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Fake Video

Did The Sun publish a video claiming Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle sold Princess Diana's iconic revenge dress to Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska for $2.9 million in April 2025? No, that's not true: There is no such story or video on The Sun's website or social media. The quote from "Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams" in the video was cut from a 2022 interview and he told Lead Stories the video was "a particularly horrible forgery". A spokesperson for The Sun also confirmed the video was fake.

The video appeared in a post on X (archived here) published on April 24 with a comment that read:

Dear American taxpayers. You just purchased Zelensky's wife a Princess Diana dress for $2.9 million. Despicable!!

This is the post in question:

Dear American taxpayers. You just purchased Zelensky's wife a Princess Diana dress for $2.9 million. Despicable!! pic.twitter.com/nyCvf4X9pZ

-- Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) April 24, 2025

A transcript of the video read:

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, made an unannounced visit to Ukraine earlier this month. A move that has not only surprised the public, but also frustrated members of the British royal family. His visit was initially framed as a humanitarian effort to support war victims and advocate for wounded veterans. However, recent discoveries prompted speculation that Harry's trip had a secondary, more private purpose.

According to sources close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle recently sold Princess Diana's iconic revenge dress to Ukraine's first lady, Alina Zelenska, for a staggering $2.9 million. The black silk cocktail dress worn by Diana in 1994 in the same evening Prince Charles admitted to infidelity is among the most recognizable symbols of royal defiance and personal reinvention. Insiders claimed the sale was partially motivated by financial concerns.

Meghan Markle's Netflix deal is set to expire in 2025 and bosses at the streaming giant are worried by less than glowing reviews of her new cooking show. And Prince Harry has recently stepped down from his charity Sentebale due to its declining financial health.

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams suggests that the sale of Princess Diana's dress could be yet another explicit attack by Meghan on her husband's relatives. "What this is, of course, is obviously revenge and it's very nasty, especially towards William, towards King Charles."

The Duchess of Sussex previously claimed there was a long-lasting conspiracy to attack her from within Buckingham Palace and that she felt like a scapegoat. Princess Diana's revenge dress was originally sold at a charity the auction in 1997. It was purchased by a Scottish couple and was kept in a bank vault for years until around 2019 when it was gifted to Meghan Markle as a symbolic gesture given Meghan's frequent comparisons to Diana in the press.

A replica of the dress remains on public display at the Museum of Style Icons in Ireland. Although Olena Zelenska's motivation to purchase Princess Diana's revenge dress remains unclear, it could be seen as part of her strategy to become closer to the British royal family. In 20..

The quote attributed to "Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams" in the video was cut from a 2022 interview he gave to GB News (archived here) where he was commenting on Harry & Meghan's Netflix series, not on any supposed sale of a dress:

Contacted by Lead Stories by email, Fitzwilliams commented:

It's a particularly horrible forgery. The Sun never put this out. Please make this clear.

He further added:

It is a particularly horrible feature of today's world that a disgusting forgery like this, featuring a video which The Sun never put out and a comment from me taken from another source can appear online.

The tastelessness of its content speaks for itself. It is a great pity legal action cannot be taken against the perpetrators of something so outrageous.

Google searches for pages containing both the phrases "revenge dress" and "ukraine", limited to links on thesun.com and thesun.co.uk (using the "site:" search operator) returned no relevant results (archived here and here). According to a search, the last time The Sun's account on X spoke about the "revenge dress" was in 2019 (archived here).

Elizabeth Morton, Head of Communications at The Sun, confirmed in an email to Lead Stories that it was a fake video.

Similar stories

Lead Stories previously debunked similar stories falsely claiming Zelenskyy or his wife purchased expensive things which were also spread using videos or websites spoofing well known media brands, for example here, here, here, here and here.