Last week, Meghan Markle shared footage to her Instagram Stories, including a video taken from the backseat of a limousine as she drove around Paris, her feet resting on the seat in front of her. Shot during Meghan’s stop in the French capital for a surprise appearance at a Balenciaga show, the video only remained online for 24 hours. Though her location was very difficult to make out from the footage, that was enough to trigger a storm from viewers who thought she was posting from the Pont d’Alma Tunnel.
That’s where Prince Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, tragically lost her life in a car accident in August 1997, at the age of 36. Some users called the footage “tasteless” and “disrespectful,” deeming it inappropriate for Meghan to pose at a location laden with painful memories. Others argued that the duchess hadn’t intended to elicit comparisons with the iconic mother-in-law she never knew.
Even noted royal biographer Richard Fitzwilliams, speaking with the Daily Mail, sharply criticized the post, calling it “utterly bewildering.” and “insensitive beyond belief.” Fitzwilliams had also raised doubts about the reaction it has sparked from Prince Harry, who has spoken often about being traumatized by his mother’s death. “I don’t understand what on earth she was thinking,” Fitzwilliams said. “Well, she can’t have been thinking.”
Instead, Harry was on his wife’s side after the footage was posted, according to People. Sources close to the prince told the magazine that he will always protect his wife from the media. One friend told the Daily Mail that is “hurt and upset” by the reaction to Meghan’s video. “Diana’s death was used as a stick to beat his wife with. [Meghan] did not even pass close to the tunnel,” the insider said. “The whole thing is a joke, but not a very funny one for Harry.”
The duchess’s solo trip to Paris—Harry remained in Montecito—turned out to be a complicated marketing operation. According to tabloid reports, Meghan also became the protagonist of another drama due to video that shows the duchess, seated next to her friend Markus Anderson, covering her face with her hand. A commentator told GB News that she thought Meghan was laughing at a model who fell, but her representative told the Mail that her reaction wasn’t directed at a model. (A representative for the Duchess confirmed that she wasn’t at the bridge and didn’t laugh at a model.)
Originally published in Vanity Fair Italy.
