Meghan Markle’s 40th birthday video depicted “super luxury wealth” in an “ivory coloured tower” according to a royal expert, and her inability to downplay it demonstrates how out of touch she is with the people she claims to want to help.

Jonathan Sacerdoti, a royal specialist and pundit, made the claim.

The brief video, in which the Duchess of Sussex announced her 40×40 mentorship project, underlined “the divide between what Meghan and Harry say and what Meghan and Harry do,” according to Jonathan Sacerdoti. During the video, the former Suits actress is seen discussing the big project with Melissa McCarthy, a US comedic actress.

The project has been met with varied reactions, with Sacerdoti describing it as a “haughty message of superiority, rather than one of real compassion.”

“The video made no effort to disguise the luxurious surroundings that Meghan was in,” he said in an interview with Express.

“Everything was colour coordinated within an inch of its life, from the white table to the beige rug to even her clothes matching the same colour palette. Which is fine, I suppose, but it’s not necessarily on message with helping those in need.”

Everything in the room where the video was recorded was color matched, and there was no attempt to hide their enormous riches, according to Jonathan.

“She was surrounded by not just expensive things but literally marks of super-luxury wealth, from the throw over one of the chairs to the two necklaces she was wearing one for each of her children’s star signs, to the giant crystal on her desk, to the desk itself,” he continued.

“None of these things looked modest, or down to Earth – they look like the trappings of celebrity couple living the high life in an expensive mansion in an expensive part of the world.”

Also “It seems a little strange to be sitting in that sort of ivory coloured tower, let’s say, preaching to everybody else that they should be giving up 40 minutes of their time to help those in need. I don’t think that it was the best messaging for what was a worthy cause.”

Sacerdote said the Sussexes had certainly sought guidance from brand experts, but that appearing compassionate from a position of enormous luxury is difficult.

He explained: “I think there’s a divide between what Meghan and Harry say what Meghan and Harry, do especially when it comes to that word compassion that they appear to use constantly, both in their written statements and on their website, and elsewhere.

“I think that they’ve probably honed in on that word on the advice of some sort of consultant or brand reputation protection expert because probably it’s the thing that they think will resonate most with the general public, that they have compassion, with other people.

“But I think that when you’re in a position of immense luxury and wealth and privilege, it’s probably very difficult to portray an image of compassion for others.

“That would explain I suppose why they keep trying so hard to do so. I’m not sure if I would have chosen that particular format for trying to portray an image of compassion – it didn’t seem very connected to most people’s lives.

“And I think that it puts across a haughty message of superiority, rather than one of real compassion.”