Meghan Sussex kicked off 2026 with a handcrafted leather bookmark from her As Ever brand. Priced at $18, it sold out in minutes, with fans scrambling to get their hands on something both practical and beautiful.
Meanwhile, across the moat, the British press was caught breathlessly reporting that Kate Middleton will wear a tiara again this year, likely at a state banquet in March. Yes, you read that correctly: in a country where women juggle careers, childcare, bills, and the occasional existential dread, the act of putting a sparkly hat on one’s head is being heralded as a milestone worthy of national coverage. (Even this, it must be noted, was tied back to Harry and Meghan.)
This isn’t about Meghan versus Kate. Neither woman, presumably, asked to be cast as rivals in the tabloids’ misogynistic pantomime. The problem is the press, the way it insists on holding up tiaras as “achievements” while ignoring the actual graft, creativity, and resilience that define women’s actual, real lives.
Imagine telling a nurse finishing a 12‑hour shift, a mother managing three school runs and a part‑time job, or a woman running her own business that the pinnacle of female achievement is accessorising. “Aren’t you clever, balancing a tiara without it slipping into your soup,” is pretty patronising, to say the least.
The absurdity is heightened when you consider Meghan’s bookmark. A small, thoughtful object designed to help people carve out moments of rest and reflection, it sold out in minutes because it resonated with actual lives. Women bought it not because it symbolised status, but because it was useful, beautiful, and made with care. Compare that to the press’s tiara obsession: a spectacle staged for cameras, a bauble that does nothing except remind us that the establishment still clings to the idea that women are ornaments.
The fixation on tiaras is the press’s way of saying, “We’ve got nothing else.” No policy triumphs, no cultural renaissance, just the promise that a woman will wear jewellery at dinner. It reduces women to decorative props. For working women, it’s laughable; for stay‑at‑home mothers, it’s insulting. Both groups know the real achievements are surviving the school holidays, negotiating flexible hours, or finally finding five minutes to read a book … perhaps with Meghan’s sold‑out bookmark tucked inside.
Come on, Britain, we’re better than this. Surely even the most gammon-y of you will concede that British women achieve much greater things than accessorising. I’m not saying wearing jewelry is wrong, just that holding it up as some sort of achievement probably is. If she’d actually made it, I’d be impressed.
Some will argue that tiaras are tradition. But tradition without substance is just costume. And if Britain’s national pride rests on whether Kate Middleton wears a tiara, then we’ve truly lost the plot. Women deserve better than being told their worth lies in how well they sparkle under the chandelier.
Let’s celebrate women for what they do, not what they wear. Let’s applaud the nurse, the teacher, the entrepreneur, the mother, the artist, the carer, the sportswoman. And let’s have a big old laugh at the idea that tiaras are achievements, because laughter, to be fair, is the only sane response.
And let’s curl up in embarrassment that in 2026, an American entrepreneur sold out a bookmark in minutes, while Britain congratulated itself on a hat.