She’s shown that she’s willing to do whatever’s necessary to help her on her way – perhaps never more so than in her role on game show Deal Or No Deal, which she graced as a scantily clad ‘briefcase model’.
So she’ll be untroubled by the vituperation heaped on the second season of her Netflix show, With Love, Meghan – summarised by one critic as ‘a series in search of a meaning, fronted by a woman in need of some cash’.
But might Meghan Sussex heed the words of an old friend, if only because, as has been pointed out, this new series is ‘all about friendship’?
I ask because one former chum has taken the opportunity to offer her some bracing home truths. Model-turned-television and radio presenter Lizzie Cundy, who first met the future Duchess of Sussex in 2013 at a London charity event, warns that her one-time friend urgently needs to start afresh.
‘It doesn’t matter how many pots of jam she makes, she has to stop pretending. She’s not [lifestyle guru] Martha Stewart,’ says Cundy, who found Meghan ‘really fun, really sweet’ on first acquaintance. Meghan should ‘be who she is’, says the 57-year-old, who has previously recalled how, at their first meeting, Meghan asked her if she knew ‘any famous guys’, explaining that she was single and ‘really loved’ English men.
But the trouble is, adds Cundy, that Meghan can’t relax as she did in her early 30s because of how unfavourably she’s compared with the Princess of Wales.
‘She’s fuming how the public love Kate. She needs to stop being bitter, stop being angry and stop being “poor me”,’ reflects Cundy, whom Meghan ditched after she became involved with Prince Harry.
She advises Meghan to ‘take a leaf out of Kate’s book’.
But that might be too bitter a pill for her to swallow…
The Duchess of Sussex on her Netflix show With Love, Meghan
Lying in a coffin for Channel 4’s The Inheritance may seem beneath a star of Elizabeth Hurley’s talents.
Yet the actress reveals such scenes were a lifesaver. ‘I have a bad back,’ Liz tells me. ‘So I’ve always longed for scenes where I lie down, and love scenes in bed because it means I can just lie down all day without having to wear uncomfortable shoes.’
Princess is a real-life fairy godmother
King Charles’s goddaughter, Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark, has often described His Majesty as ‘the best godfather’.
And now Olympia, the only daughter of Crown Prince Pavlos and his wife, Marie-Chantal Miller, is proving to be a trusted godparent herself.
The model, 29, held her godson, Robert Theodore Getty, the baby son of her cousin, heir Robert Maximilian Getty and his wife, Anna, during his baptism service in the Hamptons in New York.
Olympia wore a cream dress in the picture shared online by her father.
King Charles’s goddaughter, Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark, and her godson, Robert Theodore Getty
STAR WARS legend Mark Hamill believes stars should ditch their egos. He tells me: ‘There’s this joke about old actors getting a script and not reading it in its entirety, but going “bulls***, bulls***, my line”, and I just think, don’t be that actor. Read the script and know everybody’s part.’
There was an especially poignant moment on Monday when friends of Frederick Forsyth, including Jesus Of Nazareth star Robert Powell and his wife, Babs, gathered for a lunch at Forsyth’s local, The Jolly Cricketers, on what would have been his 87th birthday.
The Day Of The Jackal author, who died in June, had one unfulfilled ambition – to become the oldest ever celebrity contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, 23 years after his previous appearance, when, paired with Gloria Hunniford, he won a record £250,000.
As I disclosed earlier this year, Forsyth was told that no more ‘celebrity’ editions of the show were being made. But later, he was sent an invitation to apply to compete in the ‘normal’ version – ‘just weeks after he died’, one of his chums tells me.
Annabel gets carried away at son’s big day
Annabel Croft avoided doing any dance lift routines during her stint on Strictly Come Dancing, but she was up for being lifted to new heights at her son Charlie Coleman’s wedding to Boodles heiress Honour Wainwright over the bank holiday weekend.
In a picture posted online, the tennis star-turned-presenter, 59, above, could be seen being carried on the shoulders of a male guest during the wedding reception at Honour’s family home in Hampshire.
‘Can’t say I’ve ever danced on someone’s shoulders before, I thought I was too old for that,’ says Croft.
Annabel Croft’s son, Charlie, and his new brige, Honour Wainwright, cutting the cake at their wedding
Raye: My drugs battle
Pop star Raye performs onstage during All Points East at Victoria Park in London
Pop star Raye’s ‘dangerous’ battle with substance abuse saw her addicted to cocaine, marijuana and codeine. But now the singer, who scooped six Brit Awards last year, says therapy has helped her speak openly about her path to sobriety.
‘I think I’m doing alright in the therapy process of opening up and letting things go,’ the London-born singer revealed while performing at the All Points East festival in London’s Victoria Park.
Raye, real name Rachel Keen, added: ‘I think that the subject of addictions is a very common experience, but it’s quite awkward to talk about illegal addictions as a woman in this day and age, in my humble opinion.’
