The Duchess of Sussex’s sojourn to Paris was a huge success. The information about her journey to France was completely locked down, and the media didn’t know anything until Meghan posted some IG Stories and then stepped out for the Balenciaga show. The photos and videos of Meghan in Paris were everywhere this weekend, all over American and international media. The New York Times used a photo of Meghan – and not Pierpaolo Piccioli or one of the runway shots – as their top image about the new Balenciaga collection. This is how the NYT’s Vanessa Friedman wrote about Meghan:
It takes a lot for the jaded fashion crowd to get excited about a celebrity. Even Kim Kardashian’s appearance at Maison Margiela with cropped hair that made her look like she was cosplaying her mother merely elicited amused grins. Ditto Ina Garten popping up at Hermès, to enjoy the parade of leather. But when Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, swept into the Balenciaga show on Saturday night, sheathed in a floor-length white shawl, every smartphone swiveled in her wake. (Nearby, Lauren Sánchez Bezos caused less of a kerfuffle.)
It was a sign of just how big a deal the show, the first from the house’s new creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, was going to be. After all, the duchess knows something about starting new chapters and dressing the part. Even in a season of major debuts, this was one of the biggest.
The point is that it was a HUGE deal in the fashion world that Meghan came out to support Balenciaga’s new chapter and Piccioli’s new chapter. It was a HUGE deal in the mainstream media that Meghan came to Paris and they had new photos of her looking fabulous.
So… of course the British media and the Deranger community has been trying their hardest to piss all over it. This is what they’ve settled on: in her IG Stories, Meghan posted a glimpse of her feet up inside a limousine as she was driven around Paris. The Daily Mail claims that this is insensitive because Meghan shot the footage “near” the Pont de l’Alma, the tunnel where Princess Diana’s car crashed and Diana sustained fatal injuries. The Mail even claimed that Meghan had her feet up as she was being driven “past” the l’Alma tunnel. This is a blatant lie. In the background of Meghan’s video, you could see the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont des Invalid bridges. The Pont de l’Alma is apparently a kilometer away. I have an extremely macabre theory about why THIS is the talking point for the Mail.
Meghan Markle posts ‘insensitive’ video near tunnel where Diana died https://t.co/3PdimMoFCl via @DailyMail this really is so idiotic! Does she need lessons in the topography of Paris? If you are serious about promotion you don’t make mistakes like this.
— Richard Fitzwilliams (@RFitzwilliams) October 5, 2025
“always beautiful” EXACTLY pic.twitter.com/sNdM5uf1CO
— vittoria (@duchessmeghn) October 4, 2025
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
