‘So far failed’: Photo confirms worst Meghan fears

The Duchess of Sussex’s chances of landing a coveted honour have taken a serious hit after her father-in-law King Charles got involved.

At least she took her sunglasses off.

You have to wonder if, on Tuesday, there were some nervous aides of King Charles’ doing some fretting in the wings of Windsor Castle when fashion and media imperatrix Anna Wintour arrived to collect her latest royal gong.

But she did and, like hundreds of the great and the good and Olympic silver medallists and tireless charity sorts and breakfast TV stalwarts and energetic party donors, the Vogue editor-in-chief got to have her moment with King Charles as he pinned her Companion of Honour medal onto her Alexander McQueen suit.

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That image of Wintour offering a rare smile, or at least what passes for a smile, signals the famed editor having just thrown her lot even further in with Buckingham Palace. And that, in turn, does not exactly bode well for Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex if she has been harbouring any sort of vision-boarded, manifested, mantra-reciting hopes of being ‘crowned’ by the fashion bible and appearing on its cover.

Unlike, that is, Kate, The Princess of Wales, the late Queen, Diana, Princess of Wales, and even Princess Anne, who have all gotten a go. Or even Queen Camilla, who is probably still working her way through the same pot of Ponds cold cream she bought in 2002, and non-working HRHs like Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, who have all been treated to the glossy Vogue treatment.

Does anyone actually want to bet on Meghan joining that list any time soon?

King Charles presented the legendary Anna Wintour with the Order of the Companions of Honour for Services to Fashion. Picture: X/@RoyalFamily

The British-US editor-in-chief briefly took off her sunnies for the occasion Picture: Andrew Matthews/Pool/AFP

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For one thing, Wintour has reportedly been pursuing the King’s other daughter-in-law for exactly that end, with the Daily Mail claiming last week that the editor had personally offered the Princess of Wales the chance to appear on “the global covers of Vogue”.

And for another thing, the Vogue cover is a barometer of sorts and would Meghan, circa 2025, make the grade?

Not because Meghan is not stunningly beautiful – she is – or is supremely stylish – god yes – but because to snag the Vogue cover is a confirmation of a certain cultural currency, of mass appeal and a person’s ascendance in the zeitgeist – all things the duchess has so far failed to quite secure.

Complicating the picture is the Duchess of Sussex’s own track record with the magazine.

To this day, Meghan holds the honour of being the only person allowed to guest edit British Vogue. The year was 2019 and the new HRH was a person who had truly captured hearts, minds, clicks and the world’s attention, and so it made perfect sense that she should be given rein over the title’s September issue.

Meghan ultimately chose 15 “Forces for Change” to star on the cover, controversially skipping over her own lady boss at that point in time – you know, her what had her head on the stamps, the late Queen.

The issue would go on to sell like the hottest of cakes, becoming the fastest and biggest-selling in a decade.

However, in 2022, a far less rosy picture of events came out via biographer (and now staunch Sussex critic) Tom Bower in his book Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the

Windsors.

He writes that the magazine’s editorial staff were left “silently exasperated” by Meghan’s ambition to “break the internet” and “believed most of her contributions were superficial, lacking rhyme or reason”. Then-Vogue UK editor Edward Enniful was “unimpressed” by her plan to create buzz by “lighting up the internet” inspired by leaks.

Meghan’s edition was a bestseller. Picture: Peter Lindbergh/Kensington Palace/AFP

A behind-the-scenes video grab of Meghan guest editing British Vogue. Picture: Vogue

Bower alleges that later the duchess “demanded” that the UK release date be pushed back by 24 hours “to let publication in the US take the lead”. Per Revenge, when that “demand was rejected, the relationship between Meghan and Vogue’s staff deteriorated. Their conflict was about control”.

(I’m not sure this makes sense, given that the September 2019 cover of American Vogue starred Taylor Swift …)

With the way things stand, I’m not sure anyone should be holding their breath to see Meghan’s face on the US edition. We are only a handful of weeks into 2025 – impossible

to believe, I know – and already this year has seen the duchess’ professional fortunes take a serious turn for the bummer.

Right now, the duchess should be making headlines for glowy, positive you-go-girl reasons as the curtains open on her new chapter.

You and I should have been giddily converted to the transformative and inspiring power of hand-dipping our own soy candles and practising our just-so olive oil dibbling. The 43-year-old should have managed to make high-end homemaking into aspirational viewing, and be well on her way to her official Martha-fication via her new show, With Love, Meghan.

The duchess’ mercantilist fancies, selling whatsits and thingames and throw rugs or whatever over on American Riviera Orchard, should be taking winged flight or about to.

Meanwhile on Instagram, her freshly baked @meghan account should be amassing followers and likes as the official nascence of her real post-Palace era dawned.

Instead, the Sussexes have been labelled “disaster tourists” by an 80s TV star enjoying the microwaved leftovers of their 15 minutes of fame, and With Love’s release has been pushed back by the LA fires.

Will Meghan make her Met Gala debut this year? Picture: CBS Sunday Morning

Last week, when Netflix head honchos shoved a clutch of A-listers and the press into a theatre to talk up their roster of 2025 shows, not only did With Love fail to get a look in but the host, comedian John Mulaney, openly mocked them, saying “Not since Harry and Meghan has Netflix given more money to someone without a specific plan”.

If you were Wintour, a woman who has not allowed a carbohydrate to pass her lips since the Reagan administration, you might add this all up – and find the Duchess of Sussex does not make for an obvious cover fit. Meghan might still be one of the most famous women on the planet, but celebrity does not necessarily equate to being someone with the necessary weight, prestige and the broader resonance to earn a Vogue anointing.

In a similar vein, every April, on social media, the speculation starts that this year, finally, Meghan will make her Met Gala debut, a further sign of Wintour’s approval. So far this has not come to pass, though that could have everything to do with the duchess’ lack of interest in being trapped in some ridiculous bit of frockery for what looks like a tedious evening of Olympic-level posing.

But strange and uprising things do happen. Anna Wintour just removed her sunnies and managed a smile on the same day. Anything really is possible.

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