Meghan Markle and Prince Harry sparked a fresh wave of scrutiny during their latest appearance as critics mocked her dramatic gown and took aim at the duke’s “magical” hair.
Few appearances from the Duchess of Sussex escape scrutiny, but Canada has long held a special place in Meghan and Harry’s story, dating back to when the former Suits actor lived in Toronto and the couple made their first public outing at the city’s Invictus Games in 2017.
They later spent their first holiday season as a family of three in Vancouver and returned for the 2025 Invictus Games, with their latest Canadian visit bringing them back to British Columbia to support a longtime friend.
Back in Canada
Canadian-born music producer and composer David Foster was celebrating four decades of fundraising through the David Foster Foundation, with a gala held on Aug. 7 followed by a free concert at Victoria’s Inner Harbour the next day.
According to People, Foster’s connection with Meghan, 45, and Harry, 41, stretches back years. In 2019, Foster arranged for them to stay at a friend’s mansion on Vancouver Island, where they were able to spend time away from the intense attention surrounding them.
“I felt honored that I was able to help Meghan there because I’m a Canadian, and we’re a Commonwealth country; we’re the Crown’s. It’s important to us, so I grew up with that kind of sentiment,” Foster told the Daily Mail in 2020. “I was really happy to be able to help them to find a respite just to take a little time off.”
So, when Foster celebrated the 40th anniversary of his foundation, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were there to support him – although their appearance soon became a talking point of its own.
‘Black curtain or tablecloth’
For the occasion, Meghan wore a floor-length black gown with a dramatic train, adding a particularly meaningful piece of jewelry: the late Princess Diana’s diamond and sapphire earrings.
The choice came just two weeks after Meghan and Harry, 41, shared a rare photo of Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, visiting Althorp, the childhood home of their late grandmother.
But once photos from Foster’s event appeared online, some people were less interested in the sentimental connection of the jewelry and more concerned with what Meghan was wearing.
One admirer was firmly in favor of the look, writing beneath a Facebook post: “Oh Meghan’s dress is so perfect. Love it!”
Others were far less impressed by the gown’s long silhouette.
“Looks like a black curtain or tablecloth dragging on the floor,” one person commented, while another wrote: “The dress looks that she has a pillow dragging behind her.”
Someone else turned their attention away from the dress altogether, and wrote,
“Why is she wearing Diana’s earrings?”
But Meghan wasn’t the only one being picked apart, as online attention soon shifted to Harry – specifically, what was happening with his hair.
‘What’s going on up there?’
“Harry’s hair is magical. ‘Now you see it, now you don’t.’ The back and the frizz on top [are] a totally new colour,” one online user shared.
“How come he’s got more hair is it a wig?” a second person asked, while a third questioned: “What’s happened to the top of his head?”
A third took the speculation even further, asking: “Did he spray hair on the top of his head?? What’s going on up there?”
‘Try not to look at what’s happening’
Only weeks before, during an appearance on the “Joe Marler Will See You Now” podcast, Harry admitted there is “nothing really happening on top.”
“I get a haircut, otherwise I try not to look at what’s happening [sic],” he joked about his thinning hair. “We don’t need to go there…”
Harry also had something to say about another long-discussed feature of his appearance –his famous ginger hair.
“I’m not ginger,” he insisted, instead describing the color as “more like sunset, like auburn.”
“Unless you want to call me Ginge. You know, I got bullied a lot at school, called Carrot Top,” he shared.
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