I can barely keep the British narratives straight anymore – the Duchess of Sussex is impossibly gauche, American and showy because she allowed her girlfriends to throw her a luxe baby shower. British people never have baby showers, it’s a complete American invention, except for when the Duchess of Cambridge had a baby shower organized by Pippa, which was totally fine and maybe British people do have baby showers after all, especially because Party Pieces sells baby shower gear. So now the narrative is “But why didn’t Meghan invite Kate?!?!” Bitch, because they’re not friends. Even if Meghan had invited Kate – lol – Kate wouldn’t have been able to come anyway, because the Cambridges are on a “secret ski holiday.” Meghan’s baby shower extravaganza inadvertently revealed that sh-t too. Amazing.
Kate Middleton missed Meghan Markle’s baby shower after opting instead for a secret family skiing trip – in a move that will do nothing to dampen speculation of a royal rift.
The Duchess of Sussex, 37, who is seven months pregnant, flew from London to the US on Friday to celebrate her baby among close friends in what proved to be a lavish affair. But her sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, was noticeable in her absence, having eschewed the celebrations for a half-term break with William, 36, and her three children – George, five, Charlotte, three and Louis, aged just nine months.
The Sun reported last night that she and William blocked out their diaries to ensure they had some quality time with their brood who are off school this week. A royal source reportedly said the Cambridges have headed for the ski-slopes after the unfortunate diary clash.
The Cambridges prefer it when no one knows they’re on vacation until it’s over. Most of us already figured that they had slipped away on a ski trip, but Meghan’s baby shower timing has thrown a spotlight on “where are William and Kate?” It’s funny to me. I mean, obviously, even if Kate had nothing to do, she still would not have flown to New York for Meg’s baby shower. Maybe if Meghan really does have one in London, she’ll invite Kate. But I doubt it. And then we can speculate all over again: why didn’t Kate attend Meghan’s Nottingham Cottage baby shower two weeks from now?!?!
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
I’m assuming she’s going to have a second shower in the U.K.? Also, was Priyanka Chopra at the NYC baby shower? Aren’t they supposed to be friends? Wasn’t it reported that Meghan didn’t go to Priyanka’s wedding because she was pregnant and couldn’t travel? But now she’s 7 months pregnant and just took a transatlantic flight. Is their friendship ok lol?
And the British press will say it’s gauche if Kate is invited and gauche if she’s not.
BTW, can we put a moritorium on the word “gauche?”
But it’s so fun to say!
To be fair she probably saw the itinerary for the multiple weddings and celebrations and was exhausted just looking at it lol.
As an Indian, I can tell you we only expect close family members to attend all the wedding functions. Meghan didn’t have to go to all of them and no one would have thought it was rude.
Priyanka was “stuck” working in LA or that’s what she told to tmz.
No one expected Meghan to fly to India for a wedding that was a People exclusive let’s be real.
Did Priyanka advertise the wedding was going to be a People exclusive ahead of time to her guests? I mean Meghan’s own wedding was a world wide affair lol (by no choice of her own). Anyways, it’s still interesting Priyanka wasn’t at the baby shower. I don’t know.
Let’s be honest, Meghan attending Priyanka’s wedding would be a distraction from the wedding itself and that’s not what The Jonases wanted.
I saw Priyanka and her child bride in Switzerland with one of the brothers. Ski vacay.
LOLOLOL!!!!! Child bride! Ahhhhahahahahahaha……
Ha! My first thought was she was planning Wedding Reception #6, or is it #5, or #7? F’ it. I lost count.
Weren’t there Zika cases in India?
I don’t know I think Kate will attend the one in London which might be the one that is more for family since Meghan’s mom will be there as well, but what do I know ☺️ Time shall tell.
The NYC shower was thrown by her friends. Kate doesn’t know any of them, so why would she attend, especially since they are having a shower in London? Made up drama to pit two women against each other.
Agree, why would Kate go to the US for a shower? These were Meghan’s US friends.
Made up drama again, big surprise! Kate and William are like most parents of young kids: taking a family vacation when the kids are out of school. And it’s very different flying across the Atlantic when you have 3 young kids. She may attend the shower in England.
I mean, I wouldn’t have wanted to go if this was my sister in law and I didn’t know her friends. I’m shy though, so I’m biased.
Going to a shower where everyone else are friends and I only know one person and I’m not a close friend of theirs to begin with sounds like my personal hell. Showers are annoying enough to begin with.
