In October 2024, the Duchess of Sussex was a surprise guest at a gala fundraiser for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She wore a red dress and she looked lovely, happy and rich. The British media had a really bonkers meltdown over it and they were still ranting about “Meghan wearing a red dress at a hospital fundraiser” for days, weeks and months after the fact. I bring this up because clearly, Meghan knows people at CHLA and she’s stepped out before to support the hospital and the kids who receive treatment there. Well, this week, Meghan stopped by CHLA to spend time with some of the kids. It’s likely that CHLA asked her to support their latest campaign, Make March Matter. The hospital posted photos of Meghan wearing a mask and spending time with kids. From the hospital’s Instagram:
Today we were honored to welcome LA’s own @meghan, Duchess of Sussex, to CHLA’s Creative Oasis, where she spent time painting alongside our incredible patients. 🎨 ✨ These special moments are a reminder of how powerful creativity can be in fostering joy, connection, and healing.
Meghan’s visit is part of #MakeMarchMatter, our month-long fundraising campaign supporting the lifesaving care, research, and innovation that happens at CHLA every day. For 125 years, CHLA has been a steadfast beacon of hope and healing.
You, too, can make an impact by shopping, dining, or attending an event with a #MakeMarchMatter participating business. For more info, visit makemarchmatter.org
“LA’s own” – tell ‘em!! Meghan is a proud Angeleno. Per People Magazine, “Make March Matter is an annual fundraising campaign for CHLA that unites celebrities, businesses, and the greater community in support of its mission of creating hope and building healthier futures. Funds raised will help ensure the hospital can provide sick and critically injured children with the best quality care, research and innovation that happens at CHLA every day for the last 125 years.” Basically, it’s one of the hospital’s fundraising and awareness-raising drives. Just a glance through CHLA’s Instagram shows how many celebrities and athletes are participating in Make March Matter – several professional ice hockey players from the LA Kings were there, visiting the kids. Jeff Goldblum and his wife were recently there. John Stamos and Jamie Lee Curtis were there too (JLC was there in February). I guarantee that more celebrities will stop by now that Meghan’s visit is getting national and international attention.
Meanwhile, Tom Sykes wrote a new Substack column about Meghan’s CHLA appearance and how it made him feel “queasy.” He described the photos as “jarring” and yet he also claimed that Meghan was clearly copying Princess Kate. Sykes also claims that Meghan’s “brand” is “chaotic.” Yes, who would believe that Meghan continues to support CHLA and that she would visit sick kids, just weeks after… she visited hospitals in Jordan and spent time with children there as well. Her brand is in chaos, I swear!! Sykes also tries to argue that people who get paid to do other work can’t also do charity work or philanthropic work. Like, what are we doing here?
Incidentally, most American celebrities make time to do charity work, regardless of their personal “brand.” It matters to those kids too – Kim Kardashian has been supporting this exact same Make March Matter campaign for years.
Fashion note by CB: Meghan is wearing the Heidi Merrick Finny Cardigan. Her color is sold out but you can still get it in black or red.
Photos courtesy of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’s Instagram.
Proud of Meghan and all the celebrities who support this children’s hospital and the workers. The Sussexes really demonstrate that Service is universal
I just love her unbothered grace. Supporting worthy causes and just being as kind as always.
To think, someone’s argument is only royalty can support good causes. As if, perhaps they should focus on their in house criminal.
The idea that philanthropy belongs to the royals—It seems so much more genuine and heartfelt when private citizens visit a hospital without any expectation of getting paid for it, fully masked up, and hold children’s hands.
Then there’s cosplaying baristas on the public dime.
This Tom Sykes guy needs to take a seat. Copying Kate?! Where do I start?
I guess Tom prefers to see kids standing in the rain with no protection while Kate and Will use them for their own PR (while holding umbrellas)
She can’t win with some people. If M never did these visits, the British rat pack would be criticising her for only doing things for money and hanging out with rich people. When she does, she’s copying Kate, who only gets out of bed for a minimum of 22M British pounds per year … oh please.
It bothers these Royal sycophants because charity and service is what they thought they had on lock as justification for the British royals. Even though they don’t do nearly enough or have anywhere close to the actionable returns they should to be a good return on investment.
It’s silly to pretend that only the British royals can do service or philanthropy. Ignoring how many celebrities have partnered with foundations and have their own foundations, plenty of regular people do service and philanthropy all the time. There are service organizations that exist so that people can do community service. There are service requirements in some cities to graduate high school. People can earn money and volunteer at food banks, clothing drives, book bag giveaways at the same time.
It’s also disgusting given how they treated Diana when she was alive, that they’re trying to co-opt her and imply that anyone that does good things in the world are doing it just so that they can pretend to be her. Meghan was doing volunteer work in the 80s at the same time as diana, she’s not copying anyone.
Also, it makes him queasy to see people visiting sick children and brightening their day? Not sure that’s something I would want out there.
