Meghan has no idea how ridiculous her Instagram post on the LA wildfires is

meghan markle
Meghan Markle told her 1.6 million followers how she had enlisted Billie Eilish to help a teenager devastated by LA fires

Very cruelly, a lot of people accuse Meghan Markle of being fake, artificial, insincere. I, however, think those people are wrong. I think she means every word she says.

But that’s the problem. She’s so madly earnest, she has no idea how ridiculous she sounds.

For a perfect illustration of what I mean, watch the video Meghan’s just made for her Instagram account about the devastating LA wildfires. While visiting the Altadena area a few weeks ago, she informs her 1.6 million followers, that she and Harry got talking to a mother and teenage daughter whose home had been reduced to ashes. These poor people had lost everything. Naturally, Meghan was determined to do everything in her power to help them.

So she immediately asked her top showbiz friends to put her in touch with the pop singer Billie Eilish, to replace the official Billie Eilish T-shirt that the daughter had lost in the fire.

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Squealing excitedly, Meghan shows her followers what’s just arrived in the post. Yes, Billie Eilish has sent a signed T-shirt! And not only that: she’s sent a copy of her latest album and even an official Billie Eilish lunchbox, too!

“This is going to mean so much to her!” wails Meghan, ecstatically. She then gushingly thanks her celebrity pal Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine, and his wife, a model, “for helping get this over the line… I’m going to go and email her mom now. Just wanted to share that with you guys…”

Again: I’ve got no doubt that Meghan means well. But it just doesn’t seem to occur to her how bonkers her video is. A T-shirt, for a girl who’s just lost her home? What’s she meant to do? Stick a couple of poles in it, and use it as a tent? And what’s she going to play the album on? Since it’s signed, I suppose she could sell it. Then she could afford a proper tent. And use the T-shirt as a night dress.

Obviously it’s still a nice gesture. I’m sure this teenage girl is indeed a fan of Billie Eilish. At the same time, though, there’s something a tiny bit odd about a multimillionaire duchess making such a big song and dance about managing to procure a few bits of pop merchandise – and then hastily making a video for Instagram about it, to ensure that the entire world gets to hear about her selfless generosity. Meghan could have just sorted out the T-shirt, then posted it to the girl, without alerting everyone else on the planet to this momentous act of philanthropy. Yet, for whatever reason, she simply couldn’t resist letting us all know what she’d done.

God bless you, Meghan. But as humanitarian relief efforts go, it’s not quite Live Aid.