Agreed. I get that Kate and William don’t seem interested in maintaining the monarchy like dad and grandma, but it would be weird for her to go to NYC if they aren’t close. Being married into the same family doesn’t automatically make them besties, and they will likely be something for Megan in England that Kate will attend. If she doesn’t, then they don’t like each other much or the feud between the brothers is bigger than peoplewant to believe. Spouses tend to support their spouse in this family stuff. It’s so public, so we speculate.
If they’re smart, and that’s a big if, Kate will go to the UK shower and be seen to be all smiles. That will help to put down any rumors of a rift.
Exactly. Reportedly, Megan’s mom didn’t attend either. This was most likely just for friends. Has Kate ever gone anywhere overseas all by herself? Would William allow her to go?/snark
Yup, made up drama.
I think this is made up drama. Yesterday the message was that the NYC shower was for Meg’s “inner circle” of American bffs. So I would not expect Kate to be invited to party with Meghan’s best buddies. If Doria (as has been rumoured) throws a second “family shower” in London – then I can see Kate and some of the younger Royals being invited (I cannot envisage the Queen attending).
However it could be fun – in my head I’m visualizing a smackdown between Princess Anne and the Markles playing party games
@mac and @minx – exactly – different circle of friends, etc. I am sure Doria raised Meghan to be polite and she is polite so she will invite Kate to the UK one. End of.
I don’t think half of the people there knew each other either. I can think of nothing more excruciating than a baby shower with a bunch of people I don’t know, especially one presided over by Amal Clooney prancing around like a show pony.
@Tessy,
The shower invitees were a relatively small group of well-known and/or well-connected women (and men). Unless you move in those circles, I would be very hesitant to speculate on who knows who, how and why. As a reference, you need only look at who attended her wedding. Better yet, one of the tabloids might have already laid out a 6-degrees of separation wire diagram so the Meghan detractors can dissect and analyze the women’s connections.
Exactly. Meghan’s MOM wasn’t even at the New York shower.
Honestly, she probably will attend M’s shower in Britian, no?
My guess is that she’ll be invited to that one and go, if only for optics.
Because it was for her friends in the U.S.? This is a non-story.
Or just for her friends, period.
right? my friends threw us a couple’s shower and our parents/families weren’t invited – no big deal. i had another shower with my entire family.
ITA. For the tabloids (or anyone else) to ask this question is just another way to stir up sh*t and get attention.
I don’t think any of them care about talk of a royal rift. Anyway, the question I am more interested in is: why wasn’t Meghan’s mother the lovely Doria at the shower?
It has been said there will be two showers. So I assume that the people who were not at this one will be at the next one.
Again, it was thrown by her friends. I was not invited to my daughter’s baby shower thrown by friends. Not that big of a deal.
I read that Doria is hosting the London one?
In any event, as people have pointed out, some people do showers with friends and then one with family. Whatever. And I gotta say, some of these guests sound like they’re on the periphery of Meghan’s life. Sure, maybe Meghan and Gayle King are good friends but this is the first I heard of it. (I like Gayle but she has a reputation of getting herself invited to things that she has a remote connection with. I think that was a long-standing joke in CelebrityLand for a while.)
I think that she probably couldn’t get away. Maybe she has a cold and didn’t want to fly while ill. Also, she does have a job and a life in L.A. There could be any number of reasons.
I think that Gayle King was at the shower as Oprah Winfrey’s representative, as they are hand in glove.
Bc The Daily mail will not be happy unless we pit these women against each other
yep not sure about Daily Fail but the royal press pitted Diana and Sarah against each other in the 80’s-90’s and the same is happening with Kate and Meghan. Unfortunately it works and sells a lot of papers
The DM is a right-wing, racist, anti-immigrant, clickbait tabloid and the way they operate is to invent scandal using dramatic language so that people will click on the article and the DM laughs all the way to the bank. Just look at the type of language it uses such a “fury”, “outrage”, “Lavish”, “obscene”, “luxurious” in the headlines in order to entice people to click.
I know many people who refuse the read the DM as they refuse to contribute to that type of “attack dog” jounalism by clicking on their articles and making the DM money.
Very well said Lunde.
I am not surprised Kate didn’t go. I feel if she has one in England though Kate will definitely go to that.
I don’t think Kate will attend at all.
Can i interest you in a bet over this?
LOL what would we bet? Maybe just give the other the right to say “I told you so” lol.
That’s assuming we find out one way or the other who attends.
Bella I agree Kate won’t go but I take it one step further and say she will not be invited. She didn’t have Meghan at her birthday so why have Kate at your gathering of friends.
