One missing detail in Meghan’s outfit angers
The Duchess of Sussex has sparked furious backlash after stepping out in Los Angeles with one very obvious detail missing on her outfit.
Instagram loves to quote the supposed Coco Chanel adage, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off”.
But I don’t think she meant quite like this.
Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, did some top notch red carpet dressing over the weekend, attending both a top flight society gala and Kris Jenner’s Bond-themed 70th on the same evening.
But it is what she was not wearing that has landed her in water that is, as Coco might have put it, unpleasantly chaude.
A $4 poppy.
(Or at least that’s how much the RSL will charge you for one.)
And yet, somehow Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex managed to find one for his big evening of Botox-ed elbow-rubbing and cocktail downing.
In this he was keeping to his royal roots, even if certain Kings are no longer willing to let him enter British airspace whenever the mood for a bacon butty strikes.
Since the beginning of this month, in the lead up to Remembrance Day, members of Crown Inc have been wearing their poppies everywhere from a Norfolk field to Brazil.
Ditto Harry, who last week took himself off to Toronto to do his bit for the armed services and veterans communities, meeting with Canadian reservists and attending a dinner for the True Patriot Love Foundation.
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Come Saturday night, the duke was still wearing his poppy when he and Meghan first hit the Baby2Baby gala, a do that attracts la creme de la creme of deep-pocketed LA ladies-who-don’t-eat-at-lunch, on a single-breasted black jacket.
And he attached the poppy again to his next look for the evening, the velvet tuxedo jacket he wore on Jenner’s massive knees up held at Jeff Bezos’ $252 million Beverly Hills estate.
But Meghan did not.
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Her high necked panther-ish bodysuit and skirt was truly fabulous but not a speck of poppy red was in sight.
The internet noticed.
Then the Daily Mail got the exclusive as to why the omission, reporting that, according to their sources, “Meghan was unable to visibly honour the war dead as poppies are not widely available in the States, unlike in Commonwealth countries.”
(This did not come from an official Sussex spokesperson.)
Some branded the move as “pathetic” and “dissapointing”.
This holds about as much water as a leaky, bottomless bucket when you consider that on a number of occasions in recent years in the UK, Meghan has repeatedly managed to get her hands on poppies.
In 2020, she and Harry visited Commonwealth war graves in Los Angeles: Poppy.
In 2021, the duchess spoke at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit: Poppy. (Though she did not wear one to a veterans gala during that same trip but was decked out head-to-toe in very suitable poppy red.)
In 2023, the Sussexes visited Camp Pendleton in San Diego to active duty and veteran families. Poppy.
During the same trip they also opened a Navy SEAL Foundation: You guessed it, poppy.
Last year, the Sussexes shared a video message for Remembrance and Veterans Days. Need I even say it?
The whole thing is just all a bit strange but this tableau, of Harry wearing this very British symbol to honour the fallen and Meghan not, while they arrived at a knees-up for a woman who built a multi-generational empire off the back of a sex tape, could not feel more richly symbolic.
Yes, every insider who whispers to the UK and US press makes plain how much the couple are in lurrrvvve but it is impossible to ignore how wildly divergent their professional eyelines and career longings and interests are now.
Last week, the Duke of Sussex made plain his commitment to the armed services and to veterans, self-publishing an essay called “The Bond, The Banter, The Bravery: What it means to be British” that had, to my ears, more than a tinge of a homesick man longing for a tepid pint and a bag of pork scratchings down the local.
He wrote: “The banter of the mess, the clubhouse, the pub, the stands – ridiculous as it sounds, these are the things that make us British. I make no apology for it. I love it.”
Then on Thursday, on his own, he travelled to Toronto, to visit a veterans care centre before the True Love dinner.
Meanwhile back in Montecito, on the same day, Meghan was busy doing some horn tooting about her jams making it onto Oprah’s coveted favourite things list.
And does this not perfectly illustrate where things stand and which way the wind is blowing?
Harry now projects a certain forlorn, wistfulness for someone to send him off to British base in a nice malarial or desert outpost to mate-ily muck about with the lads and laddesses in uniform while an official photographer approving watches on.
In 2021, with Megxit still ringing in everyone’s ears he told TV host James Cordern “my life is public service” but in the bright, cold light of 2025 Montecito, ‘service’ means having to arrange his own outings to community centres and to fervently pray that Kate, The Princess of Wales doesn’t choose that exact day to debut a new fringe.
Meghan, by contrast, has been keeping busy working on a spot of empire-building, like the Hadrian of hashtags, having added a sparkling wine and candles to her list of As Ever products.
She’s also been giving hints about the future of With Love, Meghan’s lifestyle potentially morphing into something where she can “give you a recipe in two minutes”. (So…TikTok?)
She has also been papped filming a cameo for the new Lily Collins movie Close Personal Friends, leading enquiring minds to wonder, might a real return to acting be on the cards?
The moral of the story being, irons are in fires, fingers in pies, for the duchess.
And for the duke? He’s dutifully wearing his poppy and doing lord knows what all day.
A coda to Poppy-gate: In the wake of the backlash, Meghan, on Tuesday afternoon LA time/Wednesday morning in Sydney, posted a Veterans Day tribute, showing Harry as Second Lieutenant Wales during his 2013 tour of Afghanistan and then a photo of him in Canada last week.
It’s a bit of an interesting side-by-side: A man whose life has a deep and abiding purpose and a man having a cucumber basil martini with Bravo TV execs.
Wonder what frontline Harry would have made of Beverly Hills Harry?
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
Originally published as One missing detail in Meghan’s outfit angers
