Given the British media’s fixation on the Duchess of Sussex, I find it interesting that they never talk about how much they’re paying for their exclusive photos. Royalists spun crazy conspiracies about last week’s pub photos of Prince Harry and Meghan, claiming that Meghan set them up… but the photos looked suspicious in a whole different direction, like the Sun had a photographer staking out that particular pub for days at a substantial cost. So it is with the Mail’s exclusive pics of Meghan out to lunch with Malala Yousafzai at Claridge’s in London. They’re already crying that Meghan purposefully set up those pics, but once again, it feels much more likely that they came via the Mail spending a lot of money to track Meghan’s movements. I would love to know how much the photographers were paid for the pub photos and the Claridge’s photos, I’m just saying.

Anyway, the Mail is obsessively tracking Meghan’s expensive clothing, obviously. Meghan wore a cashmere sweater by Co Collections, with Ralph Lauren trousers (she looooves a palazzo pant). Her loafers are Saint Laurent, her bag is Chanel and her cape coat is Tove. She was blinged out as well, wearing a Logan Hollowell diamond-and-emerald necklace. The Mail’s editors were aghast! How could Meghan wear such nice clothing? It must mean something! It must mean that she’s sending them a message!

For some years now, Meghan has leaned rather hard into her status. Consumption has been conspicuous, signalled by the diamonds, the gold accessories, the Cartier watch and so on. Offerings – even of ordinary foodstuffs like jam and tea – have been ‘elevated’ by fancy packaging and sky-high prices. The chocolates in her infamously expensive As Ever advent calendar that went on sale last week cost nearly £6 each and are stamped with gold calligraphy, based on her own handwriting.

And yet, even as pictures emerged of her shrouded in £1,700 white trousers and hanging on to a £5,000-plus Chanel handbag outside Claridge’s in Mayfair on Wednesday, friends were briefing that this is actually a new ‘humble’ version of the Duchess of Sussex. Not that you might immediately notice.

‘She is very conscious about how she wants pictures to land which is why you have barely seen her,’ says a friend. ‘She has honestly been trying to keep a low profile. I mean, on one level obviously if you meet someone at Claridge’s it will be noticed, but look at how quiet she has been on social media, how little she has been out.’

Indeed for a ‘public figure’, which is how her spokesman described her, she has been barely seen since she and Harry arrived by private jet on August 26. And yet now here she is, with a Nobel Peace Prize winner no less, the immaculately philanthropic figure, Malala Yousafzai.

Malala, who was a 15-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl when she was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 after advocating female education, is a charity powerhouse par excellence. The pair first met during Covid, when Meghan was among the celebrity voices lending their heft to a campaign for female education in 2020. It was the first impressive link-up of many. Indeed, at times you get the impression that Meghan is a collector of influential female figures. First, there was TV powerhouse Oprah, who was invited to her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry even though the pair had never met. Then there was Amal Clooney, the human rights lawyer wife of Hollywood star George, who also found herself in the pews of St George’s Chapel. Again, it wasn’t clear if they’d ever met either. Sources indicate that neither woman is in contact with Meghan now.

A friend said: ‘They are all really happy with how things are going, with the children at school, with where they are living, and with being in Britain. The place where they are staying is perfectly private and they couldn’t be happier with that. Things are going well with Harry’s family as well, but nothing more to be said there. They are optimistic that there will be a revision of their security soon. It’s all good. Both Harry and Meghan are really delighted with the return.’

The friend adds: ‘The relocation to the UK is being served with a dose of humble pie though. There are genuine concerns from them both about how they are being received, how they want what they are doing to land. They have been thinking about it and being very deliberate. They think that if they start posting stuff on Instagram it will land badly. It is part of a thought-out plan to keep their heads down between now and Christmas, when they will go back to California for the holidays. They don’t want to shove themselves down people’s throats.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I’ve written about this habit of the British press, to treat Meghan’s every move like part of a master plan with hidden motives and a secret agenda. A woman cannot simply go out to dinner with an associate/friend, it’s all part of a comeback plot, a plot which hinges on her popularity within Britain! Emotional-support polls! Chanel bags! Instagram! Incidentally, I buy that Amal Clooney isn’t in touch with Meghan anymore – Amal has gone all-in with the Windsors, and the Windsors probably demanded that she cut ties with Meghan. But I’m sure Oprah is still in touch with Meghan and Harry. Anyway, I don’t think any part of Meghan and Harry’s UK return hinges upon emotional support polls or positive coverage in the British media. I do think their return hinges on security though.

Meghan steps into the limelight: Duchess wears £25,000 outfit for afternoon tea at Claridge’s with Malala Yousafzai https://t.co/69HmcLGCsy

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) October 8, 2026

‘She is very conscious about how she wants pictures to land’: Inside THAT lunch between Meghan and Nobel peace prize winner Malala – as friends lift lid on Duchess’s ‘humble’ new life in Britain https://t.co/sWh1RPYJSE

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) October 9, 2026

Covers courtesy of the Daily Mail and the Sun. Additional photos courtesy of Backgrid.