Let’s be honest: when the first images dropped from Meghan Markle’s Harper’s Bazaar December 2025/January 2026 “Art Issue” cover, the collective eye-rolls could be heard from Montecito to Buckingham Palace.
Here she is again, the Duchess of Sussex, serving us what she clearly thinks is “raw authenticity” – a completely bare face (or is it that $10,000-worth-of-products “no-makeup makeup” look we’ve seen a thousand times?), moody black-and-white portraits, minimalist designer clothes, and that same intense, trying-so-hard-to-look-vulnerable stare.
And the burning question on everyone’s lips: why does this woman keep cosplaying the two princesses she spent years insisting she’s nothing like – Diana and Catherine?Because that’s exactly what this is. Yet another calculated attempt to drape herself in the iconography of the women whose places she once desperately wanted, and now seems obsessed with emulating from afar.Let’s start with the cover itself.
Meghan, seated, lips slightly parted like she’s either mid-sentence or about to sneeze (the internet has already crowned it the “bless you” cover), wearing a black silk blazer cinched with a bow, hair scraped back into a severe ponytail, no visible makeup.
The vibe? “Deep, tortured artist who’s above it all.” Except we’ve seen this exact aesthetic before – on Princess Diana’s legendary 1997 Mario Testino shoots, where Diana went fresh-faced and vulnerable to signal her liberation from the royal machine.
Remember those images? Soft lighting, natural beauty, quiet defiance. Sound familiar?And then there’s the inside spread: beige Toteme tank tops, Brunello Cucinelli trousers, The Row turtlenecks and trench coats – the uniform of Kate Middleton’s “quiet luxury” off-duty wardrobe. Catherine has built an entire global brand around looking effortlessly polished in neutral cashmere and tailored coats.
Suddenly Meghan, who spent years in Hollywood red-carpet glamour and bodycon dresses, is serving us “I just threw this on in my $14 million mansion” beige slacks and white tanks? Please. It’s not evolution; it’s imitation with worse lighting.Why does she keep doing this?Is it insecurity? Is it strategy? Is it a deliberate attempt to insert herself into the visual narrative of the two most beloved royal women of the past forty years by borrowing their most iconic looks when she needs a relevance boost?Because let’s not pretend this photoshoot happened in a vacuum. This is the same woman who wore a near-identical red cape dress to a children’s hospital visit right after Catherine’s triumphant return from chemotherapy in a similar hue. The same woman whose “revenge” looks mysteriously echo Diana’s most famous off-duty moments every single time her Netflix numbers dip or her jam sells out in 45 minutes (of mostly bots, allegedly).
The same woman who named her daughter Diana and then acts shocked when people notice the constant visual callbacks.The photos themselves are… darling, they’re dull. Moody lighting that makes her look exhausted rather than ethereal. Poses that scream “I’m deep in thought about my trauma” but somehow land at “I haven’t slept since 2018 because I’m still mad about that curtsy.” There’s one shot where she’s reclining barefoot in an armchair like she’s waiting for her therapist to validate her feelings.
Another where she’s staring into the middle distance wearing thousands of dollars in Cartier while somehow managing to look like she’s mid-argument with an invisible Netflix executive.And the bare face. Oh, the bare face. We’re supposed to believe this is brave, authentic choice when every celebrity on earth has been doing the “no-makeup makeup” look for a decade. Except when Catherine does it, it looks fresh and relatable. When Diana did it, it looked revolutionary.
When Meghan does it… it looks like she’s trying to convince us she’s both victims at once – the wronged princess (Diana) and the serene, perfect mother (Catherine) – while actually looking like a woman who’s spent six years telling us how traumatized she is but still somehow has perfect skin, perfect lighting, and a team of stylists on speed dial.The interview is somehow even worse.
She gushes that Harry loves her “so boldly, fully” (eye roll), talks about giving herself “grace” to make mistakes (which ones, exactly? The bullying allegations? The lying to Oprah? The private-jet climate lectures?), and insists her boundaries got stronger in the public eye. Boundaries? Sweetheart, you just posed barefoot for a fashion magazine while your husband’s family was at the Royal Variety Performance.
The only boundary you’ve strengthened is the one between you and reality.And can we talk about the timing? The same week Catherine – actual cancer-surviving, future Queen Catherine – stuns in burgundy at a major royal event, Meghan drops this beige snoozefest designed to scream “Look at me, I’m the real victim-princess hybrid you’ve always wanted!” It’s not subtle. It’s never subtle with her.The most telling part?
Even her fans are struggling. Scroll through the comments on Harper’s Bazaar’s Instagram post and you’ll see it: “She looks tired,” “Where’s the glow?” “This feels… off.” Even the Sussex squad is whispering that she looks “washed out” and “older than her age.” When your own cult is side-eyeing the photos, you know it’s bad.This isn’t just boring. It’s parasitic.Every time Meghan needs attention, she reaches into the royal wardrobe vault and pulls out another Diana or Catherine reference. The off-shoulder gowns. The revenge reds.
The beige neutrals. The fresh-faced vulnerability. The soft, windswept hair. It’s not homage. It’s not coincidence. It’s calculated cosplay from a woman who left the royal family but apparently can’t leave the royal brand identity alone.Diana earned her icon status through genuine suffering and real compassion. Catherine has earned hers through duty, grace under fire, and actual work. Meghan? She’s spent six years trying to buy the aesthetic wholesale while telling us she’s nothing like them.
The result? A photoshoot that doesn’t look authentic. It looks desperate.It looks like a woman who can’t decide if she wants to be Diana’s avenger, Catherine’s rival, or Hollywood’s most persecuted actress – so she’s cosplaying all three at once while somehow managing to look like none of them.
And we’re all just… tired.So here’s the real question, Meghan: when are you going to show us who YOU actually are, instead of this endless game of royal dress-up with two women who never needed to try this hard?Because right now, all this “barefaced authenticity” is showing us is a woman who’s still, six years later, completely obsessed with the royals she claims to have escaped.The irony is thicker than her alleged “no-makeup” foundation. And darling, we can see it from space.
