Inside Meghan’s baby shower! Duchess poses with BFFs including Serena Williams in New York hotel

Meghan Markle has opened up about how her friends surprised her with a ‘beautiful’ baby shower in New York when she was expecting her son Archie in the latest instalment of their Netflix show.

The Duchess of Sussex, 41, celebrated the impending birth of her firstborn son with Prince Harry by flying to the Big Apple by private jet in 2019. Around 20 friends attended the five-day celebration, including Serena Williams.

In the fourth episode of the docu-series, which was released today, the royal mother shared a number of pictures from the event, which took place in one of the most expensive suites at The Mark Hotel in Manhattan.

In the snaps she can be seen beaming with friends, while in another they could be seen arranging flowers. 

Meghan Markle has opened up about how her friends ‘surprised’ her with a ‘beautiful’ baby shower at The Mark Hotel in Manhattan when she was expecting her son Archie (Pictured: The Duchess with friends including Abigail Spencer, Daniel Martin, Misha Nonoo, Serena Williams and Lindsay Roth)

Speaking in the show, Meghan said: ‘My friends surprised me with a really beautiful baby shower in New York. 

‘They were like, “We’re going to shower her with love, and shower her baby, and she’s going to survive this and we’re going to get through it with her.”‘

Meanwhile her friend Silver Tree said: ‘It’s like this really magical time of us just celebrating her.’

Serena said: ‘It was just so cool and so fun to try to have an intimate moment.’

In one photograph Meghan, dressed in a navy blue polka-dot dress, can be seen laughing with her friends  

In one previously unseen snap, Meghan stood alongside Amal Clooney and Serena Williams as they take part in a flower arranging class 

Another snap from the event shows the group of friends all reaching out to Meghan’s blossoming baby bump 

Guests attending the event included Meghan’s makeup artist Daniel Martin, her former Suits co-star Abigail Spencer and her former BFF Jessica Mulroney. 

Meanwhile Misha Nonoo, Serena Williams and close friend Lindsay Roth can also be seen posing in snaps from the 2019 event. 

In the previously unseen photographs, Meghan can be seen dressed in a smart navy blue polka-dot dress.

In one, Meghan stands alongside Serena and Amal Clooney as they take part in a flower arranging class. 

Dressed in aprons, the group appear to be enjoying a selection of drinks, including mocktails and glasses of wine. 

One of the cakes features a cartoon topper showing Meghan and Harry together next to a pram (pictured) 

Another photograph shows Meghan holding her belly while laughing alongside a dessert table.

One of the cakes features a cartoon topper showing Meghan and Harry together next to a pram. 

Another snap shows her friends reaching out to touch her pregnant belly.  

In February 2019, the Duchess and her closest friends partied at the same hotel – in one of the world’s most expensive suites. 

She and Abigail grabbed lunch together before being joined by the rest of the group for dinner at The Polo Bar, the swank New York restaurant owned by designer Ralph Lauren.

Then, on the day of, she welcomed even newer friends to her party at The Mark, including human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.

Her mother’s absence also meant that Markle did not have one family member at the party, including new sister-in-law Kate Middleton, though baby showers have never been a British tradition.

The shower was hosted by Serena, Jessica and Genevieve Hillis, who has been Markle’s best friend since the age of 17 when they met at Northwestern University in Illinois. 

‘It was a small, private affair, and a special time for her,’ CBS presenter, Gayle King previously said.

‘Having a baby is a great thing.’ 

The Duchess’s close pals were also treated to stork-shaped cake pops and miniature slices of carrot cake, as well as multiple cupcakes iced in pink and green frosting.

The crowing glory was a two tiered cake which featured a miniature paper cutout of Harry and Meghan stood next to a pram – believed to be the work of event designer Darcy Miller, who has been credited with putting together the lavish dessert buffet. 

Guests at the lavish baby shower in New York City left the intimate gathering with high-end gift bags filled with the royal’s favorite products. 

High-profile attendees were seen leaving the Mark Hotel’s incredible Grand Penthouse Suite, which costs a staggering $75,000 per night. 

According to People, guests were gifted Cuyana leather totes that were filled to the brim with products, much like Oscars swag bags. 

The totes, which retail for $175-$195 depending on style, included $67 Jo Malone Green Tomato Leaf scented candles, $65 Tatcha Rice Enzyme Powder and $81 Susanne Kaufmann Body Butter.

They also reportedly featured products from Rodin and Jessica Alba’s company Honest Beauty. 

Serena Williams was among the guests who attended the event in February 2019 (pictured) 

Brands often send celebrities free gifts in the hopes of getting press, and with Meghan’s shower making headlines around the world, it’s likely that companies were more than willing to offer up products for the guests’ goody bags. 

