House Sussex: A Closer Look at the Birthday Collage

I forgot to mention something when I posted about the Sussex Royal Instagram dedication to Prince Harry on his birthday yesterday. Most of us, naturally, focused on the new photo on the bottom right hand corner of Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor taken the day of his christening, as he was held by his mother and looking at his father. That was the money shot. But what about the picture in the top left of Princess Diana and Harry? Take a closer look.  

That’s Diana holding a very young Harry… as she’s GETTING OFF A PRIVATE PLANE! 

There are many, many, many images of Diana and Prince Harry that are out there. And this was the one Meghan chose?! Harry would have been around the same-ish age as Archie this summer. Coincidence or conspiracy?

Again, of all the pictures that Meghan could have selected for this post, THAT was the one she went with? Coincidence or conspiracy? Is there a message here? If so, what do you think it is? Send me your thoughts. 

In other Sussex news, the Sun the other day reported that Meghan had filed to extend the trademark for her now defunct lifestyle blog, The Tig, speculating that she’s planning to relaunch it – which, of course, would elicit more headlines about how “it’s not royal” to guest-edit magazines and/or run lifestyle blogs. How royal is it to bring a rapist pedophile to all the castles where your ma, the Queen, spends her time? Actually… never mind. Maybe that’s actually, considering their bloodline, the most royal thing ever. 

Anyway, Buckingham Palace has now shut down the rumours, telling PEOPLE that there are “absolutely no plans to relaunch The Tig” and that “the lasting trademark is to prevent false branding” – so, in other words, the sensible conclusion that anyone could have come up with unless you’re the Sun. 

Did you ever visit The Tig? The Tig was pretty twee. And you know what’s super twee? The name SUSSEX. Anyone who’s ever done anything aspires to have monographed towels with SUSSEX all over them and be able to say that it belongs to them. Since Meghan is now, properly, a Sussex, why the F-CK would she need to go back to branding The Tig?! 

And finally, to finish off the Sussex updates – it was the Sun that posted an article the other day saying that Meghan “owes [the] success of Smart Works charity fashion launch to sister-in-law Kate” because the launch went so well they couldn’t find anything to dump on. Classic move, though, attributing a black woman’s achievement to a white one.

And it does both a disservice. More Meghan, of course, because women of colour have been forced historically to cede space to their white counterparts but it’s not a good look for Kate either. Both women are making efforts to have their work recognised and it’s unfair to Kate too that her work can’t exist independently. And why…would she want to become a hashtag like this? 

Have you heard of #katemiddlestonsuccessstory? It’s become a thing on Twitter, with people pointing out how gross it was of the Sun to credit Kate for Meghan’s success, as Black women on social media pushed back against the insult: 

I passed out when I saw this one: 

So an attempt to make Kate look good has turned Kate into a joke and, frankly, it’s not like she ever wanted to be part of this narrative either.