Rebecca English Calls Meghan ‘Fergie’ — But Ignores Decades of Royal Pay-to-Meet Fundraisers

Rebecca English wants readers to gasp at Meghan Sussex, appearing at a £1,705 women’s retreat in Sydney, as if this is some shocking fall from grace. But the facts undercut the drama. The Her Best Life retreat is a three-day luxury event at the InterContinental Sydney Coogee Beach. The package includes two nights’ accommodation, meals, wellness sessions, a gala dinner and, for VIP guests, premium seating and a group photo. People also reported that the Australia events connected to the visit include support for Lifeline Naarm, a 24/7 crisis support and suicide prevention service. That is not the same thing as Meghan personally charging fans for a handshake. 

English’s piece leans hard on the sneer that Meghan is “basically Fergie now,” complete with anonymous palace chatter and the usual fixation on whether the Sussexes are earning enough money in the “right” way. It is the same old script played out yet again by the established media. Meghan does an event for women, mental health and community, and the British tabloids instantly turn it into a morality play about status, decline and cash. The coverage is especially telling because Meghan did not create this retreat. She is appearing as a guest speaker at an event run by Her Best Life, which markets the full weekend as a luxury package rather than a bare ticket for access to one person.

The outrage looks very selective

The British press insists that paying for access to royals is tacky only when Meghan is the one in the room. That is nonsense. In 2014, the Mail on Sunday itself reported that wealthy couples were paying $50,000, about £32,000, to attend a private New York fundraiser involving Prince William and Kate Middleton, with “cash for access” concerns openly discussed in the story. Years earlier, The Telegraph reported that Santa Barbara polo club members were being tapped for more than £60,000 to play polo alongside Prince William during the California tour. 

That history is important. The British press brands Meghan tacky for appearing at a luxury retreat while describing similar royal fundraising events as philanthropy. The structure is familiar. When Windsor insiders do it, it is charity. When Meghan is in the room, it suddenly becomes desperate. That double standard is hard to miss. 

Meghan gets judged more harshly for the same model

The retreat pricing has also been stripped of context. The official event page makes clear that attendees are buying a full weekend experience: hotel stay, food, drinks, yoga, sound healing, speaker sessions and the gala dinner. The VIP tier adds front-row seating, a group table photo and a premium room. That is expensive, yes. It is also exactly how luxury retreats work. English flattens all of that into “Meet Meghan,” because the point is not accuracy. The point is to make Meghan look grasping. 

People’s reporting also placed Meghan’s appearance alongside Harry’s keynote at the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit in Melbourne, where proceeds likewise support Lifeline Naarm. The broader Australia visit has been described as including private, business and philanthropic engagements. That context matters because the tabloid version depends on readers forgetting that the Sussexes now operate outside the taxpayer-funded royal model and often mix advocacy, media and philanthropy in the same public-facing projects. 

Rebecca English writes this under a very awkward cloud

There is also another reason Rebecca English’s outrage lands a little awkwardly. Prince Harry is currently suing Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, over allegations of unlawful information gathering. According to Reuters, the claimants accuse the company of maintaining a long-running culture of using private investigators and other questionable methods to obtain private information, claims the publisher strongly denies.

When your own employer is defending its reporting practices in the High Court, lectures about Meghan Sussex’s “optics” and “dignity” begin to feel a bit offensively misplaced. Meanwhile, the outrage English is trying to manufacture sits within a broader pattern. The British press has long treated elite royal fundraising events, private donor dinners and exclusive patron gatherings as perfectly respectable philanthropy.

But when Meghan appears at an event organised by someone else, the same press suddenly performs a forensic audit of her motives and finances.

At some point, the pattern becomes obvious. The tabloids are comfortable when money flows around the royal institution. What unsettles them is when someone who stepped outside it succeeds anyway. And that, not a women’s retreat in Sydney, is the real reason the outrage machine keeps spinning.