Unpacking Prince Harry & Meghan Markle's contentious outing at Kris Jenner's birthday | Royals Recap

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry really stepping out. I know last week we talked about how Hollywood is kind of over them, but this week they are in the thick of it at Kris Jenner's birthday party, Charlie. Okay, yeah, Hollywood might be over them, but it turns out the reality world is not. They rubbed shoulders with some of the industry's biggest stars at Kris Jenner's James Bond-themed 70th birthday party, but like true celebrities or C-list celebrities, the two of them pulled double duty. They didn't just go to Kris Jenner's 70th birthday party. They actually pre-gamed, if you will, at another event, the Baby to Baby Gala, which is a charity event. They were there supporting Meghan's good friend, Serena Williams, and then just high-tailed it on over to Beverly Hills, where they were guests at Jeff Bezos's Beverly Hills Mansion, which was the location of Kris's birthday party. Now, if you think the Oscars is star-studded, I have to give it to Kris. Honestly, I love the woman, not just for her plastic surgery, but also for her incredible business sense, because who else can turn a pornographic video a multi-billion dollar family empire? Exactly. Anyway, I won't go on ahead and talk about how much I love Kris Jenner, but Kris, if you're listening, bravo. Anyway, so Kris had the toast of the town attending this party. She sure did. Oprah Winfrey was there, another person who I just think is great. Meghan's neighbor. Obviously, Jeff and Lauren were there. Now, they set up an incredible ornate red tent at the back of their property, which according to realtor.com, they bought for $165 million. This was not a backyard barbecue. Not a small backyard barbecue. I'm pretty sure that this event outdid most of the royal engagements that Prince Harry and Meghan attended while they were still members of that inner circle. I'm sure. Needless to say, it was a great opportunity for the two of them to do a little hand shaking, a little shoulder rubbing with some people who may help them worm their way back into Hollywood's inner circles. According to sources who spoke to Page Six, Meghan was in full networking mode. She was busy. She was giving it her all, which I've got to hand it to her. When you see an opportunity, you've got to seize it, especially when you are no longer a royal and you are, in fact, just one of many people trying to make it in Hollywood. So, star-studded bash. They were there, and I was kind of surprised to see them there. Were you? I was very surprised. Now, it's not the first time that Meghan and Harry have hung out with the likes of the Kardashian-Jenners, the Bezos-Sanchezes. Sanchez-Bezoses, I lose track, honestly. And obviously, they are incredibly good friends with Oprah Winfrey, who was also their neighbor in Montecito. But I think that this really marks a turning point for them, because this is them showing that they do consider themselves to be part of this celebrity circle. High society. Exactly. America's high society. Yeah, exactly. No lords and ladies were present at this event, from what I could tell. Just some sensational plastic surgeons. But I think that Meghan and Harry choosing to attend this event, and choosing to do so after already attending another red carpet event earlier in the evening. Two big events in one night. That really is a major sign to me that they are giving it their all as far as their Hollywood status is concerned. Forget kings, queens, whatever. They are focused on producers, directors, actresses, actors, and reality stars. Forget their titles. They're trying to make it in Hollywood now. Exactly. And I think their titles will go a long way to helping them with that. But if, as we discussed last week, the Hollywood bigwigs are tiring of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex train, well, why not? The artist formerly known as Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, why not make something of that? And the more that they are photographed, and the more that they are seen with really big names, the more opportunity the two of them have to really position themselves alongside the likes of Oprah and the Kardashians. And I know that people turn their noses up at the Kardashians as reality stars, what have you. But the truth is they are among some of the most successful celebrities in Hollywood right now. They are. And they've done an amazing job of rebranding. Rebranding and becoming part of that elite crew. Because even though they were kind of on the outside as reality stars when they first started, they've, I don't want to say weaseled their way in, but they've hustled their way in. They've worked their way in to these big groups, which is kind of what Meghan and Harry seem to be doing now. I mean, it made sense for me, for them to be at the Baby to Baby Gala. They were supporting Serena. It's a good cause. It's a very popular event that a lot of Hollywood elite go to every year. It just so happens that two hours later, they're hitting up Chris's birthday party, which was fully just a celebration for Chris, rightfully deserved by her. But a lot of fans of Meghan and Harry were kind of sparking backlash at them going to the birthday party. Well, I think it all comes back to this concept of hypocrisy. You