The Met Gala is fashion's biggest night. Held at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, it's a red-carpet roll call of who's in (and who's out).
Earlier this month, the A-list turned out in force: Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Rihanna, Zoë Kravitz, Margot Robbie, Blake Lively, Madonna - the list goes on.
But there was one name missing - Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex.
It was hugely surprising on two counts. The first because she's just launched herself as a fashion influencer (selling her 'look' online), and the second because two of her besties, Katy Perry and Serena Williams, were also there.
What better way to advertise her brand than by hobnobbing with the great, the good and every fashion designer worth their sequins?
But I believe the reason she wasn't invited is that she's reportedly upset the most powerful woman in fashion: Dame Anna Wintour, Vogue supremo and inspiration for The Devil Wears Prada.
Anna is a huge royalist, supported the King and Queen on their US state visit and was reportedly not amused by Meghan and Harry's bashing of the Royal Family.
It's she who is responsible for the guest list (incidentally, she has invited the Princess of Wales several times, but Kate has always gracefully declined) and she did not extend an invitation to Meghan.
'Meghan's spiralling because she knows nothing is working'
And that's not the only door that's shutting. It was once rumoured that Meghan was hopeful of high-end fashion house Dior signing her (for big bucks) as an ambassador, but that did not happen.
And despite Meghan inviting herself to Balenciaga's Paris show last autumn, with her spokespeople gushing that she was a long-time friend of creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, that brand has not signed her either.
One source said, '[Harry and Meghan] have truly lost the plot. I hear she's spiralling badly because she knows nothing is working. The whole thing about her [As Ever] stuff selling out isn't true any more. I don't think either of them are happy.'
I'm told other high-profile friends who could have helped them have also walked away due to their unfortunate habit of falling out with everyone.
Persona non grata status
Netflix chief Ted Sarandos was said to have 'grown weary' of the couple and, according to Hollywood bible Variety, reportedly said he would not sit for a call with Meghan without a lawyer on the line (Netflix has denied this).
Even when he and wife Nicole Avant posed for pictures with Meghan at a Netflix event, after the unflattering Variety piece, many of them mysteriously disappeared from the picture agency. Word on the street was that Meghan was unhappy with how she looked.
Pictures, again, were a source of dispute with the über-influential Kardashians.
After Kim and her mum Kris Jenner posted, then deleted, pictures of Harry and Meghan at Kris' 70th birthday party, the Kardashians were said to be furious about the Sussex briefings that they had not agreed to public pictures.
The reality was that Harry was unhappy because it was Remembrance Day weekend in the UK, and he worried that it looked disrespectful to be partying while all the other royals were solemnly remembering our war dead at the Royal Albert Hall.
As if to cement their persona non grata status, the couple were absent from all of King Charles' engagements in America.
President Trump reinforced their unpopularity when he said that there are 'too many things' stopping Harry returning to the family fold, adding, 'That wife of his. Boy, what she's done to that guy.'
'They really need the money'
Another source in their orbit claims the pair are 'wildly unhappy'. It's clear that many of their projects have not gone to plan. Perhaps they want different things work-wise?
Harry reportedly even wants to move to the solitude of Montana. Meghan is carefully watching their spend, while Harry is thought to lack 'basic awareness' of what things cost, having been brought up in a palace with no bills to pay.
I've reported before on their expensive lifestyle - and how they've recently gutted their Sussex operation. From 16 full-time staff, they are now down to a chief of staff each, a charity consultant, two TV executives, a communications chief in the UK and a press agency, Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis, in the USA.
It's ironic that apparently one of the main reasons Meghan wanted to leave the UK was that she discovered that Prince William would ultimately fund them. Once she found out that, as King, William would be responsible for how much money they received, she apparently wanted out.
But Harry clearly misses the UK, his family and being a working royal. As I reported last week, he still thinks he is one, yet is making a buck at the same time. The path appears to be set - 'working royal' engagements plus commercial ventures that will lean on their status.
For, as one associate said, 'They don't have a choice at this point. They really need the money.'
