HARRY & MEGHAN’S RIP-OFF ROYAL TOUR!
Royal commentators and experts label the couple over the top
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have come under heavy fire for what many have described as a quasi-royal tour of New York. And it’s not hard to understand why, given the couple – who say they retreated from the royal family in an effort to maintain privacy – managed to splash out around $542,000 in three days as they toured some of the poorest parts of the city, in a trip designed to lecture about vaccine equality.
The clangers came thick and fast as soon as the pair touched down in the world’s most culturally diverse city, where their first appearance was to tour the World Trade Center’s 9/11 museum and memorial. This came just weeks after they were accused of distastefulness for running the victims’ names on their archewell.com website.
But perhaps most damaging of all to the pair was their decision to visit a Harlem neighbourhood school, at which 94 per cent of kids’ families are at or below the poverty line, and where Meghan, 40, hugged students in front of the cameras while dripping in $20,000 worth of clothes and jewellery.
Wearing a $10,000 cashmere magenta suit and coat combo, along with Manolo Blahniks and an $8500 Cartier “Love” bracelet, Meghan read copies of her own book, The Bench, aloud to a crowd of children.
NO EXPENSE SPARED
It seemed money was no object for the Sussexes, who are estimated to have spent $126,000 on Meghan’s clothes and jewels, and around $50,000 on rooms for themselves, a handful of trusted staff and security at the luxurious Carlyle Hotel, where they were spotted propping up the bar in the evenings.
UK newspapers also noted their tendency to preach climate change action, but use a fleet of gas-guzzling Range
Rover SUVS – Harry’s preferred mode of transport – and hiring a private jet to the tune of $214,000 to ferry them from Santa Barbara and back home again.
Speaking exclusively to Woman’s Day, personal safety expert Matt Fiddes says the Sussexes’ security detail during the tour was “unbelievable and at secret service level”.
‘Is this the rise of the rival royal family?’
“The security we are seeing with Meghan and Harry is on another level. It was much more than the biggest stars in the world, and royals, too,” Matt, who previously worked for megastar Michael Jackson, spills.
“Their security detail was the best you can buy. In my opinion... it’s a model of
the secret service, which would be explainable if talks for a run for the White House or similar were in discussion.”
Matt adds that security detail such as this on a permanent basis would set the Sussexes back at least $30 million a year.
HEFTY SECURITY BILL
All the while, Meghan and Harry, who had left their children Archie, two, and Lilibet, four months, at home with their grandmother Doria Ragland, used the trip as a mock royal tour, visiting charities and hobnobbing with dignitaries, including New York mayor Bill de Blasio and state governor Kathy Hochul.
“Going through the front doors is unusual and maybe for show or indication that Meghan and Harry are making a mark for the White House,” says Matt.
“A display for the media has been put on as usually high-profile persons always take a back exit, never the front so they were trying to keep the media and public happy and give them what they want.”
Meanwhile, within hours of the couple touching down, royal experts cried that it was an attempt to be royal despite eschewing the monarchy.
“Is this the rise of the rival royal family?” asked the UK Daily Mail newspaper’s Richard Eden.
The Sun added that the palace fears the Sussexes have set up a “rival court”.
“There are some nervous glances because Harry and Meghan are effectively following the royal model,” says the newspaper’s source.
“Kate and Wills show how the job of a working royal is done. They won’t be impressed with Harry and Meghan acting as quasi-royals and courting publicity after claiming they quit for privacy.”
Indeed, during their public appearances the pair seemed intent on the exact opposite of privacy.
“They had a camera crew following their every move. Harry was wired – it’s clearly them filming for their Netflix partnership,” says an insider.