bitchy | Duchess Meghan: The 2019 NYC baby shower was ‘a beautiful moment’

I found it interesting to watch which individual “controversies” were addressed in Netflix’s Harry & Meghan. I do think it would have been a good time/platform to address the “bullying” report which was leaked by Kensington Palace just before the Oprah interview – meaning, that is one of the prime examples the Sussexes could have used to make their larger point about KP briefing against them. Maybe Meghan didn’t want to give it air, maybe there are legal issues attached to it, although who even knows.

I liked the fact that space was given to one of the most deranged controversies of Meghan’s first pregnancy, which was her New York baby shower. As we now know, Meghan was very low at that moment – she was contemplating suicide, she had been abused and smeared by the British media for months, and KP was not only doing nothing to help her, they were the ones actively briefing against her. So Meghan’s good friends arranged for her to come to NYC for a few days and rest and relax and have a lowkey baby shower. The British media went apesh-t. How dare Meghan’s rich friends throw her a baby shower! How dare Amal Clooney fly Meghan to NYC on her private jet! How dare Meghan’s friends spend their money, don’t they know Black women aren’t supposed to have nice things?

The celebration, which was held at The Mark Hotel in New York City, was planned by the duchess’ friends and attended by celebrity guests such as Gayle King, Serena Williams, and Amal Clooney. During the shower, guests played games and made floral arrangements, which King later revealed Meghan donated to charity.

The media coverage of the party was largely negative, with newspaper headlines condemning the shower as “ostentatious” and alleging that it cost anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000.

The duchess reflected on the backlash to the shower during episode four of her and Prince Harry’s Netflix docuseries, in which she recalled how her friends had wanted to “shower her with love”.

“My girlfriends surprised me with a really beautiful baby shower in New York. They’re like: ‘We’re gonna shower her with love and shower her baby and she’s gonna survive this. We’re gonna get through it with her,’” Meghan said.

Justifying her decision to fly to New York, Meghan said, “It was so wrong. These independent, strong, successful women chose to use their own money, and it’s not taxpayer money, to throw a party for their friend from a place of love. Why are you taking such a beautiful moment and trying to ruin it?”

[From The Independent]

The only criticism which was in any way “legitimate” was the argument about Meghan’s security cost. She had royal protection in NYC. And? She needed it. Other than that, all of the costs of the baby shower and trip were picked up by her friends. The people criticizing Meghan for being “lavish” and “ostentatious” are the same people falling all over themselves to praise Kate for buying more bespoke $4000 dresses and coats. But yeah, there was a racial/racist element to the story, of course. And as always, Salt Island is terribly upset whenever Black women have nice things.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid & Netflix.