Has Meghan’s ‘rival’ stolen the A-list aristocrat crown she’s longed for? Marchioness of Bath has a lifestyle brand, a TV show, joined Serena Williams at the Met Gala and is in favour with the King… and now she’s at Cannes

She’s a former actress and has plenty of fashion ambitions, yet the Duchess of Sussex once again failed to secure an invite to the Met Gala, and isn’t rumoured to be attending Cannes Film Festival this week.

Yet the aristocrat who is? That would be the glamorous Marchioness of Bath whose star seems to be on the rise as she hangs out with A-lister pals and gifts some of Hollywood’s glitziest red carpets with her presence.

On Tuesday, Emma Thynn claimed the spotlight as IHG Hotels & Resorts and Vanity Fair hosted a star-studded lunch on day one of the 79th Cannes Film Festival. 

Opting for a daring canary yellow gown with a thigh-high split, the Marchioness, 40, showed off her toned legs shortly after arriving at the resort town’s Carlton Beach Club.

With a strappy, plunging neckline, the elegant gown ensured she commanded the lion’s share of attention while posing for pictures during her first public appearance since arriving in the South of France. 

She then swapped her vibrant number for a sleeveless navy dress, featuring a billowing skirt and a daring split for the opening ceremony and The Electric Venus screening at Palais des Festivals.

A week earlier, Emma made a headline-grabbing appearance at the Met Gala, posing up a storm with former Vogue editor Edward Enninful, once thought to be a close friend of Meghan’s before drifting apart amid rumours of a rift.

The duo joined Serena Williams on the red carpet in a move that left fans questioning whether the ex tennis star and the Duchess were still as close pals as they once were.

Emma Thynn claimed the spotlight on Tuesday morning as IHG Hotels & Resorts and Vanity Fair hosted a star-studded lunch on day one of the 79th Cannes Film Festival

Fans were first left doubting the athlete’s closeness to the Duchess following Serena’s ‘disastrous’ As Ever promotion on Instagram after receiving a PR parcel filled with Meghan’s Mother’s Day edit. 

Serena and Emma are thought to be close friends. They’ve holidayed together in Spain and the marchioness previously appeared on the A-lister’s podcast Stockton Street.

Meghan has yet to attend the Met Gala, and isn’t thought to have been invited this year, despite Serena’s sister Venus being a co-chair at the 2026 event.

Some fans have long accused Meghan of copying the marchioness, who also has a lifestyle programme, and like the duchess, produces homemade jam from her Longleat estate.

Comparisons between Emma and Meghan were also drawn in the latest season of reality TV show, Ladies Of London: The New Reign.  

In the opening scenes, released in March, designer Lottie Kane brought up the duchess while introducing the marchioness to viewers.

‘She is the first black woman to be married into an aristocratic family, and I think Meghan Markle tries to claim that, but it was actually Emma,’ she said.

‘I’m of mixed heritage, half-Nigerian, half-English,’ added Emma, who became the Marchioness of Bath after her husband Ceawlin Thynn’s father, Alexander Thynn, died in 2020.

Emma Thynn, Edward Enninful and Serena Williams attend the 2026 Met Gala 

‘The press commented heavily on the fact that I was going to become the first woman of colour to hold this title, and I acknowledge the fact that… the only woman of colour in this position is me, still to this day,’ she continued.

Meanwhile, Emma also attended the King’s Trust Gala in New York, alongside Meghan’s former bestie Edward Enninful, greeting King Charles on his US tour. 

Following the launch of the duchess’ Netflix series in 2025, With Love, Meghan, eagle-eyed viewers spotted a series of similarities to a YouTube cooking show Emma’s Kitchen, hosted by the marchioness.

The Celebrity MasterChef contestant – formally styled as Emma Thynn, Viscountess Weymouth – posts videos of her creations after launching the brand in 2015 using the backdrop of the original kitchens within Longleat House.

One observer tweeted similar still images from each show, writing: ‘Emma Weymouth, Marchioness of Bath, has had a cooking programme at Longleat estate for nine years!’

Another said: ‘Why is Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex trying to channel Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath? TBH, Emma seems more natural while Meghan often seems like she’s acting from a script. I think Meghan should focus strictly on charity work.’

A third added: ‘This woman has no original idea! This is a copy of Emma’s Kitchen!’ And a fourth tweeted: ‘Very much like Emma’s Kitchen on YouTube.’

