Last week, the Duchess of Sussex’s spokesperson (finally) issued a statement about the Galvan dress seen in the With Love, Meghan promotional materials. The dress was originally seen on Meghan in her 2022 Variety cover shoot, which caused unhinged people to claim that Meghan “stole” the dress and then… wore it on WLM years later. Meghan’s spox confirmed what most people assumed, that Meghan has it in her magazine contracts that she gets to take certain items from her photoshoots, which is pretty typical of many celebrity magazine shoots. Well, I hoped this whole bullsh-t controversy would die with the spox statement, but it has not. It’s being used as one piece in a laundry list of accusations against the Sussexes in this new Page Six piece. The main thrust is that Meghan and Harry are “dashing their chances” at reconciling with the Windsors by… wearing clothes from magazine shoots, and volunteering for charity, and going to Kris Jenner’s party. It should be abundantly clear by now that Meghan doesn’t give a f–k about reconciling, and that Harry just wants to spend some personal time with his father. But whatever, enjoy:

The Galvan dress: A spokesperson told Page Six it was “categorically false” Meghan took the Galvan gown without asking, while a Sussex source added it was “standard for talent to retain select items from photo shoots — sometimes for security reasons. Explaining further, they added: “Clothing worn by members of the royal family and other public figures has been targeted for resale in the past.”

Palace insiders react to the spox statement: That statement irked palace insiders, who were quick to point out members of the official royal family are not allowed to accept free clothing at all. “I resent the use of the world ‘royal family’ because they’re meant to be non-working royals,” said Hugo Vickers, author and friend of the family. “To use the family as an excuse for such protocol is ridiculous and very stupid. They are a member of a family, but they are not working royals and if they cared at all, they should not be writing nasty books and giving interviews. This is not going to help their cause with reconciliation at all, it’s all being done for publicity.”

Kris Jenner’s party was a fiasco!! As we reported, those inside the Kardashian camp were upset the Sussexes were taking attention away from Jenner and her birthday celebrations — and accused their staffers of lying. An insider close to the famous brood told us they got “annoyed with the Sussex camp” for “overshadowing” what was intended to be “a celebration of Kris.” “There was no consent form. That just makes Kris look ridiculous,” added the insider.

The Sussexes are just trying to get their names out there! However, Sussex sources insist the couple are firmly focused on their philanthropy efforts, making a $1.3m donation to the Children in Need charity, alongside a $150,000 donation to the Centre for Blast Injury Studies to support research into blast injuries of children in Ukraine and Gaza. They also made a $200,000 donation to the World Health Organisation to support medical evacuees from Gaza, an $150,000 donation to Save the Children and $50,000 donation to Masaka Kids Afrikana to support reconstruction efforts in Jamaica following the hurricane. Their charity efforts, the sources said are in excess of $2.5 million.

Celebrity behavior: However, she and Harry can’t have it both ways. Although they want to be seen as royals, the fact the former “Suits” actress is taking items from photoshoots is pure celebrity behavior, according to Bethan Holt, the UK Daily Telegraph fashion director and royal fashion expert. “It sounds like Meghan had a more celebrity-style agreement than a royal one,” Holt explained, adding, “Royals generally keep things above board, celebrities are renowned for taking items from shoots, even if that is with the agreement of the magazine, stylists and brands.” The Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, always pays for her clothes, although they may be discounted, according to Holt. She is also collecting items she has worn in an archive because one day she will be Queen.

The royal-clothing auction claim is true though: Asked about the idea that the royal family has to be careful about their items going up for auction is true, Holt revealed, saying, “Maybe now royals are much more careful, but Princess Diana used to give her clothes to friends and staff all the time, some pieces ended up in [thrift stores]. I think Fergie [Sarah Ferguson] might have been gifted some of them too.” Diana’s clothes have sold at a myriad auctions; one famous ‘black sheep’ sweater, bought for $50, sold for $1.14 million at Sothebys New York in September 2023.

Meghan keeps fashion-shoot clothes: Multiple sources also told Page Six Markle has a habit of keeping clothes from shoots. One Variety source told us, “Meghan took every single thing from that shoot that she wore.” Another industry insider said the mom-of-two also took items from her 2022 interview with ‘The Cut’ for which she wore a black-and-white Tory Burch tulle dress teamed with Lanvin ‘Melodie’ earrings in green for the cover.

The Sussexes volunteering before Thanksgiving: Photos show Archie and Lili with their parents rolling up balls of dough. Meghan showed off the finished product on her Instagram Stories along with the caption, “Show up, do good.” “Even that is quite desperate,” sniffed one palace source, “If the kids weren’t in the photos, would anyone be interested?”

[From Page Six]

They bitch and moan about Harry and Meghan for two pages, then at the end, they call H&M “desperate” for including their kids in a charity outing and say “If the kids weren’t in the photos, would anyone be interested?” Judging from every single criticism lodged at Harry and Meghan in the paragraphs beforehand, I would say yes, they would have been interested, even if the kids were not in the photos. For some time now, I’ve believed one of the biggest problems facing the left-behind Windsors and their flunkies is that they are still so obviously obsessed with watching and commenting on the Sussexes, all these years later. It’s still a regular thing, where “palace insiders,” or royal sources or royal commentators are still f–king talking about every single thing Harry & Meghan do or say. There’s no sense of proportion either – they seem equally furious about the most mundane, normal things as, say, Prince Harry’s memoir. All of which to say, the royal sources are making mountains out of molehills and they should try focusing their sad-sack energy on the left-behinds.

Photos and screencaps courtesy of Backgrid, Kris Jenner’s IG, Netflix and Archewell.