It’s easy to imagine that the couple talked to Gwyneth Paltrow about the challenges of being a celebrity. Photo: TNS
For Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first public appearance since he attended King Charles III’s coronation, the renegade royals met up for a power sushi dinner this past weekend with Montecito neighbours Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz, Page Six reported.
The full group that met for dinner Friday (May 12) night at the swanky Sushi Bar in downtown Santa Barbara also included Paltrow’s TV producer husband, Brad Falchuk, Diaz’s husband, musician Benji Madden, and Whitney Wolfe Herd, the billionaire CEO and founder of Bumble, and her husband, Texas oil heir Michael Herd.
This Harry and Meghan sighting by TMZ, which first published the photos over the weekend, sparks so many questions.
What could this group be talking about? The hardships of life in Montecito? The difficulties of being rich and famous and having to deal with paparazzi photographing you as you arrive for dinner with neighbours at a local restaurant?
It’s easy to imagine that the Duke of Sussex talked to Paltrow about the challenges of being a celebrity testifying in a closely watched court trial.
Harry is expected back in London in June to testify in his phone-hacking case against the British tabloid the Daily Mirror, while Paltrow successfully defended herself in a trial in March that was live-streamed around the world.
The Oscar winner kept her cool and convinced a Utah jury she wasn’t liable in a case in which she was accused of recklessly crashing into a retired optometrist on a beginner’s ski slope in 2016.
Maybe Meghan also was seeking some advice from Paltrow about being a lifestyle influencer. Reports from The Telegraph and other outlets have speculated that the former cable TV actor wants to re-launch her food, travel and wellness site, The Tig, which she started in 2014 but shuttered after she became engaged to Harry in 2017.
The reports imagine that Meghan wants to emulate Paltrow’s success with Goop, in which the actor-turned-entrepreneur has become renowned for promoting pricey fashion and beauty products, jade eggs and dubious health advice.
It’s also possible that Paltrow entertained her fellow diners with more gossip about her pre-Brad Falchuk love life, offering up more details about the bedroom techniques of her exes Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck.
Gwyneth Paltrow and her attorney Steve Owens smile after the reading of the verdict in her lawsuit trial on March 30, 2023, in Park City, Utah. Photo: AP
Meanwhile, TMZ’s main takeaway from Harry and Meghan’s arrival at the Sushi Bar is that the Duchess of Sussex isn’t pregnant with her third child. Apparently, there have been rumours that Harry and Meghan have been trying for a third child.
TMZ said people were theorising that she skipped Charles’ May 6 coronation because she has “a bun in the oven”.
Those rumours fired up after she was seen with an odd bump around her belly when she was photographed on a hike around Montecito on the day after the coronation, which also coincided with the fourth birthday of their son, Archie.
But others said, very reasonably, that the odd bump could have been some kind of fanny pack.
The TMZ photos from Friday night’s outing show a very svelte-looking duchess, clad in a mini satin dress, arriving at the Sushi Bar. TMZ also noted that pregnant women are advised to avoid eating raw fish, which is pretty much all that’s on the menu at the Sushi Bar.
“Now that we’ve seen her leave a sushi joint – a food typically sworn off by pregnant women due to the risks it poses to a growing fetus – it feels like we can put that notion to bed,” TMZ said.
Those pregnancy theorists have apparently forgotten that Harry famously declared that he and Meghan would only have two children to help save the environment.
That vow came when Harry interviewed Dr Jane Goodall for a 2019 issue of British Vogue magazine, which Meghan guest-edited.
Harry and the esteemed primatologist were chatting about preserving the world for the next generation when the royal assured her that he and Meghan weren’t planning to have “too many” children.
“Two, maximum!” Harry said. “I’ve always thought: this place is borrowed. And, surely, being as intelligent as we all are, or as evolved as we all are supposed to be, we should be able to leave something better behind for the next generation.” – Mercury News/Tribune News Service
