Rich Americans are spending up to $1 million to rub shoulders with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at a glittering New York gala.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will receive an award at the Ripple of Hope gala in New York on December 6, which honours people for their humanitarian and philanthropic efforts.
Hosted by President John F. Kennedy’s niece Kerry Kennedy, the gala has a top-tier ‘Pioneer’ package that costs a cool $1 million and will include four seats at the top table where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to be seated.
Other packages run from $500,000 and include access to a VIP reception at which photographers are expected to snap the Sussexes with the event’s main benefactors.
The gala is organised by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights foundation, named after President Kennedy’s younger brother, who was assassinated in 1968.
Previous winners of the Ripple of Hope award include US President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as former Democratic Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Al Gore.
The decision to give Meghan and Harry a top human rights award has baffled Kennedy historians.
Professor David Nasaw, author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book The Patriarch, about JFK and RFK’s father Joseph Kennedy, said: ‘I find it somewhere between sublimely ridiculous and blatantly ludicrous. It’s absurd.
The gala is hosted by President John F. Kennedy’s niece Kerry Kennedy. She is the seventh of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy’s children and runs the RFK Human Rights organisation
‘If you look at the people who have been awarded the Robert Kennedy prize in the past – Bill and Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi [Speaker of the US House of Representatives], Bishop Desmond Tutu – and then you have to ask what are Harry and Meghan doing here?
‘What in God’s name have they done to merit this? What percentage of Harry and Meghan’s wealth is going to worthy causes?’
Prof Nasaw said Kennedy patriarch Joe, a staunch Irish Catholic, would be turning in his grave to see branches of his family ‘latching on to British Royalty’.
The Mail on Sunday has been told that a team of photographers will be at the VIP event to capture Meghan and Harry being introduced to the event’s biggest donors.
A source said: ‘At previous events the photographers at the VIP reception have made sure they get pictures of the high donors with celebrity guests and honourees. It’s the American way. If you are paying big bucks, you want the pictures as bragging rights.’
Tthe venue during the 2019 Ripple Of Hope Gala & Auction in New York. The most recent public RFK tax return, in 2019, showed that year’s gala brought in over $4 million
Hollywood A-lister Alec Baldwin – himself no stranger to controversy following the shooting dead of a cinematographer on the set of Rust – will preside over the gala, which will also honour Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.
While the decision to honour the Sussexes has baffled some, it may be no coincidence that the director of their upcoming Netflix docu-series, Liz Garbus, is partner in a film company with Rory Kennedy, the youngest of Robert F. Kennedy’s 11 children.
One Hollywood producer said: ‘Everyone has been scratching their heads to try to figure out the reason why Harry and Meghan were chosen to receive this while they are still in the early stages of their philanthropic work.
‘Perhaps the connection between the Netflix documentary and Rory Kennedy is it?’
Alec Baldwin (pictured), 63, hosted the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award Gala with his Boston-born wife Hilaria Baldwin, 37, in 2021. He will preside over the gala again this year
Like the Royals, the Kennedy Family is no stranger to public spats. Kerry Kennedy, the seventh of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy’s children, runs the RFK Human Rights organisation. According to publicly available records, she is paid more than $500,000 a year. The most recent public RFK tax return, in 2019, showed that year’s gala brought in over $4 million.
Kerry’s brother Robert F. Kennedy Jr is a notorious ‘anti-vaxxer’ who has been kicked off Instagram and Facebook for his controversial views. Earlier this year Kerry sought to distance herself from her brother, a conspiracy theorist who has said his father’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan is innocent.
The gala will take place four days after the Prince and Princess of Wales attend the Earthshot prize in Boston
While a spokesman for Mr Kennedy declined to comment on whether he would attend the Sussex event, five of his eight surviving siblings and his wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines, have sought to distance themselves from his views. After Mr Kennedy compared government measures to contain the pandemic with ‘Hitler’s Germany’, his wife said: ‘My husband’s opinions are not a reflection of my own.’
The gala will take place four days after the Prince and Princess of Wales attend the Earthshot prize in Boston. Prince William has joined forces with Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy, whose ‘moonshot’ mission to put a man on the Moon inspired the Earthshot Prize, described as the world’s most prestigious eco-award.
‘This is quiet wealth and power,’ said one person with knowledge of the event. ‘Think Rockefellers and people like former Vice President Al Gore.’
Philanthropists across America are vying to attend both events.
One wealthy Los Angeles heiress told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We love the Royals.
‘I’d love to try to get tickets for both. You can buy a ticket to the Meghan event, so that’s no problem, but the William and Kate event is strictly invitation-only, which is making it much harder to get into.’
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