On the day of Meghan’s shower, about 17 Away suitcases were delivered to The Mark Hotel, each of which cost $225.  

The Sussexes’ six-part show – which forms part of their multimillion-pound deal with Netflix – has become the streaming giant’s most-watched documentary in a premiere week, debuting with 81.55million hours viewed. 

The initial tranche covered the couple’s courtship and romance, but many were left deeply unhappy about the programme’s full-on assault on the late Queen’s Commonwealth legacy, with some saying it seemed as if the couple want to ‘bring down the monarchy’.

Goodies! Daniel  shared a picture of the cookies from Meghan’s star-studded baby shower in New York, saying he had ‘such an incredible day celebrating’

Harry also let rip with a string of sly digs at his family, particularly his father and brother, including the suggestion that they had married not for love but to a woman who fitted ‘the mould’.

The Duke also said members of his family questioned why Meghan needed more protection from the media than their wives had been given, but that they failed to grasp the ‘race element’. 

The claims made in the trailer yesterday were quickly declared by royal experts as ‘nonsense’, while one commentator said the series was clearly a ‘form of revenge’. 

In one clip, Meghan’s British privacy lawyer Jenny Afia insisted she had seen evidence of the conspiracy against the Duchess before Lucy Fraser – real name Lucy Meadmore – a former PR manager who was a mystery figure until a week ago, says ‘Meg became this scapegoat for the Palace’. 

The Duchess herself also suggested she was made a scapegoat, adding: ‘You would see it play out. A story about someone in the family would pop up for a minute, and they’d go: ‘We’ve got to make that go away’.’ 

But Royal Editor for the Daily Mail Rebecca English said last night that only someone ‘utterly ignorant of the media’ would suggest that she would steer clear of a story about a Royal Family member in return for a disparaging tale about Meghan or Harry.

She said she ‘never heard a negative word’ about the Sussexes until ‘at least six months after their marriage – and then not from anyone inside the Palace walls.’ 

In fact, Ms English believed aides did all they could to keep up appearances when it appeared that ‘all was not well’ within the Sussex household. 

She wrote in the Daily Mail: ‘Staff, they insisted, were leaving for personal reasons or because they had an exciting new opportunity to pursue. Never because of Meghan.

‘Even when I personally witnessed her round on a member of her team, leaving this individual in tears of humiliation, I was told – with a straight-face – that it had merely been a ”security incident”.

‘I had stand-up rows with palace staff when I suggested they had been economical with the truth and my fact-checking calls regarding stories I intended to publish were met with open sighs of frustration.’

She also said she chose to omit Harry’s ‘frankly rude and unprofessional behaviour towards the press’ from her copy, as the 38-year-old’s ‘impressive charity work deserved to be the star of the show.’ 

She added: ‘The truth is that negative stories about Harry and Meghan only began to eek out when their behaviour became so obnoxious that it was impossible to hide,’ she wrote.

‘And that’s not something I expect you will hear about when today’s dramatic finale lands on Netflix.’

There were mounting calls overnight to see the evidence for the highly damaging claim, with one royal source declaring: ‘No one is taking lessons in honesty from them.’ 

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams also called on filmmakers to back up claims made.

Responding to the trailer released yesterday, Mr Fitzwilliams told MailOnline it showed ‘how much of a coup for Netflix this docuseries is.’

He added: ‘The claim is that the Palace used Meghan as a ‘scapegoat’ so other damaging stories about other royals would go away.

‘So the question is, to benefit which royals and who knew about it? Which other members of the royal family were involved or were courtiers briefing without their knowledge?

‘William was named in an earlier trailer by Harry. This will be catastrophic for the relationship between the once close brothers.

‘What exactly is the evidence that backs up their claim that Meghan was ‘fed to the wolves’?

‘Essentially the claim is that the institution was working against them and using the media to discredit them with a barrage of negative articles. Her lawyer Jenny Afia says she has seen evidence. However what evidence will we be shown?’

He added: ‘This is undoubtedly a form of revenge. It remains to be seen after tomorrow’s series airs, if the royals will respond and if so, how.’   

Read more: 

Any suggestion negative stories were ‘fed’ to the media by the Palace as part of a ‘war’ against Meghan is categorically untrue – in fact I ignored Harry’s frankly rude and unprofessional behaviour towards the press, says Royal Editor REBECCA ENGLISH 

Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary LIVE: Final three episodes released TODAY see Duchess branded a ‘scapegoat’ as royal family brace for fresh attacks

STEPHEN GLOVER: The world is tiring of the shallow, selfish Sussexes. When their moaning is long forgotten, the monarchy will still endure