Duchess’s cold calls to US senators have reverse effect as paid leave campaign stalls
‘Senator Collins couldn’t believe Meghan used her title Duchess of Sussex during the call’
THE Duchess of Sussex’s campaign for paid parental leave in the US has hit a speedbump after her personal calls to senators angered politicians.
She phoned at least two senators out of the blue, introducing herself as Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and lobbied them to vote for guaranteed paid leave for new parents, in what was described as “the height of audacity” by someone close to the talks.
The US offers no national paid parental leave, and the Duchess, who has two children, has made a number of highprofile political interventions on the issue in recent weeks. They have not all been well received on Capitol Hill.
Her friend Kirsten Gillibrand, the senator for New York, is understood to have given her the private numbers of up to 10 Republican senators, a move considered by some to be a breach of protocol. “The talks to mandate paid family leave are stalled because Republican senators are angry that Meghan called them. They thought it was the height of audacity,” one source said.
Referring to Susan Collins, the senator for Maine, the source added: “Senator Collins couldn’t believe Meghan used her title Duchess of Sussex during the call. She said: ‘I care more about what the people of Maine think.’ ”
On Thursday, the Duchess brought up her campaign in an appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show. The US “is the only country in the world that does not have a paid federal family leave programme”, she said, adding: “I will do everything I can to make sure we can implement that for people.”
Last month, she wrote a 1,010-word letter on headed notepaper to Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, and Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of House of Representatives, saying: “I know how politically charged things can, and have, become. But this isn’t about Right or Left, it’s about right or wrong. This is about putting families above politics.”
The policy was part of a $1.9trillion spending bill that was passed by the House of Representatives yesterday. It could be cut from the final bill because it does not have the support of a number of senators.