Kim Kardashian is said to be angry that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s team demanded that she and her mother, Kris Jenner, remove social media photos of the couple schmoozing with them and hitting the dance floor at the reality TV matriarch’s 70th birthday party last weekend.
This reported demand has “upset” the Kardashian family, who apparently see it as a “snub” after they welcomed the exiled Duke and Duchess of Sussex to Jenner’s lavish James Bond-themed party, which some in Hollywood hail as the A-list bash of the year, the Daily Mail reported. The start-studded party was hosted by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez, at their $165 million Beverly Hills mansion.
Following the party, candid images of Harry and Meghan popped up on in photo carousels shared by Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner on their Instagram ccounts. The photos, which are still circulating on social media, show Harry and Meghan cozying up to Jenner, with Meghan giggling as she places her hand on Jenner’s should. Another shows “a bleary-eyed” Harry “sashaying” towards Jenner on the dance floor, while yet another shows Meghan and Kardashian smiling together for the camera.
But hours later, multiple outlets noticed that these photos mysteriously disappeared from the Kardashians’ social media accounts. The deletion of the photos sparked the Sussexes’ latest controversy, as well as reports that they have angered a very powerful Hollywood family, where Meghan has been eager to establish herself as an influential figure. According to the Daily Mail, it’s possible that Meghan and Harry “won’t be easily forgiven” for this “snub.”
People magazine initially reported that Harry and Meghan had asked that no photos of them inside the party be published, while a Los Angeles source told the Daily Mail that the couple may have ticked “no” on a photo-consent form that would have been routinely distributed to guests. But on Thursday, a source told People that no consent forms were distributed to guests. Meanwhile, sources told the Daily Mail, in another report, that the Sussexes like to maintain tight control of their public image and were “furious” that the photos went out on social media without their permissions.
The Kardashians, in turn, were reportedly angry that Harry and Meghan didn’t want to be seen at their party, even though they let themselves be photographed by paparazzi arriving at the Bezos mansion. There’s also the fact that Harry and Meghan were fine being photographed earlier in the evening, attending the Baby2Baby charity gala, hosted by their friend Serena Williams.
“Kim was like ‘you’ve already been papped outside and you were at the Baby2Baby event the same night being photographed like Meghan Trainor and Paris Hilton so what’s the problem?’” a source told the Daily Mail. The source added: “Kim is p—– off.”
“You cannot ghost the Kardashians,” one Los Angeles source told Rob Shuter, the former executive editor of the American edition of OK! magazine, the Daily Mail reported. Another Hollywood insider told the Daily Mail: “Kim doesn’t do take-backs. If you show up to a Kardashian production, you’re part of the machine.”
“Meghan’s made another Hollywood enemy,” the insider said. “And unlike royals, Kardashians don’t forgive easily.”
Harry and Meghan’s reported sensitivity about the birthday party photos has given rise to speculation that they were embarrassed to be seen partying with a family notorious for commodifying their personal lives and their ostentatious displays of wealth. Page Six reported that British royal insiders were “appalled” to see images of Harry and Meghan schmoozing with the Kardashians. “It’s so tacky,” one palace insider said.
The photos of the couple at the glitzy bash also hit a nerve on the other side of the Atlantic when contrasted with photos of Harry’s royal relatives attending events to mark Remembrance Day, an annual memorial day in Commonwealth countries to honor armed forces members who have died in the line of duty. While attending the party, Harry gave a nod to Remembrance Day by wearing the traditional red poppy on his tuxedo lapel, but Meghan didn’t make a similar gesture.
Others say it might not be helpful to Harry and Meghan’s brand for them to be seen trying to curry favor with Bezos and Sanchez, who have arguably become one of the most polarizing couples in the world. Critics say they flaunt their billions like “oligarchs,” while they’ve also made efforts to be friendly with Donald Trump’s controversial administration. Ever since leaving royal life to find “freedom” and fortune in the United States, the Sussexes have tried to portray themselves as do-gooders who care about social justice and the less fortunate in the world.
A party attendee told the Daily Mail that Meghan was “definitely in networking mode, schmoozing with a lot of power players.” Nick Ede, a U.K.-based public relations and branding expert, also told the Daily Mail that the couple’s purpose at the party was “all about buttering up Bezos.” His Amazon MGM studios is producing a romantic comedy called “Close Personal Friends,” in which Meghan makes a cameo appearance as herself. But joining Bezos and Sanchez’s elite crowd does not necessarily mesh with Harry and Meghan’s do-gooder “narrative,” which could offer another reason that the couple didn’t want to draw too much attention to their presence at the party, according to Ede.
“Meghan and Harry have a problem with admitting they are now part of Hollywood society, which is what she wanted and they cannot on one hand use their star power for good, like going to charity events, and on the other hand demand they are erased from events they don’t want to be seen to support,” Ede said.