Bill Gates’ foundation does way more than any royal one, just saying.
i find this all so insulting to people in the UK who are actively involved with charity and philanthropy work, from celebrities to “normal people.” The narrative from the royals that only they can “live a life of service” demeans everyone who is serving others, even if they’re not getting millions of pounds a year in return.
It’s incredibly demeaning, which is why I don’t understand why so many actually service minded British people still cozy up to the British royals. They are doing the hard work and the heavy lifting with much less resources and money, I wouldn’t give any of my shine to them. They could keep their OBE/MBE’s.
Whilst paying taxes to support the royals! But this is not restricted to GB. We have the Danish royals coming tomorrow for a political visit (any excuse will do) and people will fawn over them too.
All those charity shops in our high streets being run by volunteers, do the papers think that they should all go home.
The silly part is that, relative to their position and wealth, the British royals aren’t even remotely philanthropic. They don’t give their money and they only give their time because they’re funded by the tax payers.
They offer their smiles, @Eurydice. WHY IS THAT NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?!!??!?!
@Becks1 – 🤣🤣🤣🤣
They cosplay at coffee shops and breweries but don’t drink the products–how can you not understand how much this helps small businesses?!
“We pay, you pose!”, they shrieked from on high. Harry and Meghan give of their own time without any taxpayer handouts, and they are the biggest scum on Earth.
No one with even mildly functioning critical thinking skills believes this narrative anymore, and it’s just making the U.K. look bad. Really and truly disturbed, and this from an American who knows exactly what our government looks like to the rest of the free world.
Love to see it. Consistent in her support for CHLA.
As chaotic as some may see Meghan’s brand, it seems fine. If u read the DM or pg 6, she’s always on the verge of ruin or setbacks. But she’s not?
An important visit from meghan, and I’m sure it meant a lot to those kids and their familiies.
This insistence from the royal family and their minions that only royals can or should do charity work is just….well, ridiculous. celebrities have been visiting sick kids in hospitals since forever. It’s a good visit from Meghan, but not earth shattering (which is completely fine!)
Nothing about this is “copying Kate.” But I do wonder if we’ll see Kate in a mask the next time she visits a hospital.
Meghan should be doing ‘real work’ like making coffee at Borough Market and pretending to stir a vat of beer. What is she thinking by visiting sick kids at the request of the hospital and actually doing something nice for free? She should be demanding millions from the taxpayer for turning up and trying out peasant jobs!
With her hair dangling down into the cheese! Gross!
May I present exhibit A – a working royal? Our princess is everything princess khate of Lazibury should be! It hurts them soooooooo bad and I am enjoying every minute of it. 🤣
I frequently say Meghan is the zeitgeist. The attention and interest in her is indeed otherworldly. Unreal, yet I live in the timeline where it exists. 🙌 The British royals and their royalist supporters want Meghan in a box because she’s married to Harry and they want their narrative about her to be true but she keeps foiling their narrative. She’s proudly Harry’s wife but she’s also an independent American woman pursuing her own interests and career. They cannot guess what she’ll do next because she’s not fitting into their box. They’re bothered by their lack of control of her. In the US people are not constrained by royalty and aristocracy. People figure out ways to navigate society to pursue their goals and are celebrated for their success. It’s a major social and cultural difference between the UK and the US. Thankfully Meghan moved back home so she could navigate her future with Harry and their children in familiar territory. I am so proud of Meghan’s resilience and continued pursuit of her interests and financial independence. Keep on keeping on Meghan. 👍
Very beautifully written MSJ!!!
Imitate keen. Really. Keen let the little kids get wet when she visited those schools and she carried an umbrella. Such delusional writing.
Meghan at least has the common sense to wear a proper size mask when she’s visiting children in the hospital. So, not totally copying Katie Keen.
Local philanthropist visits hospital. News at 11. My god, trying to spin visiting sick kids as a bad thing is incredibly low. Sykes is so shameless.
Meghan has visited this hospital for years. Sykes and the other rota rats can’t make the Epstein scandal stick on the Sussexes so they do this.
Is it that celebrities in the UK don’t do charity work? I don’t understand Tom Sykes’ comments here. Plus it’s not the first time that Meghan has participated in Make March Matter she visited the hospital in 2024. Anyway, the photos were really sweet and every seems happy that she visited.
Meghan was doing Charity work long before she met Harry.
And the pictures are out there for the World to see, Tom Sucks is funny saying Meghan is copying Unable, as if, children engage with her.
If you want to see bored children, look at Unable trying to engage with them.
I’m just glad she wore a mask to protect the kiddos. Scoot and Buttons couldn’t even manage that during their last hospital visit.
I ♥️ M.
Meghan is so thoughtful, wearing a mask around those very sick kids. It drives me around the bend when royals visit hospitals without masking up.
The pandemic may be over, but it has been a terrible year for the flu and RSV. Meghan, as always, shows how it’s done.
I remember when Meghan visited the hospital previously and read stories to the kids. Same song and dance of “How dare she!” from the same out of tune choir. If only they had monitored the former Prince Andrew’s activities as closely as they do Meghan’s.