Meghan Markle was criticized for her ‘Zoolander’ walk and her enthusiasm about attending her ‘first fashion show in over a decade,’ despite her past encounters with less prominent celebrities.

The Duchess of Sussex, now 44, spent the weekend eagerly showcasing her front row stint at Paris Fashion Week through behind-the-scenes glimpses—where she mingled with top industry figures, improved her French, and enjoyed fries with her style team.

Her team proudly stated it ‘marks her first time back to the shows in over a decade’. 

However, her previous attendance at fashion ‘shows’ in 2015 took place not in Paris but in Toronto and New York, when she was relatively unknown as a Suits actress, posing with DJs and content creators.

Her Instagram story on Saturday evening debuted with a glimpse of her £745 Balenciaga ‘Knife’ heels as she walked out of the £2,210-per-night Plaza Athénée hotel.

But critics today likened the Duchess to Zoolander – the dim-witted character made famous by Ben Stiller in the 2001 hit comedy.

‘Meghan Markle trying to give Zoolander a run for his supermodel walk,’ one said. 

Other commenters ridiculed ‘self-obsessed’ Meghan for appearing to make the show all about her.

One person commented, ‘Meghan, you’re not a model; they’re simply showing you to your seat! Meghan strutting with her cape as if she’s the Messiah’s second coming,’ highlighting her fashion show moment.

Another said: ‘This marks her first time back to the shows in over a decade? What a load of rubbish! She has never been to Paris fashion week!’ 

Meanwhile, the Duchess was also savaged for supporting the Balenciaga fashion show despite the brand being ‘cancelled’ for using children in a controversial ad. 

The luxury brand came under fire in 2022 for its campaign, which featured children holding teddy bears that were outfitted in bondage-style leather outfits.

One critic said: ‘Why on earth would she go to a Balenciaga show? How could any mother support that brand?’  

‘Miss All About the Children showing up at a Balenciaga show. How gross,’ wrote another. 

Meghan was also condemned for an ‘utterly bewildering’ clip – posted to her Instagram ‘story’ this weekend – which showed her feet resting on the leather seats of a limo as she was motored away from the event in the French capital. 

The clip, which appeared to be taken by Meghan, showed she took the parallel route to that of her mother-in-law, whose journey ended in tragedy as her driver smashed into a pillar in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in 1997. 

Commentators were quick to criticise the Duchess for the ‘disrespectful’ video, branding it ‘beyond stupid’ and ‘insensitive beyond belief’.

But Meghan appears to have brushed off the criticism with a new video showcasing behind the scenes highlights from her luxurious Parisian stay. 

The clip shows the Duchess being driven past the Arc de Triomphe, staying within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower and snacking on French food. 

She also shows herself munching on ‘frites’ while sampling lipsticks and getting ready with best friend and makeup artist Daniel Martin. 

The under-fire clip of her journey back from the event was notably absent from the new video, which was finished off with the song ‘Minuit’ by Clementine and Oscar Anton. 

Critics have questioned whether Meghan, who married Prince Harry in 2018, realised she had posted a parallel journey – separated by the flowing waters of the Seine – to that followed by her husband’s mother on her final evening in August 1997. 

That journey, of course, ended in tragedy when the car Princess Diana was travelling in smashed into a pillar in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.

It is easy to see why any similar route taken by Diana’s daughter-in-law might, at very least, raise eyebrows, particularly when one considers that the Montecito-dwelling mother-of-two, who was 16 when Diana died, must surely have read her husband’s autobiography, Spare.

In his 2023 memoir, Harry recalls driving through the same tunnel while at the 2007 Rugby World Cup semi-final when he was 23.

‘The World Cup provided me with a driver, and on my first night in the City of Light I asked him if he knew the tunnel where my mother… I watched his eyes in the rear-view [mirror], growing large,’ Harry writes.

He goes on to note how he requested the driver go through the tunnel at 65mph. ‘The exact speed Mummy’s car had supposedly been driving, according to police,’ he writes. 

‘Not 120mph, as the press originally reported.’ Harry continues: ‘I’d had plenty of bad ideas in my 23 years, but this one was uniquely ill-conceived. I’d told myself that I wanted closure, but I didn’t really,’ he writes. 

‘Deep down, I’d hoped to feel what I’d felt when JLP [Harry’s former private secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton] gave me the police files – disbelief. Doubt. Instead, that was the night all doubt fell away. 

”She’s dead,’ I thought. ‘My God, she’s really gone for good’.’

A powerful place, then, for Harry and surely terribly poignant to see his wife driving along at night so close to where the crash happened.

Perhaps, Meghan was simply giddy with the excitement of her night with the fashion crowd, or chatting to her companion, long-time friend Markus Anderson, global membership director of Soho House, and – since she is presumably not well-acquainted with the roads of the French capital – didn’t realise where she was.

