They said Meghan really loves herself and she really should. Loudly, boldly and unapologetically.

The Instagram video shows Meghan walking with a basket of summer fruit and vegetables, wearing white trousers and a blue and white striped blouse, smiling at the camera, playing with her hair, holding a drink. The caption read a basket full of summer. It is, by any reasonable measure, exactly the kind of warm seasonal lifestyle content that the As Ever brand is built around and that its audience has responded to consistently. The Express covered it by aggregating social media criticism. She loves herself so much it is embarrassing. Never before have I seen a celebrity who loves themselves so much. Meghan's true love is herself and only herself. What IS this performance. And then, because apparently the loves herself angle was not sufficient, the article pivots to the apples. Eagle eyed fans on X noted that apple season in California does not begin until late August at the earliest. Someone who has been growing apples for thirty five years weighed in to confirm that their earliest variety is not ready until early August. The implication being that Meghan's basket of summer is somehow fraudulent because the apples are not seasonally accurate to her California location. We have arrived at apple forensics. This is where we are. I want to talk about the loves herself criticism specifically, because I think it deserves a direct response rather than gentle dismissal. Meghan Sussex spent years inside an institution that systematically dismantled her self esteem. She has spoken publicly about reaching a point of suicidal ideation during her time as a working royal. She described asking for help and being told by the institution that it would not look good for them to send her for treatment. She watched lies about her character run unchallenged in national newspapers while the palace stayed silent. She was told she held her baby wrong. She was described in print in terms so dehumanising that fifty thousand people filed complaints about a single column. She had her name substituted for another woman's in a police document about a murdered woman's vigil. And she came out the other side of all of that and built As Ever from scratch. A lifestyle brand with a sell out product launch. A Netflix series that performed. A fashion platform investment generating enough commercial anxiety in the British press to produce the word sickening in a national publication. A production company with a director now attached to a Netflix feature film. She did all of that while being told, continuously and loudly, that she was nothing without the institution. That she was desperate. That she was failing. That she was crawling back on bended knees. And she posted a video of herself smiling in a striped blouse with a basket of summer produce and they called it loving herself too much. Good. She should love herself. Loudly. In stripes. With a basket of whatever fruit is available to her in June in Montecito regardless of what the apple calendar says. A woman who went through what Meghan Sussex went through and came out the other side building something of her own, smiling at cameras, launching brands, producing films, partnering with sustainability companies, and posting summer content on her own brand page without asking anyone's permission is not embarrassing herself. She is demonstrating exactly the kind of self possession that the institution spent years trying to take from her and failed. They called it loving herself too much. I call it the whole point.