Telegraph:
‘Most of us, when faced with an invitation to a party from a former boss with whom we have a somewhat fractious relationship, would either skip it entirely or awkwardly exchange a few words of small talk before moving on to friendlier faces.
But most of us are not Meghan Markle. On Saturday night, she and Prince Harry attended a star-studded Montecito shindig thrown by Ted Sarandos, the Netflix co-chief executive, and his wife Nicole Avant, the former US ambassador to the Bahamas.
Despite rumours that Sarandos had partially cut ties with the pair, Meghan looked to the outside world as if she was spending time with her most beloved friends. Pictures show her laughing uproariously with Sarandos and holding hands with and later hugging Avant – and all while stepping back from her usual luxury neutrals in a bold olive green silk dress by Heidi Merrick and high-heeled Jimmy Choo sandals.
The couples were once genuinely close. The Netflix-Sussex relationship could not have had a better start when, in 2020, the Duke and Duchess signed a five-year deal worth $100m (£75m) with the streaming giant via their production company, Archewell. Montecito-based Sarandos was one of the executives driving the “big talent land grab” strategy but aside from the successful 2022 Harry & Meghan documentary, there has been little to see from the exceptionally large pay-out.
Shows such as Archewell-produced Live to Lead and Polo were released to almost no fanfare while a children’s programme called Pearl, which was spearheaded by Meghan, was cancelled before it even hit our screens. Last year, Sarandos chose not to renew their deal but continued to produce With Love, Meghan – the Duchess of Sussex’s much-parodied flower-arranging and baking show. At first, As Ever – Meghan’s jam-producing lifestyle brand that evolved from the series – was also tied to Netflix, but now it is “standing on its own”.
In February this year, Sarandos also reportedly unfollowed As Ever on Instagram, as did his creative chief, Bela Bajaria. Both Sarandos and the Sussexes have been keen to stress that there are no issues in their working relationship – and one way to prove that is by being photographed hugging at a party.
‘Beloved friends’:
The couple is also now said to be helping Netflix develop a scripted drama series set in Florida following the lives of two rival polo-playing families, so perhaps that was the reason for the beatific smiles at Saturday’s event.
Either way, it was unusual to see the Duchess of Sussex in chartreuse – a bold colour given that her fashion palette is usually made up of black, cream, brown or beige.
Meghan would argue that this preference for neutrals was partly born from her time in the British Royal family. In the Harry & Meghan documentary, she said, “Most of the time that I was in the UK, I rarely wore colour … To my understanding, you can’t ever wear the same colour as Her Majesty… but then you also shouldn’t be wearing the same colour as one of the other more senior members of the family... So I was like, ‘Well, what’s a colour that they’ll probably never wear? Camel? Beige? White? I wore a lot of muted tones so I could just blend in. Like, I’m not trying to stand out here.”
Of course, there have been exceptions to this rule – most notably in early 2020, after the couple had announced that they planned to step back from royal duties. Meghan’s array of rainbow-coloured outfits in that period included a bright blue Victoria Beckham dress at the Endeavour Fund Awards, a bold red Safiyaa gown at the Mountbatten Festival and an emerald green Emilia Wickstead cape dress at Commonwealth Day.
At the time, commenters were keen to label this shift to look-at-me primary colours “revenge dressing” – after the time when Princess Diana wore a skin-tight off-the-shoulder gown by Christina Stambolian to the Serpentine Gallery summer party on the same night that Prince Charles admitted to infidelity on television. While the stakes this time around aren’t quite as high – nor the dress quite as eye-catching – one could argue the same for Saturday’s party. Her lucrative partnership with Netflix may have taken a turn, but clearly nobody was going to put Meghan in the corner.
The gathering was also what Netflix described as a “Tastemaker event” in celebration of the release of season two of the streamer’s acclaimed series Beef, this time starring Carey Mulligan. As well as Mulligan, stars at the party included Orlando Bloom, his ex-wife Katy Perry and her new boyfriend Justin Trudeau, the former Canadian prime minister, as well as actors Oscar Isaac and John Corbett.
Nearly all the other guests were in neutrals and Prince Harry wore a simple navy blue suit and white shirt without a tie. The only exception was Mulligan, who also wore a chartreuse dress in a remarkably similar shade to Meghan’s. One unsubstantiated social media thread claimed that the dress code for the party was black and white and that the aim was to allow Mulligan to stand out in olive green – but there is no evidence to prove this is true.
Either way, if Meghan’s intention was to ensure all eyes were on her, she certainly achieved her goal.’