Meghan’s texts with Vogue boss during Oprah
IT WAS a bravado and brutally frank performance that shocked the nation – but as her controversial Oprah interview was broadcast, the Duchess of Sussex was, it seems, receiving supportive text messages from the editor of British Vogue, Edward Enninful.
I can reveal that the style guru, who accepted an OBE from Princess Anne five years ago, was part of a select group of 15 employees of publisher Conde Nast who watched the bombshell interview air in the US via a live video link at their respective UK homes.
They were connected to a TV in the US via Zoom, and I understand that Edward was in ‘constant contact’ with the Duchess via WhatsApp as he watched the ‘soapOprah’ unfold.
A source close to Conde Nast Britain, tells me: ‘There were around 15 people on the Zoom, all top Conde Nast people. They felt it was important from an editorial perspective that they got together to watch it.
‘Edward En ninful; Richard Dennen, the editor of Tatler; Sarah Harris, Vogue’s deputy editor; and Olivia Singer, Vogue’s fashion news director, were on the call.’ In a hilarious twist of makeshift ingenuity that would make Heath Robinson proud, this technical arrangement for the titans of fashion was all arranged via the laptop of a staff member’s parents in Florida!
My source adds: ‘You’d think it was a very technical set-up, but actually it was all organised by the parents of Conde Nast communication director, Emily Hallie, who are in their 60s – who simply put their laptop on an ottoman in front of their TV in Florida.
‘It was so cute but very rudimentary. You had the biggest names in Conde Nast dealing with Emily’s slightly fumbling parents. Sometimes you could hear them talking or see them popping up on camera by accident. You could hear Emily’s mum eating crisps, we were texting her saying, “We can hear you!”
‘It was very much as you’d expect parents to be – kind of getting it wrong and wobbling the laptop.’
The source also said that every 40 minutes – the limit for a free Zoom session – the link ran out. ‘We kept having to restart new sessions. It was hilarious, but actually it was quite a serious screening for the editors. Edward was supposedly texting Meghan throughout.’
In 2019 Meghan edited Edward’s diversity issue of Vogue titled Forces Of Change – in which she gushed: ‘To Edward, thank you for entrusting me, I am deeply honoured’. Edward has previously said Meghan is a ‘brave woman’.