Last week, two of the Duchess of Sussex’s girlfriends took her out to lunch. Her colorist Kadi Lee and author Cleo Wade had lunch with Meghan somewhere – Montecito? LA? – and Kadi posted the photo, above, on her IG Stories. Meghan looked fresh-faced and beautiful. But did you know that this photo was hiding an evil secret?? Look at Meghan’s left hand, where she’s wearing her wedding band. That’s the evil secret, according to the British tabloids. Meghan wasn’t wearing her diamond engagement ring. Again, she wore her wedding band, but still – it became a story, because someone was being dragged for being too lazy to fly to Australia and do his job. For what it’s worth, a “source” told Page Six that Meghan wasn’t wearing her diamond ring because the ring was “being fixed.”

Speaking of Page Six – owned by the Murdochs – they had a weird piece about how Meghan “loves being famous.” Again, someone over in Rosebush, UK was particularly salty about all of the bad press he was getting, and this could have been the trade-off. After an exhaustive accounting of how many times we’ve seen Meghan in recent months, Page Six’s sources basically say that Meghan has new stuff in the pipeline and she and Harry are in a really good place personally and professionally.

Meghan’s gotten pap’d frequently in recent months: As an insider familiar with the Sussexes told us: “Meghan’s not seeking out opportunities to be photographed, but she’s realized she has to live her life, none of the cameras are going away.”

The new project: All of this comes as Markle — who signed with Hollywood powerbroker Ari Emmanuel’s WME — is putting the finishing touches on her new project, the one that everyone in her circle has been talking about. Will it be something to rival Gwyneth Paltrow’s multi-million dollar lifestyle business Goop, or something akin to Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine, which sold for a billion dollars? Will it even be “The Tig” 2.0, a revamp of Markle’s lifestyle blog? “Meghan and the team are working hard,” an insider tells Page Six. “I think it will be surprising, it won’t be what everybody is expecting it to be, it will feel familiar to who Meghan is.”

New sponsorship deals? Markle was just a customer for the NuCalm sticker when she wore last week during a visit to the dentist. Then the company quickly posted the photos on their Instagram and watched sales take off.. it shows to possible commercial partners or backers that Markle retains the ability to create viral sales as she once did for Rothy’s shoes and jewelry brands, just by being photographed. As we revealed, she’s still keen to join forces with her favorite brand, Cartier, although they have close ties with the royal family.

The Windsors were behind the “privacy” storyline: Indeed, her camp says it was the royal family — from whom the Sussexes remain very much estranged — who pushed that storyline. The insider said: “Nobody is fighting this whole privacy issue, this whole story of ‘don’t pay attention to us, pay attention to us’, it’s a total exaggeration, because the crux of Harry and Meghan’s move, in the beginning, was mostly spun from the palace that they wanted a more private life. They know they’ll never have a private life,” the insider stressed.

Meghan likes being famous? A more critical source, with knowledge from their time with Spotify, tells Page Six: “Harry has made it clear that he never wanted to be in the media…he would be very happy to go away. I think he’d like to go and live in Botswana – as long as he had money. Meghan actually likes being famous.” But a source in the couple’s orbit says that while Harry “understands that he’s a public figure” and that it would be “delusional to expect a life out of the spotlight,” it is Archie, 4, and Lilibet, 2, he is concerned about. “If he’s seen out getting dinner he doesn’t have a problem with it, but what he struggles with is protecting his children and their innocence, so much of what he felt was really challenging in his own life,” the insider says.

The Sussexes are fine: “They’re not divorcing, they’re not moving – they have more confidence and they’re at peace. They are making friends in their community and they’re feeling more comfortable to explore. With the (Netflix) documentary series and Harry’s book behind them, this is the end of that era. It was tough prior to the book and the documentary coming out, when you anticipate the worst. But this is really the closest we’ve seen Harry and Meghan achieve some level of normalcy — ever.”

[From Page Six]

I actually hope some of this is the truth. I hope Meghan is preparing to launch something new. I hope they’re at peace. I hope they’ve found their personal and professional rhythm. The privacy stuff is kind of fascinating too – I never really thought about it that way, that the Windsors pushed a storyline that all Harry and Meghan wanted was to go away and “be private.” The thing is, Harry did speak about wanting privacy for years, but I think Meghan has a more nuanced understanding of what privacy means to her and how best to use the attention she already gets. That being said, they’re trying to make Meghan sound like a famewhore, when really, she disappears from public view for months at a time. They’re basically saying that Meghan is making famewhore moves every time she leaves her house, because she could be photographed by a paparazzo. It’s insane.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.