HOLLY WAINWRIGHT: 'How you feel about Meghan's new "shop" tells me one thing about you.'

I am shopping The Duchess of Sussex's closet.

The skinny jeans are sold out.

The big beige bag — textured calf leather, available in Australia — is low in stock.

The little beige bag is strictly pre-order.

There's only an extra small left in the silk shirt, and it's $700.

So far, my cart remains empty.

I've never had the chance to shop an actual Duchess's closet before. It's so tasteful. And expensive. I've also never had the chance to directly pop a few dollars in a royal family member's pocket before.

Other than in the years I was paying tax in the UK, of course.

But I know that if I worked up the financial nerve to buy the big beige bag, about $38 of the $760 I would theoretically spend goes directly to Megs. Because, as she declared on her "Shop My Closet" Instagram page, she is sharing all her favourite things using 'commissionable links'. Sometimes called affiliate links, the way they work is when a content creator recommends a product — say, a beige bag — and you buy it, the creator gets between 3 per cent - 7 per cent of that sale. Little bits of money, piling up as your audience spends. Meghan's following on Instagram is 2.6 million people. So, a big pile of money now, probably, 12 hours after the shop "opened".

Watch the official trailer for Meghan Markle's show, With Love, Meghan. Post continues after video.

Mamamia uses affiliate links sometimes. So do plenty of content creators I know. I'm not above monetising social media with paid content. God knows, we've all got to make a living and this is part of the package for many who work on the Internet.

But a Duchess? That's new.

Members of the royal family are specifically forbidden from endorsing or promoting commercial products. And although Harry and Meghan officially stepped back from their HRH (His Royal Highness) status in 2020, they are still royal. They still have their titles, their kids have theirs, and they still feature on the "About" page of the Royal Family home page, and you can't get more official than that.

The royal title "magic" is not intended to be sullied by commerce. But that magic is real — Meghan's shop is in her royal name, not just plain "Sussex", her real-world one. It's a title that no other monetised influencer on Instagram can claim.

It's her USP (unique selling point), her competitive advantage. A hard-won weapon in the melee of Internet hustle.

Plenty are not happy about Megs' shop, of course. No-one online is keen on anything Meghan's done since she quit Suits and put a ring on it. She attracts a particularly outsized level of hysterical vitriol, and clearly, in 2025, she has given up letting that hold her back or shut her up. She wants to work, she wants to create, she wants to sell, and yes, she wants to make money.

If it feels a bit gross to you, it's probably because of something Tina Fey said.

The comedian-writer-show-runner made a throwaway comment on her friend Amy Poehler's podcast last week that went viral.

She said it was a bit icky when "rich people have side hustles".

By that, Fey clarified, she didn't mean actual work. Like, make as many things as you want, she told Poehler, who was worried her podcast might be judged that way.

No, Fey said. It's the brand deals. The rose line when you've never set foot in a vineyard, or tequila brand when you don't drink. Ryan Reynolds' budget mobile phone company, perhaps.

It's the idea that the mind-bogglingly outsized pay-cheques that Hollywood people command — millions and millions for work that cannot possibly be as hard as an emergency nursing shift, say — is not enough. That no amount ever seems to be enough.

That in a famously tightening global economy and an inflationary world where eggs have become luxury items, even the richest of the rich feel like they need more.

So if you're Meghan and Harry, that means that well as your (reported, all these figures are reported) AU$160 million agreement with Netflix and your AU$40 million deal with Spotify and your AU$64 million book deal with Penguin Random House, and your lifestyle brand and your AU$16 million inheritance from your mother and the AU$19 million from your grandmother, you might still want to cream a little profit off a skirt you wear that someone else made seems a bit… grasping.

But also, if you feel gross about it, maybe you're old.

Because Gen X still seems to hold on to the idea that it's distasteful to "sell out" when you do not need to fret about your mortgage, but Gens Y and Z seem much less bothered.

After all, they've come of age in a world where the most famous people of all are not artists but brands. And artists who become brands. And brands who morph into artists.

And everything aspirational is in front of you all the time, on your phone, and more and more expensive every moment.

In 2025, 'rich' means something different. Millionaire doesn't seem to mean a thing. There are almost 3,000 billionaires in the world, and the power they wield is everywhere we look, and in everything we do.

Listen to Mamamia Out Loud where Holly, Jessie and Mia share their honest thoughts on Meghan Markle's show. Post continues after audio.

On social media, ordinary people's content sits right next to rich people's. And rich people compare themselves to really rich people. Prince Harry grew up in castles, but he didn't have a jet and a yacht at his constant disposal, like some of his new friends. Security is expensive. So is a royal lifestyle without a royal income. There is always someone who has more than you do, even when you have more than 99 per cent of the world's population.

And finally, Prince Harry has something monumental to prove. That walking away from his family's unfathomable wealth and status was not a mistake. That he could make his own fortune. Provide security, comparable privilege and privacy for his children without having to rely on the rellos. Except for the title, of course. That's still helpful.

So, hustle, hustle, hustle. That $38 from that beige bag won't buy a long, willowy stem from the Montecito flower market, but if us aspirational suckers sell-out enough silk shirts and beige bags to look just a little more like the Beautiful People, the mission is closer to being accomplished.

Read more from Holly:

• HOLLY WAINWRIGHT: 'Please, Meg and Pammy, don't make gardening "chic."'

• The uncomfortable truth every woman over 40 saw in THAT White Lotus pool scene.

• Meghan Markle's show exposes the royal family's big mistake.

Feature image: Netflix/Meghan Markle/Mamamia.