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Meghan Markle spent International Women’s Day supporting an organization that helps expectant mothers and their children.

The Duchess of Sussex and members of the Archewell Foundation, the organization founded by Meghan and Prince Harry in 2020 following their step back from royal life, visited Los Angeles-based charity Harvest Home on Wednesday.

They created a pop-up baby boutique, hosted lunch from a female-owned restaurant and made a donation to the charity, which helps provide housing, mental well-being support and classes to expectant mothers who have faced challenges such as domestic violence, substance use and homelessness. Since it was established in 1985, Harvest Home has supported over 600 women and their children.

Photos from the visit show Meghan, 41, with her arm around a woman wearing a Harvest Home t-shirt and smiling as she holds a baby outfit.

“Happy International Women’s day to all of you! Whether donating your time, funds or helping a woman in your community, let’s all celebrate the women in our lives today and every day!” said a message on the Archewell Foundation website.

Meghan and Prince Harry traditionally celebrate International Women’s Day with acts of service, from sending treats to the Hubb Community Kitchen (which Meghan worked with as they created a cookbook to raise funds following the Grenville Tower fire in 2017) to visiting a school for their special International Women’s Day assembly.

In 2019, while pregnant with her son Archie, Meghan participated in a panel discussion for International Women’s Day. During the event, she said, “We must be global feminists and include men and boys.”

Back in 2015, Meghan gave an impassioned speech at a UN Women’s conference in New York in which she talked about gender equality for International Women’s Day.

“I am proud to be a woman and a feminist, and this evening I am extremely proud to stand before you on this significant day, which serves as a reminder to all of us of how far we’ve come, but also amid celebration a reminder of the road ahead,” she said.

Meghan and the Archewell team also stepped out for a meal at Gracias Madre, a vegan restaurant in West Hollywood, on Wednesday. During the outing, the group was treated to a special delivery from Prince Harry: vegan cupcakes from Sprinkles.

“This is from my husband. He was asking for everyone,” Meghan was overheard saying by a fellow diner.

Prince Harry was in San Francisco on Wednesday for an appearance at BetterUp’s Uplift summit. The Duke of Sussex, who has served as Chief Impact Officer for the coaching platform since March 2021, answered audience questions alongside BetterUp CEO Alexi Robichaux in front of a live audience.

Wednesday’s outings marked the first for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after announced that the christening of their daughter, Princess Lilibet Diana, was held on March 3 at their home in California. While confirming the news, the couple referred to their children’s royal titles for the first time.

Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth in September, Harry’s father became King Charles — and as grandchildren of the monarch, 3-year-old Archie and 1-year-old Lili were afforded the titles of prince and princess.

“The children’s titles have been a birthright since their grandfather became monarch,” a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told PEOPLE. “This matter has been settled for some time in alignment with Buckingham Palace.”

On Thursday, the British royal family’s official website was updated to reflect Archie and Lili’s titles, Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex. They were previously styled as “Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor” and “Miss Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor.”
Source: https://people.com

Netflix has unveiled a December 8 release date for Harry & Meghan, the tell-all documentary from the royal pair that looks set to generate plenty of headlines.

The show will launch on Thursday and is being billed as an “unprecedented and in-depth documentary series.” A new trailer was released today and can be seen below. The first three episodes will be available at launch, with the second three dropping a week later.

The show’s logline says it will see the Duke and Duchess of Sussex share the “other side of their high-profile love story.”

Across six episodes, the clandestine early days of the Prince and former Suits actress’ courtship will be explored, moving on to the challenges that led them to step away from royal duty and relocate to their new home in the U.S.

The pair were interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in a similar tell-all last year and Harry is soon to publish a book on the subject.

Harry & Meghan is a Story Syndicate Production in association with Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Productions and Diamond Docs.

Liz Garbus is director and executive producers are Garbus, Erica Sashin, Mark Monroe, Dan Cogan, Ben Browning, Chanel Pysnik, Jon Bardin, Mala Chapple and Angus Wall.

Source: https://deadline.com

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are thanking Sir Elton John!

The couple surprised concert-goers at one of Elton John’s farewell gigs in California by recording a special message. The video was played before the iconic singer’s concert at Dodger Stadium, which was recorded for Disney+.

