The Secret Service had set up a no fly zone to ensure total privacy as hundreds of A-listers descended on Martha’s Vineyard for the post-pandemic party of the year.
Revellers at Barack Obama’s 60th birthday celebrations on Saturday night were treated to hand-mixed martinis, gourmet cuisine and live entertainment at the former US President’s £12 million Massachusetts mansion. Guests including Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Tom Hanks, Stephen Spielberg and George Clooney flew in for the exclusive bash, which featured specially branded napkins and face masks, and tongue-in-cheek backstage passes for the assembled VIPs.
Yet as hundreds of America’s most high-profile Democrat supporting stars gathered to see Obama and his wife Michelle, 57, hit the dancefloor, one celebrity couple was conspicuous by their absence.
Ordinarily, you might have expected the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to be front and centre of any guest list drawn up by the Obamas.
The former President and First Lady have a longstanding relationship with Harry, 36, after they bonded over the Prince’s hugely successful Invictus Games initiative. They famously starred in a video montage with Harry and the Queen to promote the 2016 competition, and the Duke subsequently interviewed the former commander-in-chief on Radio 4. When Michelle gave a talk at London’s Southbank Centre in December 2018, Meghan made a point of attending – and the two women were said to have had a long “power meeting” backstage, during which they discussed their shared passion for girls’ education.
And, despite the Obamas having not attended the Sussexes’ wedding that year, it was thought that the newly California-based couple would be shoo-ins at Obama’s 60th, as prominent “progressives” and new-found members of the influential US metropolitan liberal elite.
Meghan’s close friend, the CBS news anchor Gayle King, had made the cut, after all and although she did not attend, Oprah Winfrey is also believed to have been asked to save the date.
So why weren’t the Duke and Duchess on the dancefloor? Could this be a sign that the Sussexes’ love affair with the Obamas has gone cold?
Confusion surrounds whether they were snubbed or simply couldn’t make it after the website Page Six, which broke the news of Harry’s multi-million pound book deal, reported that they were “not planning to attend” the shindig.
Having welcomed their second child, Lilibet, into the world in June, the couple are currently on parental leave – although Meghan did manage to record a video with actress Melissa McCarthy last Wednesday to mark her 40th birthday.
Although Obama turned 60 on the same day – August 4 – neither he nor Michelle were seemingly invited to participate in Meghan’s new charity initiative to donate 40 minutes of time to mentoring women returning to the workplace after Covid.
Celebrities who were asked to support the 40x40 drive included Hillary Clinton, singer Adele and fashion designer Stella McCartney. Yet with some criticising the scheme as “self-serving” and “woke”, could the Obamas be fearful that their ongoing association with the Royal couple risks attracting negative publicity?
Some in Democratic circles have suggested that the Sussexes’ attempts to ape everything the Obamas have done since they left The White House could have jeopardised their once “special relationship”.
After leaving the Royal Family and moving to Montecito near Santa Barbara in March last year, Harry and Meghan appear to have used the Obamas’ modus operandi as a blueprint for their own Stateside relaunch.
Like them, they have signed a lucrative multi-million dollar deal with Netflix to produce their own documentary series, while Harry last month announced he is writing his memoirs for Penguin Random House, which is the former President’s publishers. His autobiography, A Promised Land, was released in November 2020, two years after Michelle published her own life story, Becoming.