Meghan Markle’s latest appearance was an old-school tabloid headline writer’s dream. She wore a vermilion Caroline Herrera dress (“Lady In Red!”), with a split up the front (“Duchess shows off her gams”), to attend — sorry, “step out” for — a charity gala in Los Angeles on Saturday.
And even had this appearance not been display copy catnip, Meghan — whether this was her intention or not — gave the internet plenty to talk about when she walked the red carpet for the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital fundraiser.
For starters, this was a fairly high-wattage event for someone who has spent most of this year flying under the radar, opting for lower key affairs: the opening of a new local bookstore, a charity tennis tournament, a summit in the Hamptons, on the relatively rare occasions when she’s chosen to submit herself to the public gaze.
Even taking into account her Columbian and Nigerian “tour” wardrobes — cotton or linen sundress and suit separates aplenty — this gala appearance was more glam than we’ve seen her wear in a minute. (Even when she joined Harry to pick up his award at the ESPYs in July, her gown was a subdued white custom Oscar de la Renta that very much gave off “I’m here in a supporting capacity.”)
And when it came to this gown, there was another talking point: It was actually an $8,000 dress she first wore in 2021, sans the overskirt that we saw then at the Salute to Freedom gala in New York City. It is, to the best of our estimation, the first high-profile gown rewear we’ve had in nearly eight years of Meghan’s ultra-scrutinized era in the spotlight. (Classically, rather than this be a sign that, say, she’s trying to be more sustainable or just liked the dress and wanted to wear it again, the Daily Mail painted this as Meghan “taking a leaf out of Kate’s book,” as if the Royal Family had invented the practice of re-wearing a really expensive gown.)
The elephant on this red carpet, of course, was Prince Harry’s absence. And while reports suggest that the reason he couldn’t attend was because he was off on a 40th birthday hiking trip with friends — organized by Meghan! — it was unfortunate timing for a couple who’s recently had an uptick in stories that not-so-subtly suggest that all is not as it seems in the kingdom of Montecito.
See: “Prince Harry in midst of ‘mid-life crisis’ as Meghan prepares to go it alone,’ from the Daily Express, and “Meghan Markle ‘looked lost without Prince Harry’ during solo appearance” from the Mail. Even sturdy American outlet Newsweek got in on the clickbait with “Meghan Markle stuns in red as marriage gossip returns,” while British broadsheet The Times seems to have been the firebug behind this fresh round of speculation, asking last week “Where’s Meghan?” as Harry was in the U.K. and then Africa for some solo engagements.
These headlines, by the way, are generally bait-and-switches, looking like they’re about Meghan and Harry heading for divorce, when their substance is actually along the lines of something that’s been obvious to anyone observing the couple over the last year or so: They’ve made a concerted effort to carve out individual professional niches for themselves.
Their power couple era may be over — or, as Sussex-friendly outlet People phrased it “it’s clear a twin-track approach is evolving” — but it doesn’t necessarily mean their marriage is, however gleefully that greases the wheels of the gossip mill.
If one thing in particular struck internet observers — beyond the endless debate over Meghan’s tailoring choices — it was a certain vibrational shift to the Duchess of Sussex. “Looks rested and judgment free,” wrote one commenter on a Meghan Instagram fan account. “Carefree Cali girl,” said another on the same thread.
And while that might just have been the switch-up to slightly wavy hair and nude eye makeup talking, a sense that Meghan might be coming at the world with a different, more playful energy was palpable. She held hands with a friend, one of the charity’s organizers, at one point, for example, and happily chatted with a reporter on the red carpet.
Certainly, her upcoming slate of projects feel a bit different: While she and Harry have partnered together on a support organization for parents whose children have been impacted by social media, she’s otherwise seemingly focusing on solo endeavours. There’s the lifestyle show she’s filmed for Netflix, apparently pencilled in to drop mid-2025, and her jam-forward American Riviera Orchard product line, which Us Weekly says will launch at the same time as the show.
If one of the driving factors of splitting their professionals lives is, say, divesting themselves of some of the toxicity that seems to follow them around as a couple, Meghan’s lighter, less cautious solo appearance seems to support that theory — and, whatever the rumours might say, she’s probably more than OK with that.
