MEGHAN’S 3 WISE WOMEN
The Sussexes make history hiring an all female team of top staff
THE Duke and Duchess of Sussex have become the first royals to have an all-female team of senior staff after appointing a pro-EU former ambassador as their righthand woman.
The couple have just headhunted Fiona Mcilwham, who became one of the youngest British ambassadors in history when she was appointed to albania in 2009 aged 35, and has worked as a senior adviser to the director-general of EU enlargement.
She will start work next month as the couple’s private secretary, the most senior role in any royal household and equivalent to a chief of staff. Intriguingly it means that Harry and Meghan – who both describe themselves as feminists – have chosen an all-female team around them.
Miss Mcilwham joins their deputy private secretary Heather Wong, head of communications Sara Latham, two senior female press officers and a team of female private office employees.
Their only male hiring has been a young social media officer, in charge of their inhouse publicity, including beefing up their Instagram site with glossy images and videos of the couple.
On her Twitter biography Miss Mcilwham, who has worked for the Foreign Office for 21 years, describes herself as being: ‘Diplomat and wannabe supermum; ex-HMa [ambassador] Tirana and Director Western Balkans.’ She has just completed a strategic leadership course at the royal College of Defence Studies.
Her appointment is hugely significant and a sign of how determined Harry and Meghan are to make their mark on the international stage. ‘It’s a statement of intent,’ one source said last night.
Educated at St John’s College, Cambridge, Miss Mcilwham, 45, has travelled extensively, with experience in Bangladesh, Sudan, Baghdad, Basra, Washington and Pakistan.
She has also held posts in the US and the Middle East, as well as the Balkans. Colleagues describe her as charismatic and brilliant but also a ‘fully paid-up member of the Euro elite’.
She lives in a £1million north London townhouse with her husband Daniel Korski and their son. and is Mr Korski who has attracted most of the headlines until now.
as prime minister David Cameron’s controversial former ‘enforcer’, Mr Korski was one of the most powerful figures in Downing Street, and an architect of the remain referendum campaign, dubbed ‘Project Fear’. In three years as a special adviser to Mr Cameron he was described as ‘the most ardent EU enthusiast to ever work for a Tory prime minister’.
In 2016 he was accused of involvement in a complaint against the then British Chambers of Commerce director-general, John Longworth, after he gave a boldly Eurosceptic speech.
He was also involved in a row over claims that pressure was put the then London Mayor, Boris Johnson, to prevent new restrictions on taxi firm Uber after the company agreed to help encourage young people to vote in the EU referendum. at the time the youth vote was expected to be solidly proremain. The former prime ministerial adviser has strongly denied any impropriety.
Mr Korski has since set up his own firm, PUBLIC, which helps start-up companies to win government contracts and public sector deals in return for an equity stake.
Until now Harry and Meghan have been relying on a ‘stop gap’ private secretary, Samantha Cohen, a hugely experienced and well-liked longterm palace operator who had previously been deputy private secretary to the Queen.
She quit her job in 2017 amid behind the scenes difficulties, but was persuaded by the Queen to stay on working for Harry and Meghan after they announced their engagement in order to smooth their way through the wedding and first few months of married life. She is understood to be on six weeks’ leave now and will return for the briefest of handovers with her successor.
The other Team Sussex female high-flyers are two senior female press officers and a team of at least three female behind the scenes staff, including the prince’s longserving projects manager, Cara Madden.
Meghan has a new personal assistant after the previous incumbent, Melissa Touabti, quit after just six months. It is also understood that the couple have employed a new female nanny for baby archie.
‘It’s a statement of intent’