know, Harry and Meghan have said for years now that all they want is to live private lives as private citizens, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They kind of still toot that horn every now and then. But I think what they have come to realize is that they can't live private lives. They can't. If they want to make any money, they need to be celebrities. That is the only avenue left to them. I think they have proven by this point that they are not brilliant business minds. Jeff Bezos, they are not. They're not coming up with the new Amazon. That's not to say that Meghan's brand, as ever, might not one day take off. But Gwyneth Paltrow revealed not too long ago that Goop still isn't that profitable. You know, it takes a very long time to turn this kind of fledgling business into a real success story, particularly when it comes to the money and not just the fame. And I think that Harry and Meghan need to get off the fence, basically. It's a have your cake and eat it too kind of lifestyle that they are no longer going to be able to continue. If they want to make money and if they want to be celebrities, they have to lean into that wholeheartedly. And they can't continue to poo-poo the paparazzi to get annoyed with media who dare to write headlines about them that they don't like. If they want to be celebrities, they have to take the good and the bad that comes with that celebrity status. Every other A-lister in Hollywood has been through it for better or for worse. And that's just something that Harry and Meghan are going to have to get used to. So if you are going to roll up to what you know is going to be a media circus, you have to understand that people are going to be confused. People are going to say, hey, you told us that you didn't want to be in the spotlight, that you wanted to kind of retreat to your mansion and live a quiet life with your kids anonymously or whatever it is. And now you're at one of the biggest non-red carpet events of Hollywood's entire year. You know, I understand why people were angry with them. And it was a lot of people. It wasn't just, you know, Chris's friends. It was all the kids' friends too. I mean, Hayley and Justin Bieber were there. Of course, all the sisters were there showing off their glam. Travis was with Kourtney. And it was pretty much everyone they knew was invited to this birthday party, as one does with their own birthday. But they were also there being seen just basically partying. And then once they got the backlash, I think people even started to question why the photos of them were disappearing. Well, so they actually appeared in Instagram photos that were shared by Chris and Kim. Which is very Chris and Kim to do, show off party photos. They're not doing the same thing. You know, they've kind of mastered the media game. Kim Kardashian is a woman who managed to make her lunchtime salad turn into a viral shaky, shaky moment. Like the woman knows how to produce content like no one else in Hollywood. So yes, if you go to a Kardashian-Jenner event, you really expect to be on Instagram. You know, like that's just kind of how it goes. It's an honor. I was going to say, I would love to be featured in a photo from them. It's an honor that many people would absolutely relish. But then rather than just leaving well enough alone, and this is what always irritates me, just don't do it. Because oftentimes when you try and unring a bell, it makes matters worse. And lo and behold, the pictures of Harry and Meghan suddenly disappear from these Instagram posts. Because for those of you who are old like myself and didn't realize, you can now delete specific photos from Instagram carousels. Which has proven to be, it's proven to be a real bonus for celebrities who are kind of looking to be like, oh no, you can tell I facetuned that. So the images of Harry and Meghan disappear and immediately headlines are being plastered across every publication across the darn planet, questioning why, speculating why. Some sources said that it was because Meghan was not wearing a poppy for Britain's Remembrance Day, which is on the same date as Veterans Day here in the US. It is a very big tradition that in the UK, those who wish to show their respect for the military, for the armed forces, wear a poppy in the lead up to and on the day of Remembrance Day. And Harry was wearing his poppy, Meghan was not. So some sources suggested that that was the reason why they asked for the images to be taken down. However, other sources told Page Six that it was actually Meghan's publicist who got in touch with Chris. I can't imagine how that phone call went, because can you? I can't. I mean, maybe Chris took it as an opportunity to give some advice. Maybe. One can only hope. Maybe, you know. The momager herself. Exactly. Maybe Chris should become their manager. That would be a relationship for the ages. That would be iconic. I'm manifesting, I'm putting it out there. We're moving on. Come on, Chris, give it to us. But Meghan's publicist phoned Chris, phoned Kim, whoever it was, asked them to take the images down because they worried that Meghan and Harry's appearance at this party could do further damage to their relationship with the royal family, particularly given that it comes at a time when all kinds of reports are surfacing about the fact that Harry is working towards