Meghan Markle's Hollywood A-list wedding guests were friends she 'wanted to recruit', royal insider claims
It was the celebrity event of the year when Prince Harry and Meghan said 'I do' in May 2018.
But while royal weddings are often a who's who of A-listers, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex 's matrimony had more of a tinsel town sparkle than any previous union.
George and Amal Clooney, the cast of Suits and Oprah Winfrey were just some of the Hollywood guests in St George's Chapel.
Although many famous faces from across the pond were there as friends of Meghan, it has been claimed that the duchess was not very chummy with the stars.
The attendants were not Meghan's nearest and dearest but rather the friends she 'most wanted to recruit', royal insider Tina Brown wrote in her book The Palace Papers.
'The celebrity guests were a portrait not of Meghan's intimate circle but of the friends she most wanted to recruit,' Brown said.
Even Oprah had 'scarcely met' Meghan before the big day and when columnist Rachel Johnson asked the Clooneys how they knew Meghan, the couple replied: 'We don't.'
Since Harry and Meghan stood down as working royals in 2020, the duchess has struggled to recruit the friends she was so keen to make.
George and Amal Clooney at Harry and Meghan's wedding. They were just some of the A-list celebrities at the ceremony
Amal attended Meghan's lavish £221,000 New York baby shower in 2019. However, in recent years the lawyer has only deepened her ties with royals by launching the Amal Clooney Women's Empowerment Award with the King's Trust.
After her notorious interview with Oprah in 2021 - when the duchess opened up about her mental health struggles and claimed a member of the Firm asked about Archie's skin colour - it does not appear the pair have been in contact much since.
And Oprah was not one of the guests Meghan booked for her Netflix series With Love, Meghan.
Indeed, the calibre of stars on the lifestyle programme lacked much of the Hollywood glamour the duchess attempted to project at her wedding.
Meghan is said to have struggled to book some of her more famous friends for the show, which launched in March.
Viewers had expected her to bring in the likes of Montecito neighbour Oprah, tennis superstar Serena Williams and filmmaker Tyler Perry - who is godfather to Princess Lilibet.
The Duchess could instead only muster up Suits co-star Abigail Spencer, Delfina Figueras - socialite wife of Harry's polo-playing chum Nacho - and chef Roy Choi.
The biggest stars to appear were Harry himself - restricted to a couple of minutes of the final episode in the eight-part series - and US Office actress, writer and producer Mindy Kaling, who appears in the second episode.
A source told The Sun: 'They struggled to book guests. They had a real hard time, and it shows.'
Hopes had been high for the series after Meghan's earlier creative projects featured a host of top-tier stars.
Short-lived podcast Archetypes - which lasted 12 episodes across three months - featured Serena, Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton and Superbad filmmaker Judd Apatow.
And Harry & Meghan, the Sussexes' first Netflix project, featured Perry and Serena, the latter talking about attending the Sussexes' wedding.
But Netflix executives are alleged to have been underwhelmed by the couple's output, from docuseries Heart of Invictus through to Harry's recent series Polo, which featured very little of the duke at all.
While Serena Williams did not appear in With Love, Meghan, she did take to Instagram to give it a shout-out.
She wrote: 'I'm so excited for you to check out WITH LOVE, MEGHAN, now streaming exclusively on Netflix!
'Join my wonderful friend @meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, as she opens up her world and shares her personal tips for the kitchen, garden, and so much more.
'It's a fun and inspiring series that reminds us all how easy it is to bring a little beauty into our everyday lives, even when we least expect it. Can't wait for you to experience it!'
With Love, Meghan cracked Netflix's 'Top 10' in the UK after one day, reaching number six in the charts.
However it has been critically panned, with just a 33 per cent approval rating from professional critics according to aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
In her Mail+ review, Amanda Platell branded it 'so awful it is almost compelling', while Hollywood bible Variety panned the series as 'a Montecito ego trip not worth taking'.
The Guardian's Chitra Ramaswamy called it 'vacuous, over styled joylessness', while the Telegraph's Anita Singh noted glibly that the format appeared to consist of Meghan 'invit(ing) people to her pretend house and they tell her how amazing she is'.
Reacting to the negative reception, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline: 'This, after the Hearts of Invictus series failed to grab viewers' attention and the Polo series predictably didn't either, is make or break for Meghan.'
He added: 'Who will watch apart from the fans? Perhaps a few stay-at-home mums who can afford the luxury which Meghan obviously worships.
'At the moment she and Harry can, too. However, after spending four hours watching a series as bad as this, one has to ask, for how much longer?'
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