We already thought she was the total package when we were obsessed with watching the hit legal drama Suits. Now that she’s the Duchess of Sussex, we love Meghan more than ever! Did we mention she’s due to give birth in late April? We’ve barely got over the excitement of the wedding, and soon her and Prince Harry will be first-time parents!
But it’s not all plain sailing for Duchess Meghan. Rumours of a rocky relationship with Prince William and wife Duchess Catherine are still flying around, news that the palace staff find Meghan difficult and are walking out in protest was damaging to her reputation, and even Meghan’s own family are making life hard for her as she adjusts to her new role as a royal.
Now, her public are fixated on her latest nude photos. Let’s recap, and see what makes these photos so different to Meghan’s Markle previous naked photo scandal.
2018: Meghan Markle Nude Pics
Less than two months out from Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding, the unthinkable happened. The US tabloid paper National Enquirer reported that a secret website, now known to be the revenge-porn style website Celeb Jihad, had published pictures of Meghan topless whilst sunbathing on holiday, as well of pictures of her sipping champagne in her total room without a stitch on. The website claimed that these photos were merely a preview, and that they planned to release more compromising images of Meghan.
It was a low-blow and a thoroughly tasteless grab for website traffic, but to publicise nude photos of Meghan so close to her wedding was particularly nasty. The 36-year old then actress was stressed enough as it was, trying to put out media fires that her estranged father kept lighting whilst coming to terms with the fact that the whole world would be watching her wedding day, live.
Prince Harry was, understandably, incensed. It was reported that he was ready to file a lawsuit to prevent the photos from ever seeing the light of day. However, it wasn’t long before Kensington Palace made a statement saying that the photos in question were photoshopped and complete fakes.
Nude Royals: Past Scandals
To some extent, Meghan and Harry could breathe a sigh of relief. The pictures were fake, and now the world knew it. But the couple certainly had a reason to be stressed. They wouldn’t be the first royals that this had happened to.
In 1992, the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson or ‘Fergie’ was holidaying at a villa in the South of France. At the time, she was still technically married to Prince Andrew, but they had separated. Now infamous photos of her ‘financial advisor’ John Bryan kissing her feet whilst she sunbathed topless were taken by the paparazzi and published in The Daily Mirror.
Will and Kate have also dealt with their fair share of nude photos. In 2012, the royal couple holidayed in the South of France, staying at a private villa owned by the Queen’s nephew Viscount Linley. Photographers took long-lens pictures of the Duchess while she was sunbathing topless. The photographs were reportedly offered to British publications, but they rejected them, so French magazine Closer published them instead.
The couples lawyers demanded that Closer be ordered to pay €1.5m in damages and compensation for the “shock” of having to see the pictures in the public eye. In September 2017, the court awarded Prince William and the Duchess €100,000 in damages and interest to be paid by the celebrity magazine Closer and two photographers. In a letter to the court, Prince William said
“In September 2012, my wife and I thought that we could go to France for a few days in a secluded villa owned by a member of my family, and thus enjoy our privacy. We know France and the French and we know that they are, in principle, respectful of private life, including that of their guests. The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy.”
It may have taken five years to resolve, but Wills and Kate showed the tabloids that they are not to be trifled with!
2019: Meghan Markle ‘Nude’ Photos
Fast forward to the present day and we’ve been hit with a whole lot of new nude pictures of Meghan – but it’s not what you might think! Fashion experts have brought it to our attention that since her wedding in May, Meghan has only worn shades of white, blush or cream during official engagements. Basically, she’s been sending us 100%, pure, full-strength nudes.
Royal commentators have suggested that this nude palette is so Meghan doesn’t unintentionally steal the spotlight during matters of importance. It is well known that the Queen likes to wear bright, block colours to official events so that the public can easily spot her. “She needs to stand out for people to be able to say ‘I saw the Queen’,” Sophie, Countess of Wessex said in the documentary The Queen at 90. “Don’t forget that when she turns up somewhere, the crowds are two, three, four, 10, 15 deep, and someone wants to be able to say they saw a bit of the queen’s hat as she went past.” Meghan’s recent choice of muted tones may, in part, be her paying respect to her husband’s grandmother.
Meghan Markle’s Best Nudes
1. First solo-engagement with the Queen
Meghan’s first solo official engagement with the Queen was to Cheshire. After spending the night on the royal train, Her Majesty Elizabeth II and the Duchess of Sussex visited the new Mersey Gateway Bridge and toured the new Storyhouse Theatre in Chester. This event also marked one year since the Grenfell Tower tragedy in which 72 people died in 24-storey public housing building that caught ablaze, so the Queen and the Duchess made time to pause and observe a special 72-second silence. Here, Meghan is wearing a custom-made cream Givenchy dress and allowing the Queen to take the lead in her fluro-green number.
2. Meghan visits The Mayhew Animal Home
Meghan combines high street and designer, wearing a grey H&M maternity dress and a blush Emporio Armani coat as she visits the animal welfare charity which she is royal patron to. Heavily pregnant and looking radiant, the Duchess didn’t seem to mind when a member of the public called her “fat.”
3. A night at the theatre
Accompanied by her doting husband, Meghan attends a special performance of The Wider Earth at the Natural History Museum in London. The performance was to celebrate the 210th birthday of Charles Darwin and the environmental work of the organisation. In a delightfully post-modern homage to Sharon Stone’s role in Basic Instinct, Meghan wore a cream turtle-neck dress by Calvin Klein and a coat by Amanda Wakeley.
4. Six-months pregnant never looked so good
In January this year, the Duchess made her first visit to the National Theatre in London since replacing the Queen as the royal patron. Meghan wore a blush Brandon Maxwell dress from the Spring/Summer 2019 runway collection, and an open-style jacket with a shawl collar from the same collection. This nude look places extra emphasis on Meghan’s flawless skin and her stunning the no-makeup look which blew us all away at her wedding.
5. Class is now in session!
Wearing a timeless beige trench coat by Australian designer Martin Grant, Meghan visited Albert Park School in Melbourne last year during her and the Duke of Sussex’s tour of Australia. Meghan seemed to take a shine to this particular trench coat, wearing it multiple times during the tour.
6. The Royals visit Taronga Zoo
During her Taronga Zoo visit, Meghan wore a cream, form-fitting dress by Australian designer Karen Gee, and paired it with nude Stuart Weitzman pumps. A brave choice to wear to a zoo, but if anyone could have pulled it off, it was the Duchess of Sussex!
7. The love affair with cream continues
When the Duchess arrived in Fiji, she was wearing the cream Blouson Sleeve Midi dress by Zimmermann, from the brand’s 2018 autumn collection. Her matching cream hat was from Stephen Jones, and her black Tabitha Simmons slingbacks and Kayu clutch added extra chic-ness to look.
The next outfit that’s got everybody speculating is what Meghan will wear when she and Harry greet the press with their baby in April. Whether she will continue dressing with this soft, romantic colour palette, or opt for something brighter and bolder to celebrate her motherhood, is anyone’s guess. After all, if Meghan has shown us anything, it’s that she’s full of surprises!
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