some kind of reconciliation, at least with his father. So, I understand that. I think the image of Harry and Meghan attending an event like this on Remembrance Day weekend, and also it kind of jars that Harry, I understand why, but it jars to me that Harry wore a poppy to an event like that, that has nothing to do with Remembrance in any way, shape or form. I don't know. It just seems a bit bizarre that at a party where there were kind of, you know, James Bond style gun montages and all of that kind of stuff. Everything was themed 007D for their birthday. Yeah, it's just a little bit of a weird correlation for me. But again, you can understand how the royal family might find that image jarring when you've got Kate and Prince George attending a Remembrance Day celebration in the UK. And then you've got Harry and Meghan bopping along with Kim Kardashian and Lauren Sanchez Bezos. It is a difficult image to kind of stomach. It is. And I think that it's, again, a fine line for them to have to walk. But like you said, they sort of need to decide where they're at. Because then, when it was Veterans Day here in America the next morning, Meghan did post about Harry, his experience in the service, thanking veterans. So they knew it was going on. He wore the poppy. She made that post. I mean, it is sort of, do you wear the poppy? Do you not wear the poppy? For both reasons. But one wearing, the other one not. And then photos disappearing. It was like, ah. But again, it's kind of that toe in, toe out situation where Harry and Meghan have repeatedly refused to commit to one kind of lifestyle. And look, I'm not saying that you can't be a mother, a businesswoman, a homemaker. You can do it all. For sure. Man, woman. You can do whatever you want to do. However, if you are going to live a life that centres, at least financially, around being in the public eye, producing content and products that rely on the public to make them a success, you have to understand that everything you do is going to be second-guessed. There is always going to be criticism about your appearance, about your decision-making. And that extends to everyone. Oprah Winfrey got so much flack for doing the interview with Harry and Meghan all those years ago. Beloved Hollywood celebrities who were, you know, Tom Hanks gets criticism every now and then. Who could forget that viral video of him at Cannes, like telling someone off. So no one is immune to criticism, I think is what I'm saying. I'm sure there will be comments aplenty on this video about how awful I am. I agree with you, by the way. But I think that for Harry and Meghan, it's kind of that, oh, we want all of the benefits of this lifestyle, but none of the disadvantages. And that continues to be, in my opinion, the foundation of why they attract so much criticism and backlash. Especially in today's day and age, with influencer culture, social media being so popular, influencer marketing and media really kind of taking over, these influencers have made it accustomed to brands being able to partner with them, and they get a lot of views, and they're kind of monitoring all of that. Our old ways of Hollywood aren't here anymore, so they sort of have to be able to lean in, or maybe the brand might not do well. But then if they lean out, who knows what would happen, but people wouldn't criticize, but where is the line and how do they do it? Especially at a party like Kris Jenner's birthday, because it was not a calm party. No, hello, the cops turned up twice. Twice, for goodness sake. I mean, first, for a noise violation. Now, for those of you who don't know, Beverly Hills takes its noise regulations very seriously. Pages and pages of documents about noise violations in Beverly Hills. Basically, I'll TLDR it for you, you cannot make any kind of raucous noise that would affect anyone with a normal hearing level after 10pm local time. Oh, wow. Now, from what I understand, this party raged on a lot later than 10pm. Sure seemed that way. Kylie was posting about being drunk at 2am. Now, according to reports, a lot of the noise kind of complaints that came from Bezos's neighbors, can you imagine being the person who picked up the phone to the cops, being like, oh, the Amazon billionaire is kicking off again? I mean, I just want to be a fly on that wall, to have the guts to be like, Jeff Bezos is having a party again, we gotta call the cops. Well, apparently a lot of the noise complaints came after Bruno Mars took to the stage and left the audience screaming in excitement with his undoubtedly saucy dance moves. I wouldn't complain that much. Smooth lyrics, saucy dance moves, why wouldn't you scream in response? So, the police turn up, they issue a warning to the security guards. Obviously, they didn't get anywhere near the front door, but they spoke to the security guards, issued them a warning and I think the noise may have died down somewhat after that. However, the police then went back to the property because they noticed that a number of very large fake hedges had been erected outside of the property in an apparent bid to kind of guard the celebrities from view. Undoubtedly, Meghan and Harry hoped they had worked a lot better than they did. But basically, these hedges were erected without permits. And so, the police came back and said, excuse you, you've got these hedges, you're blocking the