What a swell way to put your family rows behind you, Meghan
After THAT furore over her father...
THE Duchess of Sussex looked dazzling last night – just hours after a startling intervention from George Clooney about her troubled past few days. Looking elegant in a white Calvin Klein dress and Amanda Wakeley coat – which showed off her blossoming baby bump – she joined Prince Harry to watch a gala performance at the Natural History Museum. There were no signs of the strain she is under following the fall-out from a celebrity US magazine interview in which her friends exposed the toxic relationship she has with her estranged US family. Following the revelations from five anonymous sources, her father Thomas Markle hit back denying he was ‘victimising’ Meghan and insisting he was the one being harshly treated. The saga took a further twist last night when Clooney claimed the duchess, 37, is being ‘pursued, vilified and chased’ in the same way that Princess Diana was. The star said history was repeating itself, and warned: ‘We’ve seen how that ends.’ Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997 after her driver, who had been drinking, attempted to drive away at speed from paparazzi photographers. There is no suggestion Meghan has ever been pursued in this way. Clooney, 57, and his wife Amal, 41, attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding last May. They then hosted the newlyweds for four days at their Lake Como retreat. After joking about a report suggesting he could be a godfather to Harry and Meghan’s baby, Clooney said: ‘ They’re just chasing Meghan Markle everywhere, she’s been pursued and vilified. ‘She’s a woman who is seven months pregnant and she is being pursued and vilified and chased in the same way that Diana was, and it’s history repeating itself. And we’ve seen how that ends. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to see that. ‘You’re taking a letter from a daughter to a father and broadcasting it everywhere. She’s getting a raw deal there, it’s irresponsible. I’m sort of surprised by that.’
Last night Phil Dampier, an author who was a royal correspondent at the height of Diana’s fame, said Clooney should direct his concern at the duchess’s father.
‘I don’t think Meghan is being pursued in the way that Diana was,’ he told the Daily Telegraph. ‘Yes, there has been some cyber-bullying, but royal reporters have also found themselves on the receiving end of the Twitter crazies if they write anything remotely negative about Meghan.
‘Clooney should arguably be directing his anger at Meghan’s father for speaking out, rather than those paid to report what he says.’
Friends of the duchess have told the Mail that despite the rancour between her and her father, she still feels protective towards him.‘She feels that he is very vulnerable and is being manipulated,’ said one. ‘She remains concerned about him and wants people to leave him alone.’
Harry, 34, and Meghan attended the Natural History Museum last night to watch The Wider Earth, a production about a young Charles Darwin’s five-year voyage on The Beagle in 1831.
As they arrived, the duchess was given a bouquet by Sage Saunders whose father is American and mother is Canadian – which gave them much to talk about.
Inside they met donors and children and viewed some of the exhibits on show, including a preserved octopus collected by Darwin in 1832, a first copy of On The Origin of Species, and his collection of wasps.
The Wider Earth features War Horsestyle animatronics – more than 40 creatures appear – and has been described as a ‘visually amazing puppet version of The Blue Planet’.