A royal finale
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arriving at the Mountbatten Festival of Music at the Royal Albert Hall last night. The Duke, as Captain General of the Royal Marines, wore his dress uniform for what is expected to be the last time as a full-time working royal
WHEN Meghan Markle entered the Royal family less than two years ago, she made no secret of her ambition to put feminism front and centre of her public work.
As she stepped out for her final solo job as “Her Royal Highness”, the Duchess of Sussex used her last royal platform to urge the next generation to look past race and gender to “speak up for what is right”.
Appearing at a school in Dagenham, alongside one of the women who fought at the picket line for equal pay, she urged teenage boys to “appreciate and protect” the women in their lives in a rallying speech for International Women’s Day.
The Duchess, who greeted stunned pupils in assembly, said young men should make sure their mothers, sisters and girlfriends are “feeling valued and safe” as she asked them to set a good example for “some men who are not seeing it the same way”.
In an unannounced visit to Robert Clack Upper School, the Duchess told pupils: “No matter The Duchess of Sussex poses with children making the ‘Equality’ sign during her visit to Robert Clack School in Essex, and greets appreciative pupil Aker Okoye, below how small you might feel … No matter what colour you are, no matter what gender you are, you have a voice and you have the right to speak up for what is right.” Going “off the cuff ” in a school assembly, she invited one “brave young man” from her audience to go up to the stage to speak about why International Women’s Day was important to him.
Aker Okoye, 16, took on the challenge, kissing the Duchess on the cheek as he took to the podium and leaving her wagging her finger in mock disapproval as he told his school friends: “She really is beautiful, innit.”
It was her final solo engagement before she leaves the working Royal family, and was designed to showcase her favourite themes of women’s empowerment and education. Watching a debating class and a lesson on female poets, she disclosed she had wanted to spend her International Women’s Day event with the next generation.
She told Geraldine Dear, one of the women who took part in the 1984 strike for equal pay at the Ford factory in Dagenham: “Well done on making such an important change for this country. I’m sure it’s not an easy thing to do but it’s the right thing to do.”
Speaking of how motherhood had changed her life, she also disclosed that her son Archie, who is 10 months old, is nearly walking. In assembly, the Duchess took to the microphone to speak without notes to 700 students.
“When we thought about what I wanted to do for International Women’s Day this year, for me it was incredibly important to be with the women of our future.
“And that is all of you young women here as well as you young men who play a very large part in this.”
In words that some observers will find hard to separate from the Duchess’s relationship with the men in her own life, and her decision to leave the Royal family, she said: “I just encourage and empower each of you to really stand in your truth, to stand for what is right.”
‘No matter what colour or gender you are, you have a voice and you have the right to speak up for what is right’