street, you aren't allowed to have them here, please take them down. Just as all of the celebrities were starting to filter out of the party. So, the paparazzi ended up getting a full view, the hedges proved to do nothing and, you know, the saga continues. But again, the idea of Meghan and Harry, and I'm taking it down very much to the most basic level here, Meghan and Harry effectively went to a house party that got busted by the cops. It's very American pie, very American pie. It really is. I mean, they were walking into Kris Jenner's birthday party, that was bound to get a little rowdy. We've seen her Christmas parties. I mean, my goodness, my goodness, we've seen her Christmas cards, you know, that's all it really takes to know that she's going to have a corker of a celebration. Yeah, an amazing one at that. Well, and I have to point out that obviously while Meghan and Harry were having this kind of fun-loving weekend, again, Princess Kate and Prince George were attending a Remembrance Day service over in the UK. And then Prince William pops up on Tuesday night, kind of proving, I guess, how royalty, I don't want to say should do celebrity interactions, but how a member of the royal family can appropriately carry out a kind of celebrity appearance when he popped up on Dancing with the Stars. I literally almost fell over. I was like, oh, when he popped up because they had prefaced it by, oh, we have a special message from someone. In my head, I'm like, oh, it's going to be someone cute. I thought it was going to be his sister. His sister or someone. Oh, it was Robert Irwin, by the way. That is who Prince William shared a message of support for. He does all this conservation work. And then that's why Prince William sent in this message because it was the Earthshot Prize Weekend Week events happening. And so he got this message because they're pals. But like you said, they were sort of using their celebrity for a good cause. It was the way that William and Kate always sort of involve social media and the new age into the way that they handle their different outings and appearances and stuff. It was just a sweet little FaceTime call or Zoom with Prince William. It was giving dad, really. The angle was all wrong. The lighting was abysmal. But again, it was just a very natural, candid moment. I mean, William has never been one to look particularly comfortable on camera. But, you know, like you said, it was just meant to be a kind of sweet interaction and an opportunity to promote what is a very worthwhile cause. For sure. You know, one that both William and Robert support. Or Rob, can I call you Rob? And I think that that kind of juxtaposed with the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle weekend extravaganza. Right. It just kind of makes the difference in their new lifestyle all the more stark and all the more difficult for people to get their heads around. Now, we discussed it last week, the importance of a rebrand. I think now more than ever would be the best time for Harry and Meghan to just go on vacation, go take the kids. Christmas is coming. They can't because she has her Christmas special coming out on December 3rd. December 3rd. Right. So December 4th, off you go. Offline until the new year. You know, go and take three, four weeks off, disengage from social media, disengage from photographers, disengage from interviews and just take some time away. You know, I think we could all do with a palate cleanser. A palate cleanser, I think, would give the public an opportunity to kind of take a breath. You know, the world's media wouldn't have to kind of sit on the edge of their seat worrying about what Meghan's going to post next. I mean, every time she posts something, I think every journalist on the planet kind of inhales like this, thinking, oh goodness, what could it be? But I think that even just for like a month, just take a break. I know, because then also we would be like, oh, what have they been up to? At least I would. Exactly. And then, you know, Meghan can celebrate the one-year anniversary of her return to Instagram by sharing a little video montage. We know how she loves those. A little video montage of what they got up to on whatever vacation they went to. We can all be upset about how much they spent on whatever five-star hotel they stayed in, and the world will carry on as normal. But at least that kind of gives a bit of separation, you know? And then they can come back and they can say, hey, new year, new us. We are hitting the Netflix train really hard. We're going to make as ever into like the world's biggest corporation. Watch out Gwyneth Paltrow. Watch out Martha Stewart. Whatever it is, whatever they want to do, do it. But just keep in mind that you can't keep one foot in the royal puddle while also hopping the fence over to Hollywood superstardom. Right. And not only that, they do have projects with Netflix that are coming out. Meghan did just post a trailer for a new project that they're working on. And it seems like an amazing project. So the attention should really be on that. However, we're all still over here talking about them being at Chris's party and photos being deleted, the personal side of things getting a little messy and crazy, and not the project they're working on. And it's the deleted photos that I come back to, honestly, because just