Whatever the explanation, the video triggered a storm of complaints.

On X, commentators didn’t hold back. One said: ‘Please tell me that’s not real..? She didn’t actually do that… did she..?’

While another commented online: ‘For most people whose husband’s mother died, passing the area where it happened would be a moment of quiet, respectful, contemplation.’

And royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told Dailymail.co.uk that the post was ‘utterly bewildering’, ‘beyond stupid’ and ‘insensitive beyond belief’.

He also suggested Prince Harry could take a dim view of his wife’s post: ‘I don’t understand what on earth she was thinking – well, she can’t have been thinking… to share a video which had any connections with the tragic death of the Princess of Wales defies belief.’

It was, perhaps, not quite the response Meghan had anticipated when making the 5,600-mile journey from the home she and Harry share with their children – Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four – to Paris, her first visit to Europe since the 2023 Invictus Games in Germany.

There was no Harry on her arm, just rarely seen pal Anderson, when the duchess arrived for Saturday’s fashion moment.

There was also no fanfare, just that little Instagram teaser.

Indeed, it would appear it was only a select few who knew Meghan was flying in to join the fashion fraternity and support her designer friend Piccioli, as he made his debut at Balenciaga after 25 years at Valentino.

She swept into the show venue, on the elegant Rue de Sevres, in an ensemble as showstopping as anything on the catwalk.

She wore head-to-toe Balenciaga – a white silk button-down shirt, matching trousers and a striking white cape; her black heels peeking out below.

At the show, the luminous, laser-focused duchess was spotted sharing a warm embrace with Vogue supremo Dame Anna Wintour. 

Meghan was later seen returning to her hotel to change into a stunning black, backless dress (also by Balenciaga) to head out for dinner at Sugaar, in the upmarket Saint-Germain-des-Pres district.

She sat at a candlelit table ‘at the back’ of the restaurant, and nibbled on a ‘tapas-style meal’, a source tells the Daily Mail. ‘She enjoyed some sardines, and a few prawns, with some nice wine.’

The seafood salad at Sugaar costs the equivalent of £60, and so does a portion of raw Spanish prawns. The cheapest wine on the menu is £60, while the 2001 Ribera del Duero from Finca Villacreces goes for £860 a bottle.

Meghan is also thought to have enjoyed a chocolate tart, £10.50, for dessert.

The duchess then headed back to the exclusive Hotel Plaza Athenee, two miles from the Paris Ritz, where Diana was staying on the night she died. 

The Athenee is situated in a part of Paris Diana loved, the so-called Golden Triangle and, bringing an added note of poignancy to the stay, is next to the Place Diana, which has become a shrine for those who want to remember the royal.

It is thought that Meghan stayed in a superior room, costing around £2,500. 

Markus Anderson had similar accommodation; both rooms, we understand, with courtyard views, rather than views of the Eiffel Tower. Why? The Sussexes are known to take security very seriously.

The fifth floor does house the exclusive Royal Suite, but it costs around £22,000 a night and is reserved for ‘very high-wealth VIPs only’, says a hotel source. 

There was no sign of Meghan using the hotel’s bars or restaurants, although she appears (according to her social media) to have enjoyed a sumptuous breakfast.

The only pronouncement the duchess’s team made on proceedings was a statement, released to coincide with the show, which read: ‘Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attended the Balenciaga show in Paris on Saturday night in support of Pierpaolo Piccioli, who recently assumed the role of creative director for the house.

‘This marks her first time back to the shows in over a decade.

‘Over the years, the duchess has worn a number of designs by Pierpaolo. They have worked closely together on design for key moments on the world stage. She has long admired his craftsmanship and modern elegance, and tonight was no different.

‘This evening reflects the culmination of many years of artistry and friendship, reflected in her support for his new creative chapter at Balenciaga.’

If that isn’t an endorsement, what is?

Quite how close the friendship between designer and celebrity clientele is is unknown but Meghan was a fan of Pierpaolo during his tenure at Valentino, wearing a white Valentino suit to the opening of the Invictus Games in 2022 and a red Valentino dress in February 2019 when she arrived with Harry for a tour of Morocco.

Meghan’s return to the catwalk (she was once a regular at New York Fashion Week, though this is her first time at the more prestigious Paris Fashion Week) was seemingly short and sweet. No stopping off for Piccioli’s replacement at Valentino yesterday, or Chloe, or Alexander McQueen.

Yesterday afternoon, the woman who once penned her own blog, The Tig, updated Instagram with a reel captioned ‘about last night’, a montage of moments of her sojourn, including views of the Arc De Triomphe and Eiffel Tower, but no repeat of the car footage.

Instead, the reel starts with a pink sky, viewed from an aeroplane window, and ends with her in that snow-white ensemble. Not even an au revoir.