A week on from that surprise appearance at Paris Fashion Week, and sources close to Meghan and Prince Harry remain agog.

The British acquaintances of the Prince describe her appearance at the event as ‘unbelievable’, while the Californian side is more exuberant, saying things like: ‘This was absolutely wild!’

In some ways – and let’s be clear, these are the ways that matter to Meghan – it was a triumph.

Following her visit, Vogue.com has included her in their best dressed list at Paris Fashion Week. A significant achievement came as Vogue icon Anna Wintour – usually not known for being physically expressive – showed remarkable warmth towards the Duchess of Sussex during their meeting at the fashion show, greeting her with a kiss.

Receiving this affectionate acknowledgment from Wintour, the most influential woman in fashion, along with a personal embrace from Pierpaolo Piccioli, a leading figure in the industry, during his debut fashion show at Balenciaga, is undoubtedly a significant dual achievement in the fashion world.

This warm reception must be especially gratifying for the Duchess, particularly in the same week she faced widespread ridicule for awkwardly using jam-making tongs upside down on Instagram – yet another hit to her credibility as an aspiring home-influencing personality.

Despite her careful efforts to present herself as a kind of understated Martha Stewart prototype, wrapped in beige cashmere, the Duchess’s lifestyle brand, As Ever, has yet to make a significant impact on the broader public.

So does her Paris trip mean that the Duchess is set on developing a new direction within the vituperatively competitive world of couture?

 As we shall see, this is a distinct possibility, despite the obvious incoherence in having a business brand based on a cosy domestic goddess image and being a high-end fashionista.

More disquietingly, though, sources close to the Duke and Duchess have indicated to me that Meghan’s choice of the French capital for her latest ‘relaunch’ has caused them deep concern.

Certainly, their appearance on Thursday night in New York, where they were named ‘Humanitarians of the Year’ at the Project Healthy Minds gala will not have helped.

They arrived hand in hand, with Meghan in an Armani power suit. But although the former actress shot a number of soupy glances in her husband’s direction, he looked largely furious, and his occasional smiles were tight little grimaces.

Granted, when on stage they were talking about their ‘crusade’ against online harm to children, but both looked utterly miserable. 

Harry glared, lips pursed, Meghan looked uncomfortable at best.

What’s not in any doubt is that Meghan is continuing to forge her own path, professionally.

To recap on her Paris trip, the Duchess showed up in the French capital on Saturday, striding through the assembled crowds in a voluminous white ensemble created for her by Italian designer Pierpaolo Piccioli.

After watching his debut for Balenciaga and documenting her visit for her 4.2million followers on Instagram, she was filmed on her way back from the Balenciaga after-show party.

The video started in the back of her chauffeur-driven limo travelling alongside the Seine by night, and showed the vehicle passing the Pont Alexandre III bridge. It then continued on towards the Pont de l’Alma bridge as Meghan lifted her feet, elegantly clad in Balenciaga’s £745 ‘Knife’ heels, on to the seat opposite her.

Extraordinarily, this was a parallel journey to that made by Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, who died in the tunnel of the same Pont de l’Alma bridge, on her final night in August 1997.

Some have told me of their shock at the seeming tactlessness of using this route for the Duchess’s publicity purposes.

Because Paris, to put it mildly, is not a neutral location for Harry.

One perfectly placed source says they are ‘so astonished’ at all this because both Meghan and Harry have turned down numerous invitations to attend events in Paris over recent years.

The reason given, I’m told, is always the same – that city’s association with the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales. 

A source told me there was always a hard line from him – a total, blanket ‘No’. Harry, they said, would consistently make it clear that he would not go to Paris, because of his mother.

I’m told by the same source: ‘Meghan would explain when asked: ‘I cannot go to Paris because of H’s mom.’

And yet suddenly here she is.

When it comes to Meghan, say a number of former friends, nothing happens by accident.

One friend of Harry’s told me: ‘She’s driving around in that city where his mother died. She knows exactly what she is doing!’

Their view is that the visit said much about Meghan’s ‘need’ for attention, and they wonder what’s going on with her and Harry. 

Harry, for his part, has previously spoken about the deep emotions the route across Paris triggers for him. In his 2023 memoir, Spare, he recalls driving through the same tunnel while at the 2007 Rugby World Cup semi-final when he was 23. 

To visit the place where his mother died re-opened the wounds of trauma.

He wrote: ‘I’d told myself that I wanted closure, but I didn’t really. 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 [relating to her death] – 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 spokesman for the Duchess told her favoured outlet, People magazine, that she was brought to Paris through pure and simple admiration for Piccioli.

