Before she met and started dating Prince Harry, Meghan Markle was friends with his cousin, Princess Eugenie. As the duchess told Oprah Winfrey in her televised interview, “Eugenie and I had known each other before I had known Harry.”
Meghan and Eugenie remained friends when the couple moved across the pond as Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, even visited the Sussexes at their Montecito home. So it makes sense that when Meghan published her first children’s book, The Bench, in March 2021, she would send her friend a copy with a personalized note. The only problem is that the book has now ended up on eBay.
Several royal fans noticed the listing for The Bench, and are convinced that it is a personalized copy from the duchess to the princess because the message is in Meghan’s trademark calligraphy-style handwriting.
It reads, “Dear Eug & Jack, Celebrating the special bond between father and son. I wrote this poem at Frogmore — I hope that Eug, you witness the same love there with your guys. All love, Meghan.”
The listing on eBay has a steep asking price of $26,500. It’s been reported that Eugenie was so “horrified” by the listing that she called Meghan to apologize.
An insider told Rob Shuter’s Naughty But Nice Substack: “Eugenie called Meghan herself. She was horrified the book had somehow ended up for sale and made it absolutely clear she would never knowingly sell a personal gift from Meghan.”
But the mystery is how someone got their hands on it to sell it. That’s not known at this time, or if this copy is even authentic. But many fans took to social media and had a good laugh over it.
“Eugenie listing Meghan’s signed book for 20k is the funniest royal headline in years,” one person wrote, while a second added, “Eugenie probably gave this book away or donated it” with a crying-laughing emoji.
A third posted, “Probably got thrown where it belongs and a staffer picked it up from the bin lol,” and a fourth agreed, writing, “The funniest story would be that Meghan sent the book to Eugenie. Eugenie then gave the book to a staff member bc why would she want it, and then the staff member donated it, and some random person found it in a charity bin and decided to try to resell it. That’s my fan fiction.”
A fifth person commented, “All Meghan’s stuff ends up on eBay” with a crying-laughing emoji.
A sixth exclaimed, “It ended up on eBay. How it ended up there is another question. Either ‘Eug’ put it there herself or her copy was stolen. Or she could have given her copy away to someone else, and that someone else didn’t want it either. Either way, no one wanted to keep it at all, as a personal or family keepsake. It also didn’t sell quickly at all, did it? It languished there for days. 20K dollars for a children’s book.”
And another opined, “Book sold only 10K copies. [Meghan] needs money, so she puts the book out on eBay. Gets attention back on the book. Then pulls it from auction. She gets free PR for her & advertising for her book. Win win.”
