Royal Watch

Inside Meghan Markle’s $200k Manhattan Baby Shower

The duchess’s close friend Serena Williams is footing the bill for a blowout that includes a flower-arranging lesson and dessert tasting with Jean-Georges.
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Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, seen leaving The Surrey on February 19, 2019 in Manhattanby James Devaney/GC Images.

When it was clear that the Duchess of Sussex had made it to N.Y.C., the only question left was, how luxe would her baby shower be? With Serena Williams’s help, Meghan Markle is having a baby shower for the ages Wednesday, including a flower-arranging lesson and multi-dessert meal.

The duchess, who is seven months pregnant, is enjoying a break with some of her closest friends—the ones she hung around before her wedding—before she heads to Morocco later this week for an official trip with the duke. Since arriving in New York, she has enjoyed tea and macarons at her favorite SoHo bakery, Ladurée, a spot of shopping for baby clothing at Bonpoint, a trip to the Met Breuer museum, and a long lunch at the Surrey hotel.

The paparazzi shots of her leaving the hotel, where crowds of onlookers had gathered, were reminiscent of the pictures we used to see of Meghan before she became a royal, albeit with a slightly bigger security entourage. A team of five bodyguards, including State Department security, are in charge of protecting the duchess. In oversize sunglasses and black, Meghan looked thrilled to be stepping back into her old stilettos.

By having a shower at all, she is embracing an American tradition despite her new Anglophile life. Those close to Meghan point out that the baby shower is yet another way of her showing that she plans to do things her own way, royal or not. “As an American, she was very excited to have a baby shower thrown for her. I think she’d have felt she was missing out if she didn’t have one,” says a source. “It’s been such a fun time for her, she is with her oldest friends in the city she loves and really enjoying herself.”

While the duchess was reported to have celebrated her baby shower Tuesday, the party is actually taking place Wednesday at the Upper East Side hotel the Mark. The celebration was organized by Williams, who has apparently booked out the penthouse suite, which is spread over two floors and features five bedrooms, four fire places, six bathrooms, and two powder rooms, plus views over Central Park.

Among the guests will be newly engaged Misha Nonoo and Meghan’s best friend, stylist Jessica Mulroney, who flew to New York from L.A. earlier this week. According to Tatler, Williams is personally covering the cost of the $75,000-a-night room bill.

The shower will begin with a flower-arranging lesson accompanied by a dessert-tasting experience overseen by the in-house restaurant’s head chef, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Meghan’s college friend Lindsay Roth will also be at the shower along with her former co-star Abigail Spencer, Priyanka Chopra, Benita Litt, and Markus Anderson.

The duchess is understood to have flown out to the U.S. on a private jet, which is estimated to have cost over $100,000. However, the plane belongs to one of Meghan’s close friends in Toronto, who covered the cost as a present for Meghan. No wonder the duchess has held on to her generous friends.

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