Despite her background as a former actress and her evident fashion aspirations, the Duchess of Sussex has once again failed to secure an invitation to the Met Gala and is not rumoured to be attending the Cannes Film Festival this week. In contrast, the glamorous Marchioness of Bath appears to be on an upward trajectory, mingling with A-list celebrities and gracing some of Hollywood's most prestigious red carpets.
Emma Thynn Commands Attention at Cannes
On Tuesday, Emma Thynn captured the spotlight as IHG Hotels & Resorts and Vanity Fair hosted a star-studded lunch on the opening day of the 79th Cannes Film Festival. The 40-year-old Marchioness opted for a daring canary yellow gown featuring a thigh-high split, showcasing her toned legs shortly after arriving at the Carlton Beach Club in the resort town. The elegant dress, with its strappy plunging neckline, ensured she commanded the lion's share of attention while posing for photographs during her first public appearance since arriving in the South of France.
Later, she swapped her vibrant ensemble for a sleeveless navy dress with a billowing skirt and another daring split for the opening ceremony and the screening of The Electric Venus at the Palais des Festivals.
Met Gala Appearance and Comparisons
A week earlier, Emma made a headline-grabbing appearance at the Met Gala, posing alongside former Vogue editor Edward Enninful, once thought to be a close friend of Meghan's before they drifted apart amid rumours of a rift. The duo joined Serena Williams on the red carpet, a move that left fans questioning whether the former tennis star and the Duchess remain as close as they once were.
Fans first began doubting Serena's closeness to Meghan after her 'disastrous' promotion of As Ever on Instagram, following receipt of a PR parcel containing Meghan's Mother's Day edit. Serena and Emma are believed to be close friends; they have holidayed together in Spain, and the Marchioness previously appeared on Serena's podcast, Stockton Street.
Meghan has never attended the Met Gala and is not thought to have been invited this year, despite Serena's sister Venus serving as a co-chair for the 2026 event. Some fans have long accused Meghan of copying the Marchioness, who also hosts a lifestyle programme and, like the Duchess, produces homemade jam from her Longleat estate.
Comparisons in Popular Culture
Comparisons between Emma and Meghan were also drawn in the latest season of the reality TV show Ladies of London: The New Reign. In the opening scenes, released in March, designer Lottie Kane brought up the Duchess while introducing the Marchioness to viewers. 'She is the first black woman to be married into an aristocratic family, and I think Meghan Markle tries to claim that, but it was actually Emma,' she said. 'I'm of mixed heritage, half-Nigerian, half-English,' added Emma, who became the Marchioness of Bath after her husband Ceawlin Thynn's father, Alexander Thynn, died in 2020. 'The press commented heavily on the fact that I was going to become the first woman of colour to hold this title, and I acknowledge the fact that... the only woman of colour in this position is me, still to this day,' she continued.
Emma also attended the King's Trust Gala in New York alongside Meghan's former bestie Edward Enninful, greeting King Charles on his US tour. Following the launch of the Duchess's Netflix series in 2025, With Love, Meghan, eagle-eyed viewers spotted several similarities to a YouTube cooking show, Emma's Kitchen, hosted by the Marchioness. The Celebrity MasterChef contestant – formally known as Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath – posts videos of her creations after launching the brand in 2015, using the backdrop of the original kitchens within Longleat House.
One observer tweeted similar still images from each show, writing: 'Emma Weymouth, Marchioness of Bath, has had a cooking programme at Longleat estate for nine years!' Another said: 'Why is Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex trying to channel Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath? TBH, Emma seems more natural while Meghan often seems like she's acting from a script. I think Meghan should focus strictly on charity work.' A third added: 'This woman has no original idea! This is a copy of Emma's Kitchen!' And a fourth tweeted: 'Very much like Emma's Kitchen on YouTube.' When previously asked by the Daily Mail's Harriet Kean what she thought of claims Meghan had copied her, Emma raised her eyebrow and said: 'No comment.'
Legal Victory for the Thynn Family
Emma's appearance on Tuesday comes after her husband won his legal battle to allow his son born by surrogacy to inherit the £157 million family fortune. Ceawlin Thynn, the 8th Marquess of Bath and owner of the Longleat estate, had his second son with wife Emma in 2016 via a surrogate after she suffered from a rare inflammatory condition during her first pregnancy. Henry Thynn was born to a surrogate mother in America, raising concern about his eligibility to benefit from three family trusts because of the historical definition of a legitimate child.
The nine-year-old is genetically the son of the 51-year-old Marquess – also known as Lord Bath – and his wife, Lady Bath. However, the family trusts use a pre-1970 common law definition of 'children' that predates modern fertility treatments. At the High Court, Lord Bath had asked for a 'blessing' to allow Henry to potentially inherit a share of the fortune. On Thursday, Mr Justice Matthews ruled that it would be 'unfair on Lord Bath and on Henry' to treat the boy as though he were not his father's son. 'Henry is the son of Lord and Lady Bath. Not only is he treated by them and will be treated by the world in general as a child of Lord and Lady Bath's marriage but he is also their genetic child,' he added.
Though his older brother John, 11, would inherit before him because of primogeniture – which provides for a firstborn legitimate child to inherit their parents' estate – it was argued Henry could still stand to benefit. The judge said at this stage the trustees only wanted the power to add Henry as a beneficiary but not to exercise it yet, to 'avoid any problems with US tax' because Henry was born there to an American surrogate mother. 'A decision can then be taken at a later stage, in the light of appropriate advice, whether to exercise the power to add him,' the judge added.
Background of the Marchioness
Henry is believed to be the first member of the British aristocracy to have been born by surrogacy, after his mother suffered hypophysitis during her first pregnancy in 2014. That pregnancy came a year after she married her husband, who inherited his title seven years later following the death of his father from Covid aged 87. Lord Bath's parents had snubbed the couple's 2013 wedding, held at Longleat, with his father expressing great displeasure over his son's modernisation of the estate, which included removing a number of his father's prized erotic paintings from the main house. The colourful late Marquess once claimed to have about 70 girlfriends he referred to as 'wifelets'. Until the pandemic, the current Marquess was known as Viscount Weymouth, as he had been since taking control of the Longleat estate in 2013.
His wife, then styled Viscountess Weymouth and now Lady Bath, became the country's first black British marchioness when she gained the title in 2020, a year after she appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, reaching the seventh week with her partner Aljaz Skorjanec. Born in the capital, she studied History of Art at University College London before taking a course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda). After a stint in Los Angeles, she returned to the UK to become a presenter and chef. Her husband runs the 900-acre Longleat estate on the Wiltshire-Somerset border and told the Daily Mail after Henry's birth: 'Never did I imagine that in West Hollywood I'd become father to John's little miracle baby brother. It's a wonder of modern science that the Longleat Bath family has been completed - for now at least - by Emma and I having a much-loved son, helped so crucially by a tremendous surrogate in California, to extend our family.' His wife, also a former fashion model, said: 'We are simply ecstatic. His arrival has completed our little family and brought us so much happiness. We have certainly been worried about how people will react to the news. I just want them to know this is not about my vanity or that I was too lazy. I'm not the kind of person who would have done this for anything less than a very important reason. I didn't care about my weight gain or that breast feeding would ruin my body. I just want to live to see my children grow up. I did not want to take the risk of something tragic happening. I really enjoyed being pregnant up until the point when the terrifying pains began.'
