular that Harry and Meghan are happy, in love and winning at life. There’s always a lot of rage directed at Meghan in particular for being in her era of joy, for not letting those terrible people disturb her peace anymore. Anyway, yeah – I hope the concert photos help people realize that the Sussexes are thriving.
Photos courtesy of Beyonce.com and Meghan’s IG.
