Meghan Markle caused quite a stir when she took to the stage at a recent Kevin Costner charity event dripping in gold and diamonds.
Following her Netflix show, where she showcased her expensive wardrobe and kitchenware, analysts are debating whether she has lost touch with her audience.
At an event on Sunday at Costner’s residence in Summerland, California, Meghan not only wore Princess Diana’s Cartier Tank Française watch, valued over $24,000, but also sported a $7,000 solid-gold Cartier Love bracelet, a $5,000 Jennifer Meyer mini bezel tennis bracelet, and her $160,000 engagement ring.
Meghan has long presented herself as relatable and grounded—traits that reportedly took her husband Prince Harry by a ‘delightfully surprised’.
In an interview with The New York Times in April, journalist Julia Moskin observed that Meghan appeared ‘clearly bothered’ by ‘claims that she is unrelatable and out of touch.’
“Don’t they know my life hasn’t always been like this?” Meghan told the Times, as she gestured to the ‘sweeping views’ from her $14million Montecito home.
But, experts say, she could now be losing grasp of that persona.
On Sunday, Meghan Markle attended Kevin Costner’s charity event adorned in over $300,000 worth of jewelry. Meghan appears (right) alongside Harry (left).
Not only did Meghan wear Princess Diana’s $24,020 Cartier Tank Française watch to the concert – which was gifted to her after she married Prince Harry – but she also had on a $9,513, 18-carat gold Cartier Love bracelet
In an April interview with The New York Times, journalist Julia Moskin noted that The Duchess seemed ‘clearly bothered’ by ‘accusations that she is unrelatable and out of touch.’ Pictured: Meghan on set of her Netflix show, With Love, Meghan
‘Meghan may desire to connect with everyday people, but if so, she has to be fully committed,’ Ryan McCormick, Managing Partner at Goldman McCormick PR, told the Daily Mail.
‘Wearing that kind of expensive jewelry communicates, “I am in the upper class.” So we have two conflicting messages here, and that’s one of the reasons why it could be challenging for some members of the public to emotionally connect with her.’
McCormick said the eye-watering total price tag of Meghan’s weekend jewelry was the equivalent of ‘multiple times the average annual salary of most people.’
‘This definitely makes it harder for the Duchess to be perceived as “one of us.”‘
And her jewelry isn’t the only thing with a huge price tag attached.
On both seasons of her Netflix cooking show, With Love, Meghan, she wore pricey clothing from a handful of designers. The wardrobe included a $3,000 dress by Carolina Herrera, a $600 cotton poplin pinstripe shirt from CO and a $1,000 sleeveless silk gown from Ulla Johnson.
Meghan even linked her expensive pieces on her ShopMy store (a platform where users pocket affiliate cash by recommending products) following the Spring 2025 premiere of the show’s first season. She quietly shut the shop down earlier this month, and removed the link from her Instagram bio.
Meghan also linked the expensive cookware used throughout the series to the purchasing platform.
McCormick noted that the eye-watering total price tag of Meghan’s jewelry this weekend was the equivalent of ‘eight times the average annual salary of most citizens in the UK.’ Pictured: Meghan wearing a Cartier Love bracelet
On both seasons of her Netflix cooking show, she wore pricey clothing from a handful of designers including a $3,000 dress by Carolina Herrera, a nearly $600 cotton poplin pinstripe shirt from CO, and a $1,000 sleeveless silk gown from Ulla Johnson
Instead of utilizing dishes from stores like Target or Costco, Meghan opted for white Le Creuset cookware – a single pot from the company retails between $200 and $340.
She plated her food on pieces from Earth and Element, a female-owned ceramics studio in Los Angeles. The dish prices start at $40 for a bread plate and go up to $70 for a dinner plate.
‘Meghan and her team may believe her target audience is the classic royal watcher, an older and more affluent demographic,’ royal commentator Kinsey Schofield told the Daily Mail.
‘But that is a mistake, because loyal royal watchers tend to see Harry and Meghan as disloyal and destructive.
‘Her natural audience is younger people, especially Gen Z and Millennials in the US and UK. Why she thinks a 20-year-old would want to buy overpriced fruit spread is beyond me.’
Unlike the cookware, Schofield believes Meghan’s jewelry stack may have more to do with fitting into Hollywood than impressing her audience.
‘Her habit of wearing hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry feels less like a play for an audience and more like a way of “keeping up with the Joneses” in Santa Barbara,’ Schofield said.
‘I simply think she’s competing with her very famous and very rich neighbors.’
‘Her habit of wearing hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry feels less like a play for an audience and more like a way of keeping up with the Joneses in Santa Barbara, California,’ Schofield said
Meghan has given followers a peek into some of the Montecito-mommy lifestyle habits she has adopted since moving – including drinking green juice in the morning and never skipping breakfast, according to biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.
Meghan said in an interview: ‘I think trying to go for coffee or things like that only end up hurting you in the end, so I like to get a really good natural source of energy like a great green juice.
‘Something that just gets right into your system is a nice pick-me-up.’
But on season two of her Netflix show, Meghan admitted that while she loves drinking green juice, she ‘doesn’t like the process of juicing’ because ‘it always felt really messy.’
Still, McCormick said it is unclear who Meghan is trying to target as her audience these days.
‘I would imagine she’s trying to reach everyone.’
She once lauded green juice as her favorite ‘natural source of energy’ and biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand said Meghan never skips breakfast
He also noted that he finds the price point of her As Ever lifestyle brand to be quite surprising.
‘It’s interesting that the As Ever shop has a number of very affordable items,’ the expert said.
‘I’ve stated in the past that this maximizes her chances of selling to the largest audience possible, but it diminishes her brand’s opportunity to be perceived as luxurious.’
He said she ‘could begin selling’ the line ‘at much higher prices,’ which he guesses would speak more to ‘the upper class.’
The confusion around her audience comes as Netflix’s chief executive, Ted Sarandos, applauded The Duchess on Season 2 of the show, despite recent scathing reviews.
The new season reached 136 in the Netflix chart just under two weeks after its August release.
Sarandos’ comments, made on the Aspire with Emma Grede podcast, are his first since Harry and Meghan signed their ‘first-look’ deal with the streamer – dubbed by experts as a ‘downgrade’ on their previous $100million contract.
The CEO praised Meghan’s ability to sell out goods featured in her shows – such as edible flowers and jam.
‘One thing we learned early with Meghan… she has remarkable influence -remarkable,’ he said.
‘And by the way, the documentary itself,’ he added, speaking about 2022 biopic Harry and Meghan, ‘was also one of the most watched documentaries we’ve ever had.’
‘So it was… successful in every measure. Now I don’t think that you can have a consumer products business if you don’t have a great entertainment business. So that’s got to come first.’
