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Meghan Markle’s name reportedly came up at a Cotswolds dinner. But one guest apparently wasn’t having it. “I sat next to these men and started talking about Meghan, and one almost left,” The Telegraph’s Eilidh Hargreaves wrote. 

Hargreaves said she had been sitting beside the men at a grand dinner party last Saturday. She brought up Markle to see how they would react. The man then warned her, “If you say that word one more time…” 

She added, “So it wasn’t only ‘We don’t want anything to do with her’, but ‘Do not degrade my house by bringing it up’.” Hargreaves also gave her own theory about the reaction. “I think half of these people are friendly with the King, so it’s maybe in deference to him and the stuff they’ve been through,” she said. 

The exchange came as Harry and Markle settled back into life in Britain on August 26. They now have a private, non-royal home believed to be in the Cotswolds. Their exact address is still under wraps. The family reportedly flew into Birmingham Airport on their return. 

Markle had also reportedly been spotted at Soho Farmhouse in north Oxfordshire. The couple has actually lived in the Cotswolds before. In 2018, they rented a country home on the Great Tew Estate in Oxfordshire. They reportedly stayed there while work was being done on Frogmore Cottage. 

There’s no confirmation, though, that their current Cotswold home is the same house they rented back then. Hargreaves said getting into that particular Cotswolds social scene could be “much trickier” than “the celebrity enclave Soho Farmhouse.”

She then pointed to Daylesford and its private members’ club, The Club by Bamford. It attracts wealthy business figures, celebrities, and other well-known names. Hargreaves noted that this is the place Harry and Markle would “really need to crack.” 

However, getting in isn’t exactly cheap either. According to her, the club charges a £4,000 annual fee, plus a £1,650 joining fee. Committee approval will still be needed for membership. She also wrote that Gloucestershire locals keep their distance from the celebrity-heavy crowd around Oxfordshire. 

Helen Kirwan-Taylor has lived near Cirencester for decades. The American writer and broadcaster described that split, saying, “The real snobbism is between the Gloustocracy and the Beckhams.” 

The ‘Gloustocracy’ refers to Gloucestershire’s traditional country set. The Oxfordshire crowd has more celebrity names around it. Hargreaves mentioned Ellie Goulding and Simon Cowell among the group. Then there’s the food. 

Kirwan-Taylor said, “So many of my friends make their own jams, bake their own breads. One person literally came to dinner with her own beef. She could almost name the cow.” She also suggested homemade jam can seem almost unnecessary in some local homes. That’s because the hosts may already make their own. 

Still, writer Plum Sykes sees a way in for Markle. Sykes stated, “If you work very hard at it, and entertain in fabulous style and with great generosity, a la Fiona Howden or Lady B, becoming the latest Queen of the Cotswolds is entirely do-able, whoever you are.” 

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