A solo visit to the French capital by the Duchess of Sussex was always going to be redolent of another woman, another time.
Just the very presence of Meghan, in Paris, flashbulbs popping, her monochrome elegance and that dazzling diamond engagement ring – crafted using gems from the jewellery collection of the mother-in-law she never knew – was enough.
But then, ever the influencer, Meghan went further.
Having made a star appearance, striding through the assembled crowds in dazzling white at Paris Fashion Week to take her seat for Italian designer Pierpaolo Piccioli’s debut for Balenciaga, she decided to document her visit for her 4.2million followers on Instagram.
The first video posted to her ‘story’ was the amuse-bouche to whet the appetite of fans – a cryptic teaser of a pair of chic black stilettos, click-clacking across a glossy floor, to the strains of the Gallic track Viens On Essaie, by Vitaa and Julien Dore, the lyrics of which translate to ‘Come on, let’s give it a try’.
Later on Saturday evening, there was another video, seconds in duration, but documenting a journey that will be, for anyone older than 40 (Meghan is 44), immediately poignant.
The clip, presumably filmed by Meghan herself on her way back from the Balenciaga after-show party, starts in the back of her chauffeur-driven car as it whizzes along the banks of the Seine by night.
We see the Pont Alexandre III bridge and then the vehicle continues on towards the Pont de l’Alma bridge as Meghan lifts her feet, elegantly clad in Balenciaga’s £745 ‘Knife’ heels, on to the seat opposite her.
Meghan has been criticised over a video shared on her Instagram page after she left a Paris Fashion Show Week (pictured) on Saturday night
The short clip showed her putting her feet up while being driven through the French capital
Critics have noted that after she passed Paris’s Pont Alexandre III bridge (pictured), she was heading towards nearby Pont d’Alma – close to where Princess Diana died in 1997
Did Meghan, who married Prince Harry in 2018, realise that this was a parallel journey – separated by the flowing waters of the Seine – to that followed by her husband’s mother on her fateful 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.
Prince Harry’s mother Diana (pictured in New York in 1996) was killed in a Paris car crash in August 1997 at the age of 36
Meghan was making a surprise appearance at Womenswear Spring Summer 2026 during her first visit to Europe since attending the 2023 Invictus Games in Düsseldorf, Germany
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.
Meghan wore head-to-toe Balenciaga – a white silk button-down shirt, matching trousers and a striking white cape; her black heels peeking out below
A royal expert has said Harry could take a dim view of Meghan Markle’s Diana crash tunnel video. Pictured: The couple in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London, after the announcement of their engagement
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.
Pictured: Princess Diana attending a dinner in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital at the Foundation Claude Pompidou in Paris, France in 1995
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.