leave well enough alone. That would be my key piece of advice here. The photos are out there. Accept it. You can be annoyed about it. You can be upset about it. If you must, make a call to whoever at Buckingham Palace being like, yeah, we didn't approve that. Or, you know, whatever the reasoning may be, we promised a quick stop by. I mean, listen, we don't know how long they were technically there. They could explain that to whoever might be needing to know that they deleted the photos. For all we know, Harry and Meghan could have been the one calling the cops, being like, we need it out. We hate it here. You know, you don't know. You have no clue. Now that we made our mark, let's get the whole party shut down. The cops reveal that it was a British man. No, but listen, I think the truth of the matter is right now they are in a kind of very awkward limbo. And that limbo will not end until they take steps to end it. And those steps really do require the two of them figuring out what they're doing, figuring out what they want to achieve and how they want to achieve it. Because I think right now they and us are all still confused about what it is that they are kind of aiming for. We are. I just get the emails about what my Christmas plans are for my gifting purchases from As Ever. I'm sure you have already preordered many jars of spread. I'm going to bring them in. A bag full of flower sprinkles. Yeah. Oh, you know, I need those flower sprinkles for sure. Yeah. Watch out everyone in my inner circle. That's what you are all getting. It's like the equivalent of coal this year in your stocking. But they're edible. I know. Gross. You know, I'm just saying it like I don't need some crusty dead petals peppered on my cookie. Give me some chocolate chips for goodness sake. Anyway, don't get me started down that road. Edible flower is not my thing. Sorry. It'll be like chocolate chip cookies that are made from scratch that have ingredients a la Nara Smith. Like Megan will make the chocolate. My kids this morning were craving ladybugs. So I got some tomatoes in here again. I can't go down this road again. We will be here for 10 hours and we only have a few weeks before Megan's Christmas special comes out. So I need to save it. I need to save it. I can't wait to see what happens in that special. We were speculating before and it's like maybe a little appearance from Oprah would be great. Or maybe who knows? Maybe they film some segments inside Kris Jenner's party. Maybe Megan whipped up some Christmas canopies inside Kris Jenner's party. She's like, here's what to do if the canopy is run out at a party. And she's there making like Kris's face out of crackers. And then Kris is off screen with the phone saying, you're doing amazing, sweetie. Exactly. You're doing amazing. You're doing amazing, Duchess. Yeah, Megan being like, it's not Markle anymore. It's Sussex. Well, honestly, what a weekend. I know. You know, I honestly, I feel exhausted for the two of them. Me too. They've been busy. Maybe they'll take your advice and take a break and step back. We've kind of shot ourselves in the foot there. We're like, the plan is for you guys to just go away for a while. Maybe then we can take a vacation. That would be nice. It would be. We'll all have a nice holiday season. Calm, cool, collected. No noise violations here in New York because it is always loud. Well, and I'm also in bed by 9pm every night. So no chance of a noise violation on my end. As you can tell, I'm not a party animal. Unlike Harry and Megan. Maybe I need to take a leaf out of their book. If Kris Jenner invited us to her birthday party, though, we would have flown over there in a heartbeat. I would have, to be clear, had my booty on the next airplane. I would have stayed in a Motel 6 if I needed to. I would have been there. We would have partied all night long. We would have taken a red eye home from the party and just never even had to stay. I would have been the person who was like passed out on Jeff Bezos's, what I presume is like $100,000 couch. He's there like poking me with a stick in the morning like, excuse me, could you leave? It's time to go home. The cops are here. My makeup just like smeared all over his cushions. Oh my gosh. Well, you know, maybe for her 75th. Fingers crossed. Kris, if you're out there, I'm ready. We're ready for the invite. Come on. I'm going to get some sleep in now. Five years time. I'll be well rested enough to attend your next birthday party. She's partying all night long at her 70th birthday party and we're over here like, we would be so tired. I'm here at the ripe old age of something. Just being like, oh, give me a blank. Below 70. Yeah. Yeah, I am under 70. Hopefully you can tell. We are below 70. Working well enough for that to be apparent. Somewhere in between like 23 and 70 because we are employed, but you know, we're not 70 yet. Okay. I like that metric. That's nice. Anyway, we've gone vastly off topic. We have. I think, you know, long story, long story short, Harry and Meghan had a wild, wild weekend and people were mad about it. They were and they'll continue to be. So we're going to have to keep watching and seeing what they do next. We know the holiday season is coming. We're looking out for December 3rd for that with Meghan, with love Meghan Christmas special. I can't wait. And more cookies for everyone.