GLAM GAL PALS
She’s married into a famously frugal family, but Meghan appeared to have missed the memo on pinching pennies when it came to her luxury baby shower.
It’s believed the duchess, who is said to be due in late April, hosted an event worth upwards of $800,000 at the luxury Mark Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side – an establishment that proudly proclaims it’s “the most expensive hotel in America”.
Despite having several castles to choose from back in the UK, Meghan enjoyed a three-day stay in The Mark’s $100,000-per-night, 15-room penthouse suite, where the soirée was held, with guests forking out at least $2200 per night for their own rooms.
The event, organised by her best pals, Canadian stylist Jessica Mulroney and tennis star Serena, featured top cuisine prepared in the suite by Michelin-star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Hotel insiders suggest the catering alone would have set them back $170,000, with another $100,000 just for floral arrangements.
“If you think all of that’s crazy, what about the amount of security she needed just to keep herself and her unborn baby safe?” asks an outraged palace insider. “There would havee been at least 10 elite guards on her around the clock, for three days, at probably $5000 each per day. It’s enough to make the Queen’s eyes water!”
Gifts seen entering the suite include a $550 travel cot t and a children’s bicycle worth $880. And guests didn’t go home empty-handed, getting trendy $400 suitcases with built-in phone chargers as goodbye presents.
Ahead of this week’s tour of Morocco, Meghan left the US on a 16-passenger private jet, a Gulfstream G450, which h palace officials were forced to o confirm was paid for privately, y, not out of public funds.