Does anyone really believe it was coincidence rather than cynical attention-seeking that Meghan’s first solo European trip as Duchess of Sussex was a visit to Paris? The romantic city that Princess Diana loved above all, and the one where she died?
Or that it was mere happenstance, after Megs attended a Balenciaga fashion show, that she filmed then posted on social media the late-night, chauffeur-driven journey along the Seine back to her hotel – a route parallel to the one taken on the other side of the river by Diana on the night of her fatal crash.
Why, of all the countless five-star luxury hotels in Paris, did Meghan choose to stay in the Hotel Plaza Athenee just four minutes from the Pont de l’Alma tunnel where Diana’s car crashed?
These questions all leave us wondering whether Meghan’s Paris trip was a naked bid to invoke an echo of the mother-in-law she never met, to establish herself in some deluded way as the heir to Diana.
Did she have her Netflix crew in tow to record every moment? I wouldn’t put it past her.
Shamefully, Meghan sent her 4.5million Instagram followers pictures of herself with her feet up on the seat in the back of her minivan, hauntingly close to where the Princess died.
To the millions worldwide who mourn Diana, it brought back memories of that night in 1997 that she was so badly injured in the back of the car, her body crumpled in the footwell behind the passenger seat.
If it was merely a coincidence that Meghan chose the city where Diana died to make her first European outing, and then made a film that brought back comparisons with the Princess’s tragic last journey, how utterly tin-eared of her it was. Even the most terrified junior PR would have have advised it was perhaps not a good look. That the optics might be toxic.
Thousands have condemned her antics online. One of the milder comments asked whether the moment she approached the spot where her husband’s mother crashed, shouldn’t be a time of ‘quiet, respectful contemplation’, not an opportunity to post on Insta.
Others said it was obvious the Paris visit would invite comparisons between her and Diana.
Whatever the case, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams puts it far better than me, saying that her visit was ‘utterly bewildering, beyond stupid and insensitive beyond belief’.
He added: ‘I don’t understand what on earth she was thinking – well she couldn’t have been thinking – to share a video which had any connections with the tragic death of the Princess of Wales defies belief.’
And this leads us to question of where Harry was during this PR disaster? Why was Meghan making a solo visit? Why, come to think of it, is the Prince appearing less and less in her social media posts, after having been virtually written out of her Netflix series With Love, Meghan?
Was Prince Harry sulking at home feeding the organic chooks, unaware of the trip and his wife’s intentions?
Surely even dim-witted Harry would have cautioned his wife a trip to Paris was an unwise move, likely to provoke ridicule and anger?
Harry wrote in his memoir Spare that he was so tormented by his mother’s death that he asked his driver to take him through the tunnel, past the pillar where her car crashed, at the same speed she had been travelling. Given his understandable sensitivity on the subject would he really have endorsed, let alone encouraged, his wife to post that video?
Meghan let it be known she was in Paris to honour her ‘bestie’ Pierpaolo Piccioli, the new designer of Balenciaga. She turned up to the fashion show wearing one of his creations – a monstrous white shirt, cape and baggy trousers – and sat in the front row before changing later into one of his sleek black gowns for dinner where she nibbled prawns at an exclusive Parisian restaurant.
It was after that meal that she headed home in her limo along the route that was parallel to the one taken by Diana.
To be honest, I feel sorry for Harry. For all his flaws, he is someone who would protect his mother’s legacy with every breath left in him.
He would surely have counselled Meghan against posting that video. But if such a conversation were ever to take place would his ruthlessly ambitious wife simply have ignored him?
