THE DUCHESS OF SUSSEX
PAYS A TOUCHING TRIBUTE TO HER CHILDREN IN A VIDEO FROM HER CALIFORNIAN HOME
As she celebrated her milestone 40th birthday last week, the Duchess of Sussex had plenty to be thankful for.
With two adorable young children and a devoted husband at her side, she is happily settled into her dream home on the sun- kissed Californian coastline.
However, by launching her 40x40 initiative to mark her milestone birthday on 4 August – her “40th lap around the sun” as she calls it – Meghan gave many others cause for thanks by encouraging people around the world to commit to giving 40 minutes of their time to support women going back to work.
Among the 40 friends already signed up to support the initiative are her husband’s cousin, new mum Princess Eugenie, singer Adele, designer Stella McCartney, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, the wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin, and Bridesmaids actress Melissa McCarthy.
Making her first public appearance since the birth of daughter Lilibet in June in a video uploaded to the website of the Archewell Foundation she and her husband the Duke set up last year, she explains more about the project she hopes will have “a ripple effect”. Meghan is seated, with her pet beagle Guy on a dog bed in the background, at a desk with family photos, a neat pile of copies of her children’s book The Bench, and a Harrods cup and saucer with a plate of biscuits. In a touching nod to her children, she wears two diamond necklaces by Los Angeles jeweller Logan Hollowell representing their star signs: Taurus for two-year-old Archie and Gemini for baby Lilibet.
Prince Harry, 36, even makes a cameo appearance, in an outtake at the end, as he attempts to juggle outside the window, to the delight of his wife. The video also shows Meghan enjoying a skit with Melissa, who suggests a Suits cast reunion for her big day, matching “besties forever” tattoos or a birthday bash on a yacht – even an afternoon tea with their chickens, to which Meghan replies: “I don’t really think tea with the chickens is what we had in mind…”. Melissa then suggests “another photoshoot under a tree where you’re looking very peaceful”, to which Meghan responds: “Peaceful under a tree is me every day.” She is also seen blowing out a candle on a delicious birthday cake covered in cream frosting and fruit.
A UNIQUE BIRTHDAY GIFT
After the scheme was unveiled, Princess Eugenie posted an Instagram post pledging to take part. The 31-year-old, who is close to Harry and Meghan,
wrote: ‘To celebrate dear Meghan’s 40th birthday I’m contributing 40 minutes of mentorship to support women reentering the workforce.’
Her message came on the same day as birthday congratulations were posted for Meghan from the Queen, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, sharing favourite photos.
In her own birthday post on the Archewell website, Meghan writes: “In reflecting on my 40th birthday and the many things I am grateful for, I’m struck that time is among our greatest and most essential gifts: Time with our loved ones, time doing the things we love, time spent learning, laughing, growing, and the sacred time we have on this Earth. Amongst the most valuable gifts of time is also time spent in service to others knowing that it can contribute to incredible change.
“To that last point, and with my 40th lap around the sun in mind, it made me wonder: what would happen if we all committed 40 minutes to helping someone else or to mentoring someone in need? And then what would happen if we asked our friends to do the same?”
Meghan says she was inspired to act as: “In the past two years, and in large part because of the Covid-19 pandemic, tens of millions of women around the world have left the workforce, including over two million women in the US.
“I believe mentorship is one way to help women regain confidence and rebuild their economic strength, and for my birthday, I have asked 40 friends, activists, athletes, artists, and world leaders to help kick off a global effort by contributing 40 minutes of mentorship to support women reentering the workforce…
“I hope that they inspire countless others to give 40 minutes of their time as well.”
As well as launching 40x40, Meghan is enjoying taking time with Harry to focus on their young family, two months on from the arrival of their baby daughter.
MORE ADVENTURES AHEAD
But as she enjoys the newborn cuddles with Lilibet and precious toddler time with her eldest, Archie, Meghan is no doubt also busy making plans for the coming months.
Having already listed the roles of actress, senior royal, philanthropist, podcaster and author on her CV in recent years, the Duchess has now added executive producer.
She is working on Pearl, her first animated TV series for Netflix. The show will follow the
‘Time with our loved ones, time doing
the things we love... [I’m] reflflecting on the many things I’m grateful for’
adventures of a 12-year-old girl who finds inspiration from some of the most influential women in history.
Meghan says of the series, which she is working on with filmmaker David Furnish, husband of Sir Elton John: “Like many girls her age our heroine Pearl is on a journey of selfdiscovery as she tries to overcome life’s daily challenges.”
Meghan described herself last year as “a mother, feminist and advocate” and in recent months her advocacy has been evident as she and Harry have used their platform to highlight issues such as racial inequality and vaccine equity, while encouraging people to use their vote.
Meghan has long championed the importance of representation and her first children’s book, The Bench, a series of poems about fathers and children with illustrations of diverse families, became an instant New York Times bestseller. Reacting to the news in June, she said: “While this poem began as a love letter to my husband and son, I’m encouraged to see that its universal themes of love, representation and inclusivity are resonating with communities everywhere.”
With her husband working on his own memoir, could Meghan be planning another book, perhaps an autobiography of her own at some point in the future?
