Mystery as Meghan vanishes after recent blitz of appearances during Harry’s Asia tour

As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex settle into their US lives, there is one fundamental difference between the couple that seems unsolvable.

COMMENT

She’s gone.

For just a few days earlier this month, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex was everywhere, thanks to the steady stream of new photos of the 41-year-old which kept appetites whetted and fingers clicking.

The duchess went to lunch, she saw friends, she went to lunch again where she voluntarily posed for an Instagram shot and she turned up in public oddly wearing about $15,585 worth of designer clothes including a coat and a scarf on a 21 degree day.

Debate raged – was the “calming” sticker clearly seen on her wrist a bit of spon-con? (The company behind it, NuCalm, had to come out and deny the duchess had been paid to wear it).

This month she has also gone to see Barbie, enjoyed a night at the luxe San Ysidro Ranch and went to a Taylor Swift show in Los Angeles, proving that even duchesses care about the Zeitgeist.

Meghan’s NuCalm sticker set tongues wagging. Picture: BACKGRID Australia

As Samuel Taylor Coleridge might have put it if he was around now, “Meghan, Meghan everywhere; with plenty o’ products to link”.

And then, just like that, pfft. She was gone. Gone from view, gone from the paparazzi’s lenses and gone again from Instagram.

Now, this is the bit where we get out the red string and start tacking photos to a board to try and solve this mystery. Just what might explain the Duchess of Sussex’s energetic breaking of cover – and then her equally abrupt disappearance?

Intriguingly, this sudden glam resurgence, the flow of new Meghan pics, and then her disappearance maps closely onto her husband Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex’s recent quickie Asian tour and then his return to the land of the oat milk venti caramel frappuccino and election denial.

Prince Harry is back in the US after his quickie tour of Asia, including a visit to Tokyo with mate Nacho Figueras. Picture: Instagram

The obvious conclusion here would be, while the ducal cat’s away, Meghan will play … play at embracing mega-stardom, at embracing the attention and at embracing the world’s enduring and compulsive fascination with her.

Except that there is one major sticking point when it comes to her seemingly arms-wide-open, ready-for-her-close-up approach: While the duchess, according to a new Page Six story, “loves being famous”, her other half the Duke of Sulk-ex does not.

The duchess, according to the report, is “making a comeback for the cameras” and that “the battle for privacy is over”.

“Meghan’s not seeking out opportunities to be photographed, but she’s realised she has to live her life, none of the cameras are going away,” an insider familiar with the duke and duchess told Page Six.

However, the fact that this phoenix-like reappearance of Superstar Meghan occurred just as Harry hit international airspace would suggest that while she might be ready to fully launch herself into the Hollywood and celebrity bloodstream, Aitch is not.

“Harry has made it clear that he never wanted to be in the media,” a source with knowledge of the Sussexes from their Spotify stint has said.

The duchess made her voluntary return to Instagram last week. Picture: Instagram/@highbrowhippie

She was also recently snapped looking fabulous while out to lunch. Picture: Instagram/@deuxmoi

“He would be very happy to go away. I think he’d like to go and live in Botswana – as long as he had money.

“Meghan actually likes being famous.”

Which takes us back to our red string-covered corkboard and the mystery of reconciling that Harry would seem to have about as much time for fame as for Big Oil and being in Queen Camilla’s book group, while Meghan is reportedly happy to welcome the F word with open arms.

The clash of royalty and celebrity is nothing new. Many, including many in America, would seem to conflate the two, because what family in the world is more famous than the much-divorced, much-miserable House of Windsor?

Back when Meghan was joining Crown Inc, one British journalist explained the Stateside view of the royal family as “nationalised Kardashians” – that is, the royal family as being little more than a renowned, wealthy clan riddled by divorce and scandal.

Meghan Markle attended a Taylor Swift concert with good friend Lucy Fraser, who featured prominently in the Sussexes' tell-all Netflix series. Picture: Instagram

The only thing separating Her late Majesty and Kris Jenner, according to this way of thinking? Several layers of fake tan, a few $100,000 Hermès Birkins and that Jenner has never been forced to make awkward small talk with a Prime Minister.

However, the fundamental thing to understand here is that of the senior, working members of the royal family, their attitude to the media has always been grin and just-barely bare it. (Remember when King Charles was caught on camera in 2005 during a press call saying of the media, “I hate these people”?)

The Windsors’ view has always been that they put up with the glare of press and public scrutiny out of sufferance and duty; that the celebrity that comes with their titles and roles is nothing but deeply regrettable and all a bit déclassé.

Which brings us back to the predicament of the Sussexes.

Meghan might have decided, per Page Six, to “live her life” because “none of the cameras are going away”, but what about Harry, whose deep-seated antipathy towards the press seems to exist at a nearly cellular level?

After all, in 2019 Harry revealed during an interview that “every time I see a camera, every time I hear a click, every time I see a flash, it takes me straight back” to Diana, Princess of Wales’ death when he was only 12 years old.

Then-Prince Charles was caught slamming the press in 2005 during a skiing trip with his sons in Klosters, Switzerland. Picture: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images

Also, in a 2017 documentary about his mother, he called the snappers who followed her daily a “pack of dogs” and earlier this year during a TV interview he referred to the UK media as the “devil”.

Gosh, tell us how you really feel.

So what happens now, given that, according to Page Six, the woman Harry clearly adores “loves being famous”? Something he seems about as keen on as having a pint with fervent critic Piers Morgan or finally agreeing to that chaps’ trip to Vegas that Uncle Andrew keeps suggesting? (And why does Andy think they should pack so much Crisco and all that penicillin?)

I don’t have any answers here, just more question marks than I know what to do with.

For now though, keep your eyes peeled on the @Meghan Insta account, with its nearly 77,000 followers and zero posts.

With the Sussexes set to hit Germany next month for the Invictus Games, the duchess’ first overseas trip since the late Queen’s funeral, and with the former actress having spent months working on a “new project” which “everyone in her circle has been talking about”, things are clearly brewing.

In other words, when it comes to Meghan, she’ll be back …

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