Duchess Meghan Markle has responded to criticism over her baby shower

Duchess Meghan Markle has responded to criticism over her baby shower, as the Duchess’s lawyers issued a statement.

• Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has responded to criticism over her baby shower.
• The royal has denied reports that her New York baby shower back in February cost £232,000.
• In other royal news (opens in new tab), Prince Harry has teamed up with rugby player Gareth Thomas to raise awareness for an important cause (opens in new tab).

Duchess Meghan has responded to criticism over her baby shower.

The royal celebrated the imminent birth of her now six-month-old son Archie back in February with a lavish baby shower in New York surrounded by close friends and loved ones.

However, the Duchess has since received criticism over the party with claims that she splashed out an eye-watering $300,000 (around £232,000) on the event.

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Critics also accused the mum-of-one of intentionally leaving her mother Doria Ragland off the guestlist for the special occasion.

However, the Duchess has now responded to the claims in court papers that were filed on Friday by her lawyers, where they revealed previously unknown details about the event.

"The suggestion that the Claimant (Meghan) deliberately left out her mother from her baby shower and ditched her in favour of her famous friends is untrue and offensive to her," said Meghan's lawyers, according to HELLO! Magazine (opens in new tab).

"The Claimant’s mother was of course invited, and the Claimant also offered to buy her airline tickets. However, her mother was unable to attend due to work commitments.

“It was also untrue and offensive to suggest, as the article does, that ‘not a single guest had known [the Claimant] for more than a decade’.

“In fact, the true position was that the baby shower (which actually cost a tiny fraction of the $300k falsely stated in the article) was organised and hosted by one of her best friends from university; the fifteen guests who attended the shower were close friends and included long-term friendships some of which had existed for over 20 years."