To celebrate her milestone birthday, hello! highlights the Duchess’s love of motherhood and her commitment to her missions…
Meghan describes herself as ‘a mother, feminist and advocate’
She has been a waitress, an actress and a Duchess but, in Meghan’s own words: “The most important title I’ll ever have is mom.” The Duchess of Sussex said it while speaking to talk-show host and friend Oprah Winfrey with her husband the Duke of Sussex in March and months later, blessed with two children, she is clearly embracing the greatest role of her life.
Her sense of contentment and freedom as a mother shines through in a video she and Harry shared of their son Archie running along a deserted beach before giving his mum a hug. With baby Lilibet making their family complete, she is overjoyed.
The couple announced their pregnancy by sharing a black-andwhite photo on Valentine’s Day of them at their California home. Expressing touching portrait her happiness – taken by in close the friend Misan Harriman – Meghan is seen smiling, her head in Harry’s lap, while tenderly cradling her baby bump in a long Carolina Herrera dress she’d worn while pregnant with firstborn Archie.
As a tribute to Harry’s beloved mother, their revelation was carefully timed for 14 February, the same date it had been announced that the Princess of Wales was pregnant with Harry, who was also her second child.
A month later – the day after the Sussexes’ interview with Oprah – Meghan again celebrated motherhood by sharing another intimate portrait from their pregnancy shoot, released to coincide with International Women’s Day. With Harry’s arms around her, the pregnant Duchess exuded maternal warmth as she cuddled Archie. “What wonderful news to celebrate on International Women’s Day,”! Congratulations my friends, and welcome to the #girldad club H,” Misan captioned the photo on Twitter.
The couple’s heartfelt statement on their Archewell website following the birth of Lilibet Diana – named after her great- grandmother the Queen and her paternal grandmother, Diana, Princess of Wales – on 4 June perfectly summed up Meghan’s elation at becoming a mum for the second time: “She is more than we could have ever imagined, and we remain grateful for the love and prayers we’ve felt from across the globe.”
The former actress revealed to hello! in 2015, six years before Lilibet’s arrival, that she had a special Cartier French Tank watch, purchased to celebrate her breakthrough show Suits being renewed for a third season. “I totally splurged and bought the two-tone version,” she told us. “I had it engraved on the back: ‘To M.M. From M.M.” and plan to give it to my daughter one day.”
Since welcoming Archie in May 2019, Meghan has shared snapshots of her experience, from the rapturous first days to the emotionally overwhelming adjustment to life in the spotlight. Days after he was born, she said: “I have the two best guys in the world so I’m really happy.” Of her newborn, she added: “He has the sweetest temperament, he’s really calm. He’s just been the dream, so it’s been a special couple of days.”
Archie’s great-grandparents the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were among the first to meet him, with his maternal grandma Doria Ragland, at Windsor Castle, and proud mum Meghan couldn’t wait to show him off.
“It’ll be a nice moment to introduce the baby to more family, and my mom’s with us as well,” she said. After just a few months’ maternity leave, the Duchess returned to royal duties, taking Archie with her and Harry on a tour of South Africa, where the four-monthold famously met Archbishop Desmond Tutu. “Travelling as well with a baby, my goodness it’s a lot,” she said. “But it’s all so exciting.”
Her sense of contentment and freedom as a mother shine through
She may have just launched her new global initiative 40x40, but Meghan demonstrated her support for women’s empowerment and social justice from an early age.
Setting out her stall as an 11- year- old schoolgirl, she successfully campaigned for Procter & Gamble to alter its use of sexist language in an advert for washing-up liquid.
She fine-tuned her awareness of social issues as a teenager when she volunteered at a soup kitchen on Los Angeles’s Skid Row, and she later dedicated her time to charitable causes, working as a global ambassador for World Vision Canada, travelling to Rwanda to support the charity’s Clean Water campaign. She also became involved with the United Nations, delivering a speech on International Women’s Day in 2015.
She delighted in mixing her campaigning with her acting work: “While my life shifts from refugee camps to red carpets, I choose them both because these worlds can, in fact, co-exist. And for me, they must.”
It was in the slum communities of Mumbai in 2017 with World Vision that she witnessed the work of the Myna Mahila Foundation, which works to improve menstrual hygiene and female empowerment, and was one of the charities the Duke and Duchess of Sussex asked guests to support in lieu of gifts at their 2018 wedding.
A group of loyal Meghan fans styling themselves “the sussexsquad” held a month-long appeal in honour of her 40th birthday and raised more than £33,000 for the foundation.
As a working member of the royal family, the Duchess took on patronages that reflected her interests and passions, from gender equality to animal welfare, the arts and education. She has retained her ties with two of the organisations that are, perhaps, closest to her heart. One is the London-based Mayhew, founded in 1886 to help animal owners struggling to look after their pet cats and dogs. A dog-lover herself – Meghan has a black labrador named Pula and a beagle named Guy, who appears in her 40x40 birthday video with Melissa McCarthy – she became the charity’s first royal patron in January 2019 after contacting them directly. She also sponsors a kennel in the name of her son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.
The other charity she kept was London-based Smart Works, which gives unemployed women attending job interviews a dressing and coaching service and a follow-up working wardrobe.
Having left the royal family as working members and since relocated to California, Meghan and Harry continue their philanthropic work through the Archewell Foundation, the charitable arm of their organisation, which also includes their media companies. With an aim to “uplift and unite communities one act of compassion at a time”, the couple have set H out their goal to “build a better world”.
Meghan and Harry set out their goal to ‘build a better world’