It’s simple, she wasn’t invited,
Kate has 3 young kids, so she might not want to leave the country for the weekend for a baby shower when there will probably be one close to home that she can attend
I think the clear answer is that the Sussexes are quite aware of the Cambridges leaking unflattering stories to the media about Meghan. The Cambridges’ favorite go-to gossip reporters have been putting out negative Sussex stories since the Pacific tour. Harry and Meghan aren’t dumb. They know the Cambridges have been throwing them under the bus.
I seriously doubt it is a case of leaking. Unfortunately the UK press, especially the DM are quite capable of making up totally baseless stories.
@BLUFAN Agreed. The leaks come from the Palace as well as the Cambridge. It’s why the BRF can’t now slap down the RRs because they have been complicit. Obvious to me… Can’t have William overshadowed, Harry is no longer taking marching orders from his brother and Meghan is forcing them to have to work. So they tried to take them down a peg or two. Of course the RRs are batshit racists and makeup their own stories too.
They still playing up a feud😂 No one cares and many saw right through that garbage.
A non-story. The party was thrown by Meghan’s friends and Kate is on vacation with her family. The British press needs to stop pitting these women against each other.
Thank you.
This.
that’s it in a nutshell.
Exactly
OMG – Enough of this, already!
The shower was thrown by Meghan’s friends…her old friends. And she may have wanted to have a “thing” just with friends from her former life. Can it not be as simple as that?
And in no rule book, that I have ever seen, does it say that sisters-in-law MUST be “besties” or something must be horribly wrong with their relationship. It’s absolutely asinine at this point.
Yes!! Completely agree.
100% agree. The bad part though is the British gossip press is really making it hard for them to become friends. I mean Kate is the mother of 3 small children, and going to be Queen Consort one day most likely. Meghan just married into the royal family. They were kind of at two different points when they started, but with the baby they will be a bit closer in their life events. Yet they have to have these fake kind of events where they seem like they are best buds just to squash the silly rumors. How exhausting that must be, and I think it doesn’t really help you build a good relationship. Still I think they get along fine, and the press just likes to make up drama. This story sounds too much like Di and Sarah to me. The gossip press has really lost its creativity.
I think Royal Reporters are pressed like a panini now because it’s clear how much they’re irrilevant with Meghan and how much their smear campaign was a flop. Meghan is even more loved now with so much public support (the Guardian wrote a new article to defend her yesterday). Poor RR LOL
LMFAO at “pressed like a panini!!”
How much was that ski trip since Meghan’s meal was even itemized?
THIS!!!
Unless we try to calculate it ourselves, we will never know. That crap was only done to Meghan and we all know why.
The Daily Mail and the rest of the press know where the Cambridge’s went to and are covering up for them.
I went on a ski trip with my then toddler. Never do this.
You were likely the one getting said toddler into and out of ski boots, picking up the tired pieces at the end of the day and generally managing all aspects of “skiing with a toddler”. Not so much for Kate & William given their staff.
My SIL is having 3 showers – one with her side of the family several states away, one with friends, and one with my BIL’s side of the family thrown by my MIL. I love her and I’m only going to the family one here.
It’s not that deep. This was for Meg and her friends. I’m sure Kate will be invited to Doria’s.
The people who write these stories musn’t have sisters in law or are really close with theirs.
I have a sil of 24 years. We don’t live near each other,don’t share much in common and are cordial but not close. Why does everybody want Kate and Meghan to be instant bff’s? Leave it be.
My sister in law and I don’t have much in common, and quite frankly I can’t stand her. I’m always cordial, but we’ll just never be besties. And that’s fine. The world will keep on turning.
Same. I get along fine with my SILs, but we’re not pals and we don’t hang out. I enjoy seeing them at family get togethers, and that’s it. Why do people expect them to be besties?
I have half a dozen sister’s-in-law. I get along great with 2 of them and am on good terms with the other 4 when I see them, but we don’t seek each other out.
I have basically nothing in common with my SIL and have very minimal contact nowadays but that doesn’t matter. The reason why it matters in this case is because Meghan is not like Fergie who was no competition in any shape or form to Diana. But the spare has a a wife who is drawing attention away from the wife of the heir and that spells trouble.
Possibly because this was Meghan’s party, hosted by Meghan’s friends, and they don’t know Kate. Possibly because giving Meghan space to be autonomous, and not always being in the shadow of Kate, is respectful, not disrespectful.
To be fair, Meghan has never been in Kate’s shadow. Probably the other way round (slightly), if you ask me.
Technically you are wrong. Cause Kate outranks her in royalty there are things where she has to literally be a step behind. None of her in-laws or family was at this shower, so why is it just on Kate to show up. Seems logical it was a friend thing.