The spokesman said: ‘Over the years, the Duchess has worn a number of designs by Pierpaolo. They have worked closely together, collaborating 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.’

She has indeed worn Valentino, his previous label, a number of times, although she has worn other designers more – including American label Ralph Lauren and French label Givenchy, who made her wedding dress.

So perhaps it’s not surprising that some associates are not buying this official explanation.

One said: ‘Harry must have been sick from trauma and worry. I simply cannot understand it.’

She was supported on the trip by her best friend Markus Anderson, global membership director of Soho House, who has known her since before Harry; make-up artist Daniel Martin – a regular on her With Love, Meghan, show – and hairdresser Ben Skervin who created that severe bun on the night.

Royal PR guru and communicator Richard Fitzwilliams spoke for many when he called her trip and the post on Instagram ‘insensitive beyond belief’.

He also suggested Prince Harry – who recently visited the UK, and saw his father, King Charles, for the first time in 16 months – 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 remains to be seen if Harry puts in an appearance on Tuesday next week, when Meghan is due to speak at Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women event in Washington, DC. One suspects not.

One associate said: ‘They want different things and there are times when it is really not great. I mean, really not great at all.’

Next week’s Most Powerful Women event is interesting, too, as it yet again positions Meghan as a ‘female founder’ (of what, beyond a jam line, the cynic in one can’t help but wonder) and helps her to network with very wealthy businesswomen.

Perhaps we are seeing the influence of Meredith Maines, her PR chief, who was hired in February this year from Lightspeed Venture Partners. 

With a background in business PR, she seems to be the hand-guiding Meghan towards interviews and events with outlets such as the business website Bloomberg and Forbes Magazine, and away from the rather riskier publications like The New York Times’ snooty mag The Cut, which infamously interviewed Meghan and found her insufferable on several levels.

The Cut interviewer notoriously included quotes from the Duchess in which she compared herself to Nelson Mandela, recounting how she was told South Africans danced in the street when she and Harry exited the Royal Family.

The interview the Duchess gave in the summer to Bloomberg was rather different, and spoke of her possibly moving into fashion and beauty. 

Asked: ‘What’s on the horizon?’ she gave a scattershot answer. ‘I mean, there’s speculation… Oh gosh. I’m open to the possibilities of what can happen.

‘Certainly in the expansion of As Ever, I would not put beauty or fashion out of the mix. I think those are things that people associate with me and it’s categories that I really love.

‘I just wanted to start with something that felt a little bit closer to home.’

But a source tells me: ‘The Bloomberg interview [in August] was odd because it felt as if Meghan had no idea what she was talking about. She said that everyone associates her with fashion, and that’s not the case.

‘She has given quite a few print interviews in her career and more often than not they are a disaster.

‘It’s not her best medium, she doesn’t tend to come across very well.’

Despite this, a well placed source says the word is she is currently involved in putting together a cover for a glossy magazine, maybe Vogue.

An obvious explanation, then, would be that the Paris trip was necessary for that media commitment.

Perhaps the cover story is ‘Meghan takes Paris’ – and the idea of that kind of prestigious media hit was simply too tempting for her to overthink Harry’s feelings.

But away from her marriage, where does the Duchess’s Paris sojourn leave her main business concern, As Ever?

According to one friend: ‘At the moment she is literally lost because the whole jam making business did not work out in the way she thought it would.

‘Nobody has seen any figures, but I don’t think they are that good.

‘I know they just released a Sauvignon Blanc, but it’s not going to make her lots of money because Netflix owns the business.’

This would be disputed by Meghan, but certainly the streamer is an investor and will be taking a big slice of any profits. It is also heavily involved in running the business as Meghan, despite her talk of being a ‘female founder’, is entirely inexperienced in commerce.

In her Bloomberg interview in August, she confirms that she has no backers other than Netflix for As Ever and is not seeking others.

Asked why not raise money on her own and have more control – and potentially make more money – she revealed: ‘That had been my plan, and I thought that it would be great just to build out my own team and really do it purely on my terms.

‘But then I also would say Netflix made a really compelling sell.’

The vision for the brand is – says Meghan – for it ‘not to feel generic’ and ‘to be something that people feel excited to have in their home’ and to gift.

Her endless mantra is that she wants the sale of tea, jam and wine to be ‘joyful’.

She foresees a shift out of direct to consumer online sales and getting the brand into ‘the right retail partners that make sense’.

Foods might go to one retailer and homewares (not yet for sale) to another.

I understand that mid-range retail stores Target, Bristol Farms and Williams Sonoma have been discussed already.

A friend reveals: ‘She just wants to make money, she wants to be a billionaire. The trouble is, she doesn’t know how.’

And you have to wonder – is her husband Harry on the same page?