When previously asked by the Daily Mail’s Harriet Kean what she thought of claims Meghan had copied her, Emma raised her eyebrow and said: ‘No comment.’

The Marchioness of Bath and Serena Williams in Times Square, New York City, on May 2, 2026

King Charles talks with Anna Wintour and Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath, during the King’s Trust Global Gala at Rockefeller Center during a state visit, in New York, in April

In an interview with this paper in 2018, Emma was questioned whether she was ‘bored with the comparisons to the new Duchess of Sussex?’

The Marchioness said: ‘I wouldn’t presume to compare myself to Meghan, but she too broke the mould by being the first black woman to marry into the Royal Family.

‘I want to emphasise how positively this has been welcomed: she has been embraced by the Royal Family and by Britain.’ 

Emma’s appearance on Tuesday comes after her husband won his legal battle to allow his son born by surrogacy to inherit the £157million family fortune.

Ceawlin Thynn, the 8th Marquess of Bath and owner of the Longleat estate, had his second son with wife Emma in 2016 via a surrogate after she suffered from a rare inflammatory condition during her first pregnancy.

Henry Thynn was born to a surrogate mother in America, raising concern about his eligibility to benefit from three family trusts because of the historical definition of a legitimate child.

The nine-year-old is genetically the son of the 51-year-old Marquess – also known as Lord Bath – and his wife.

But the family trusts use a pre-1970 common law definition of ‘children’ that predates modern fertility treatments.

Meghan with actress Mindy Kaling in the trailer for With Love, Meghan

Some viewers compared scenes from Meghan’s Netflix series to those in the YouTube cooking show Emma’s Kitchen hosted by Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath (above)

At the High Court Lord Bath had asked for a ‘blessing’ to allow Henry to potentially inherit a share of the fortune. 

On Tuesday Mr Justice Matthews said in a ruling that it would be ‘unfair on Lord Bath and on Henry’ to treat the boy as though he were not his father’s son.

‘Henry is the son of Lord and Lady Bath. Not only is he treated by them and will be treated by the world in general as a child of Lord and Lady Bath’s marriage but he is also their genetic child,’ he added.

Though his older brother John, 11, would inherit before him because of primogeniture – which provides for a firstborn legitimate child to inherit their parents’ estate – it was argued Henry could still stand to benefit.

The judge said at this stage the trustees only wanted the power to add Henry as a beneficiary but not to exercise it yet.

Mr Justice Matthews said this delay was to ‘avoid any problems with US tax’ because Henry was born there to an American surrogate mother.

‘A decision can then be taken at a later stage, in the light of appropriate advice, whether to exercise the power to add him,’ the judge added.

Henry is believed to be the first member of the British aristocracy to have been born by surrogacy, after his mother suffered hypophysitis during her first pregnancy in 2014.

That pregnancy came a year after she married her husband, who inherited his title seven years later following the death of his father from Covid aged 87.

Lord Bath’s parents had snubbed the couple’s 2013 wedding, held at Longleat, with his father expressing great displeasure over his son’s modernisation of the estate, which included removing a number of his father’s prized erotic paintings from the main house.

The colourful late Marquess once claimed to have about 70 girlfriends he referred to as ‘wifelets’.

Until the pandemic the current Marquess was known as Viscount Weymouth, as he had been since taking control of the Longleat estate in 2013.

His wife, became the country’s first black British marchioness when she gained the title in 2020, a year after she appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, reaching the seventh week with her partner Aljaz Skorjanec.

Born in the capital, she studied History of Art at University College London before taking a course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda).

After a stint in Los Angeles she returned to the UK to become a presenter and chef.

Her husband runs the 900-acre Longleat estate on the Wiltshire-Somerset border and told the Daily Mail after Henry’s birth: ‘Never did I imagine that in West Hollywood I’d become father to John’s little miracle baby brother.

‘It’s a wonder of modern science that the Longleat Bath family has been completed – for now at least – by Emma and I having a much-loved son, helped so crucially by a tremendous surrogate in California, to extend our family.’

His wife, also a former fashion model, said: ‘We are simply ecstatic. His arrival has completed our little family and brought us so much happiness. We have certainly been worried about how people will react to the news.

‘I just want them to know this is not about my vanity or that I was too lazy. I’m not the kind of person who would have done this for anything less than a very important reason.

‘I didn’t care about my weight gain or that breast feeding would ruin my body. I just want to live to see my children grow up. I did not want to take the risk of something tragic happening. I really enjoyed being pregnant up until the point when the terrifying pains began.’