It has nothing to do with rank or who will be Queen Consort. But it’s patently obvious that Meghan is not in Kate’s shadow in any way at all not just from a UK pov but globally. Which of course is the problem bc for some Meghan should be in Kate’s shadow and her not being is unacceptable to them.
I think in the long run this weekend will be when ppl realised how independent, well off, connected Meghan is and without a need for taxpayer money or to be subservient to anyone just bc they were going to be King and Queen Consort which was the previous narrative.
It never even occured to me that Kate would show up until the tabs made a story out of it.
The chosen narrative is women always must be at each others’ throats.
In a rational world you could dismiss this is silly gossip. But these are far from rational times.
This plays into the bigger much more dangerous eternal narrative that women are irrational, mean, petty, scheming, narcissistic and can’t be trusted with any real power.
There must also always be a Good Girl & her Eeeevil Rival. The British press didn’t put a lot of thought into casting that tired trope.
This b.s. isn’t merely a tired re-tread, it feeds and reinforces negative beliefs & stereotypes about women as a whole.
Think about that when you read these stories. Or spread them.
Why on earth would she invite Catherine. Did Catherine invite Meghan to her birthday party in January? No, she made a big point to make sure everyone knew only her close friends of several years were there.
I am sure Meg did not invite her as they will in all likelihood both attend the obligatory family shower to be held in England where they will be forced to be in the same room and appear civil.
Brits don’t usually do baby showers so there may not be an obligatory family shower. Baby showers are more of an American thing. Which is why they probably had it in New York.
The Brits are being so friggin tedious about this. Kids are out of school, Kate’s on a family vacation. Meghan flew home to see some friends. End of, really.
I thought the timing might help with the expecting date, I mean generally one wouldn’t make such a trip too late in pregnancy, though that might be enforced more through airline policies and she flew privately. But does seem like it’s definitely April not March for those thinking she looked further along.
Not the Brits, just some of the press, probably 99% of the British population don’t know or care about the baby shower!
Agreed. I’d imagine most Brits are more concerned with the slow-burning dumpster fire of Brexit/British politics in general rather than the so-called “bad PR” of Meghan’s baby shower.
Because they had plans of their own, and I don’t think she was prob invited. This was her girlfriends throwing her a shower. She’s having at least one more back in England. And if she had been invited…wasn’t it a 5-6 day event? She wouldn’t leave her 3 kids especially with Louis being so young. God, a 5-6 day event sounds super long to me, and I don’t even have kids.
Ah, but it’s NYC. There’s tons to do and see…. I’d love to go to a baby or wedding shower there.
Given that it is half term in the UK and George and Charlotte would be on holiday, should we be surprised that Kate has taken them on vacation rather than leaving them at home on their break? Added to which Meghan’s partu wasapparently was arranged by Meghan’s friends, so she probably wasn’t even invited. Did the York sisters go? Any comment about their absence?
Can you imagine if Kate went to the shower and not on vacation with Will and the kids? The press would lambaste her for taking a girls weekend instead of spending time with her family.
Women can’t win.
This was PR gold. It was fun to see her with her celeb friends doing something normal (by rich people standards).
I’m team private ski vacation. It’s super normal to take a vacay with your family. I spent many a ski vacation with my parents and brother growing up. Some of my favorite memories.
The baby shower sort of screamed Kardashian to me but to each his own.
You’re getting tedious with this Kardashian spiel’
Say what you want about the Kardashians, at lest they’re honest about what they’re doing, they work their butts off (they paid for them)
instead sniveling about others.
While I’m sure PR optics factor into it, I would guess that, a lot of the time, we don’t hear about the Cambridge vacations until they’re home for security reasons.
Please, I doubt she was even invited.
I imagine Kate will get invited to the British baby shower. Why on earth would she be invited to the one in NYC? Would you invite your sister-in-law to a remote baby shower thrown by friends? No, you invite her to the one closer to where you both live.
Now, if she doesn’t invite Kate to the British baby shower, I could see that being a thing. That would just be rude. You invite family, whether you want to or not.
It would be *amazing* if The Queen attended the London shower.
Or better yet hosted the party for her.
OMFG please stop it’s getting embarrassing. The Queen HOSTING a baby shower for Meghan? I just can’t with the level of delusion
Can anyone really picture Kate hanging out with Serena Williams, Amal Clooney, Gayle King, et. al? I can’t. While Kate seems superficially like a lovely person, she doesn’t seem to fit in that crowd at all. Those are all strong, accomplished women and what has Kate done…? She married a prince and had a few kids. Being a mother is nothing to sneeze at but she honestly didn’t do much before she married William! She would have nothing to talk about! She would seem pretty boring in comparison.