Meghan Markle Reportedly Skips Big Birthday Party Blowout Following Baby Shower Backlash

Meghan Markle is reportedly skipping having an elaborate birthday party, Cosmopolitan reports, in no small part because of the backlash she got from the British public and media when she threw a lavish baby shower a while back.

The Duchess of Sussex turns 38 on August 4. She’s fabulously wealthy and has a list of celebrity friends that includes movers and shakers on both sides of the Atlantic. So it would track that she’d have a big birthday blowout. Instead, says an unidentified royal source, she’s either going to keep things quiet at her new home, Frogmore Cottage. Or she might go visit her husband’s grandparents at the Windsor Family’s Balmoral Castle.

That subdued and low-key celebration may be the best way for the Duchess to get herself back into the good graces of the British public and media. Or at least, it will help her avoid the backlash she endured the last time she threw a party.

Earlier this year, as Cosmopolitan reported at the time, Meghan threw a lavish baby shower at a tony New York City hotel, with a celebrity guest list and a reported $200,000 price tag. That didn’t go over very well, for several reasons. For one, the Royal Family tries to keep a lid on ostentatious displays of wealth. For another, baby showers are very much an American thing and are rare (but not unheard of) among U.K. moms, leading to head-scratching and confused shrugs from the British press.

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry reportedly ban neighbors from speaking to them https://t.co/aInrKcaLtM pic.twitter.com/su9GrOspNs

— Page Six (@PageSix) July 27, 2019

Meanwhile, Meghan and her spending habits have caused some friction between herself and the British public and media of late, baby shower aside. The price tag for renovating their new home, Frogmore Cottage, has reportedly reached into the millions, including tens of thousands of dollars spent on soundproofing the home (the house is in the flight path of an airport), as Inside Edition reported in May.

On top of all that, Meghan’s demands for privacy are rubbing people the wrong way. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, one of the couple’s aides reportedly handed out a list of onerous demands to the couple’s neighbors on the estate where they’ll live — rules that include not initiating conversation with them or petting their dog. The Palace later confirmed that the rules came from an overzealous employee and not from the couple themselves.

The list of demands came just a few days after Meghan’s people reportedly told off Wimbledon attendees for snapping pictures of the Duchess, as The Inquisitr reported.