Following Meghan Markle's maternity wardrobe has been one of the best parts of her first royal pregnancy (for us, anyway), but all the looks she's serving up don't exactly come cheap. And hey, we're not judging; it's not like royalty is going to swing by H&M for their essentials. Now the numbers are in: One blog has totaled up how much they estimate she's spent on her maternity clothing since she became pregnant, and safe to say, it's a lot.
According to Love the Sales' research, Markle has spent more than $500,000 on her maternity outfits so far, which is no insignificant figure. But as the site's fashion editor told marieclaire.com, given her Hollywood background, Markle is pretty used to designer clothing that she bought with the money she earned from Suits. (Kate, she explains, comes from a little more low-key background, which meant she was wearing more pieces from "understated brands.") Of course, keep in mind that royals don't accept free clothes from brands, so all of this is reportedly coming from Prince Charles' income, believed to be around $28 million.
Love the Sales also shared more interesting tidbits, including that the Duchess of Sussex's most-"liked" dress was the black Givenchy gown she wore when she had that two-handed cradle-the-bump moment that weirdly freaked the Internet out.
And you can bet that the Meghan Markle Effect (the spike in searches and sales for a brand or item after she wears it) is real. According to the site, there was a 5,800 percent and 3,900 percent surge in searches for Karen Gee and Outland Denim after she wore them. (And she's reportedly her own stylist too.)
Markle's wardrobe has reportedly been comparatively expensive compared to the rest of the royal women, and to be honest, it makes sense: She's a newcomer to that royal life, so she's basically building a wardrobe the way some of us had to outfit ourselves for our first job, just on a much larger (and more designer-filled) scale. In 2018 the blog UFO No More totaled up how much they thought the royal women had spent on their wardrobes, and Markle took the grand prize with purchases thought to total around $508,000 (Middleton, by contrast, was thought to have spent around $85,000). That means that, yep, she's spent as much on maternity clothes she'll wear until the baby comes—and now we see why Middleton breaks out so many great rewears when she's getting ready to have another mini royal.
It's not long until we get to meet Baby Sussex, who's expected around late April or early May—until then, we'll enjoy the last days of following Markle's fantastic maternity wardrobe.
