Rumours fly as Meghan Markle reportedly absent from Serena Williams’ baby shower

With the Sussexes reportedly on the outs with the Beckhams and the duchess absent from Serena Williams’ baby shower, has the A-list abandoned the royals?

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Please put your hands up if you can readily tell me who the following people are: Victoria Jackson, Amanda Leone and Sarah Staudinger.

It’s okay, I’ll wait. No, no, keep thinking, I have the time.

The answer is one that most people would only have gotten if they had the help of Google or if they happen to have access to the contacts list of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, with these three women all now reportedly part of the royal’s Californian inner circle.

The question of Hollywood’s reception of Meghan and husband Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex – the world’s most enthusiastic man-bead wearer – is back in the news again this week after the Daily Mail reported that their friendship with David and Victoria Beckham is “over”.

Soccer ball kicker extraordinaire David was reportedly left “absolutely bloody furious”, according to the Mail, after “there was a suspicion the couple may have leaked stories about the Sussexes”.

“Any making up now is so unlikely,” a source has said.

Any making up between the Sussexes and David Beckham and Victoria Beckham is ‘so unlikely’, a source has said. Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Ken Paves Salon

While this does have more than a whiff of the playground spattery about it, this, along with the reported absence of Meghan at Serena Williams’ baby shower, begs the question, are big names, and big business, turning their backs on the Sussexes?

This week, Page Six claimed that the duchess was “was nowhere to be seen” at Williams’ party, and nor does the former Suits star appear in the YouTube video shared by the tennis great of her gender reveal party.

This is despite the fact that Williams and the Duchess of Sussex have been friends since 2010, that Serena organised a six-figure baby shower for her royal pal in 2019, that the tennis great attended the Sussexes’ wedding in 2018 and that she was the debut guest on Meghan’s Archetypes podcast series last year.

Now, absence is not confirmation. The duchess may well have been at Williams’ shindig, quaffing champers and having the time of her life, but simply wanted to be left out of the social media spectacle.

So too is there also every chance that the 41-year-old was invited and could not make it.

But here’s the thing – outwardly, the Sussexes are looking increasingly unsupported by both big names and big business.

Back in 2021, celebs seemed to be falling over each other to align themselves with the couple, including Chrissy Teigen, Gabrielle Union, Chance The Rapper, Jameela Jamil and George Clooney – twice – all coming out in support of her.

There was no sign of Meghan or Harry at Serena Williams' gender reveal party. Picture: Instagram/@serenawilliams

Even the White House got in on the act, with then-press secretary Jen Psaki praising the Sussexes’ “courage” after their Oprah Winfrey interview.

But this year, at a time when Harry and Meghan have suffered blow after blow, the couple seem to be lacking public defenders of the A-list variety.

There have been some clues that the duke and duchess have made some social headway, with claims that, when they were papped heading out to dinner in Montecito in May, it was for an evening with Cameron Diaz, Benji Madden, Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband Brad Falchuk.

But Meghan’s supporters now reportedly include former talk show host Ellen DeGeneres; Amanda Leone, a local hairdresser; Victoria Jackson, a makeup entrepreneur and Sarah Staudinger, the founder of It brand Staud, who also happens to be married to Meghan’s new super agent Ari Emanuel.

It’s easy to play back seat Freud here and see the appeal of these women to the duchess – all self-made business owners who have built what they have from the ground up.

Still, this is a real shift since the Sussexes’ 2018 wedding when stars like Idris and Sabrina Elba, Priyanka Chopra, Tom Hardy and Carey Mulligan were all happy to attach themselves to the then-supernova Sussexes. (When the Clooneys were asked by a fellow attendee how he knew the happy couple, according to a 2020 report, “the Clooneys answered brightly” that “we don’t”).

Even if privately there is a steady stream of Oscar winners and the biggest names in the entertainment business beating a path to the Sussexes’ door, no one is publicly rallying around them.

Nor is Washington seemingly eager to get behind them.

Somehow, in July, the embarrassing story got out that the duke and duchess had reportedly asked President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden if they could catch a lift home on Air Force One after the late Queen’s funeral.

The couple seem to be lacking public defenders of the A-list variety. Picture: Netflix

And it’s not just the glitterati who are failing to show much outward support for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

In June, it was announced that the couple and Spotify had decided to part ways, a break up that was framed as a corporate conscious uncoupling. They are yet to sign with any other podcasting platform, despite the duchess’ Hollywood agents WME putting out a statement saying that she “is continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform”.

Again, maybe there have been offers from elsewhere, but the way things look now, Harry and Meghan’s professional dance card is hardly full.

At some point in the coming months, Harry’s Netflix doco about the Invictus Games will finally land, leaving them with precisely zero other confirmed TV series, docos, audio projects or books in the works.

Here they have faced some bad luck, with the Telegraph reporting earlier this year that they were keen to move away from lobbing brickbats at Buckingham Palace and wanted to get into scripted programming. Except that Hollywood has, of course, ground to a halt with the Writers Guild of America and actors’ strikes scuppering any chance that anyone, titled or not, might have a chance at getting anything up.

(Anyone else suddenly have an image of Harry hunched over a laptop, while Meghan paces behind him, as they try their hand at Nora Ephroning it? ‘And she’s a super talented actress, right, and he’s a prince, the only one that can save the monarchy, right…’)

Williams and the Duchess of Sussex have been friends since 2010. Picture: Instagram/@serenawilliams

How long can or will the money they have earned via Netflix, Spotify and Spare last? They are hardly living frugal lives and sharing that one camomile tea bag every morning.

There is more at stake than just their bank balance. Their currency and career momentum seem to have taken quite the backwards turn. Did the Sussexes really leave the UK and their official lives to happily slide into obsolescence and irrelevance? To embrace obscurity and for Harry to spend his days idly skimming the pool and wondering what the weather is like in Scotland?

The kids need to stay in the picture. That is, if they want to matter, if they want to be leaders on humanitarian and social issues and if they want to occupy positions of importance and significance.

So where can or will the Sussexes go next, with Spotify in the rear view mirror and the Wall Street Journal having reported that Netflix will not renew their contract when it is up?

This now is agent Ari Emanuel’s job, to work out where Meghan’s US career goes next.

An LA insider, in April, told the Telegraph of the duchess signing with Emanuel’s WME: “this means a lot in Hollywood. It’s the most powerful and prestigious agency in America and the one everybody is at – being represented by them proves you are a big deal”.

And what of Harry, who did not sign up with the uber agents? Well, I suppose their pool won’t clean itself.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Rumours fly as Meghan Markle reportedly absent from Serena Williams’ baby shower