In the personal message, Harry, 38, thanked the singer for being a friend, not only to his late mom Princess Diana but to him and his young children Archie, 3, and Lilibet Diana, 1, too.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also revealed that they attended one of Elton’s longrunning globe-trotting farewell tour shows.

“Hi Elton, we just wanted to say congratulations,” Meghan, 41, said at the start of the couple’s video message.

Harry then chimed in with his “congratulations” before Meghan added, “And we are just so proud of you. We’re so grateful that we were able to see you on your farewell tour also.”

“And thank you for entertaining everybody for so many decades,” Harry added. “Thank you for being the friend that you were for my mum, thank you for being our friend. Thank you for being friend to our kids and thank you for entertaining people right around the world.

“Even though this is officially your retirement, this will not be your last gig, we know that. But we love you and congratulations on an incredible career,” he concluded.

At the end of the video, Meghan lovingly rested her head on Harry’s shoulder.

Elton John performed at Harry and Meghan’s wedding at Windsor Castle in 2018 (he was also a star turn at the celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth in June) and hosted the couple at his home in the South of France in 2019.

Meghan and Harry weren’t alone in sharing their wishes for Elton amid his farewell tour. President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and crooner Tony Bennett were among the prominent figures who paid tribute to the iconic singer. President Biden thanked him on behalf of the American people for his advocacy for AIDS and HIV campaigning and fundraising via his charity.

Source: https://people.com/

In a surprise moment on Saturday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle joined Prince William and Kate Middleton for a walkaround at Windsor Castle following the death of William and Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth.

Dressed in black, the foursome were seen greeting onlookers and emotionally taking in the flowers and other memorial items left for the late monarch, who died on Thursday at age 96.

Kensington Palace says William, 40, invited the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to join him and Kate, 40, who was recently named Princess of Wales alongside her husband’s new Prince of Wales title.

Prince William thought the walkabout to greet the crowds “was an important show of unity at an incredibly difficult time for the family,” a royal source tells PEOPLE.

The reunion among William, Kate, Harry and Meghan is poignant, as relations have been strained between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and members of the royal family in recent years, including an ongoing estrangement from William and Kate.

Before the Queen’s death — which occurred while the U.S.-based Harry, 37, and Meghan, 41, were already in the U.K. for charity events — the couple were last in the nation in June to help celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, but there was no public interaction between the couple and William, Kate and the rest of Harry’s immediate family members.

They did, however, privately introduce Charles to his granddaughter Lilibet, 1, for the first time, which also gave him the chance to see his 3-year-old grandson Archie, PEOPLE learned at the time.

“It was a fantastic visit. The prince was delighted to see his grandson and meet his granddaughter for the first time,” a royal source said, adding that it was “wonderful” to have Harry and Meghan back in Britain.

Source: https://people.com

The conditions are right for confession. It is a beautiful August day in Montecito, in a beautiful sitting room, in a beautiful home. Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, a lively 3-year-old with a shock of ginger curls identical to his father’s, toddles into the room demanding “Momma” listen to his heartbeat with a wooden toy stethoscope. He stands, tummy protruding, while his mother, Meghan, convincingly performs her glee at hearing the thump-thump, thump-thump in his chest. Archie giggles and, satisfied, toddles right back out again.

Meghan, relaxing in a cozy chair, gazes over all that is climate-controlled and high-ceilinged and sun-dappled and perfectly marshmallowy, and hers. An invisible hand has lit a Soho House–branded rose-water candle (the founder, Nick Jones, is a friend from “long before I met Harry,” she says), and that scent fills the air, mingling with the gentle tones of a flamenco-inflected guitar floating from a speaker. Then, in the lull in conversation, Meghan turns to me and leans forward to ask in a conspiratorial hush, “Do you want to know a secret?”

Meghan, silenced no more, looks around, making sure nobody (who would be?) is listening in. Then the top-secret drop: “I’m getting back … on Instagram,” she says, her eyes alight and devilish.

This could have been a troll: Delivering a nothing with such gravitas feels as if Meghan, who has been so trolled by the media, is serving it back, just a little. But, as I quickly realize, it is actually news. Before this chapter in her life, before everything difficult that spun off from marrying the Duke of Sussex and, along with him, the British monarchy, she was just Meghan Markle, a woman with a plum role on a USA procedural and a moderately popular lifestyle blog, The Tig. As herself, she’d amassed 3 million Instagram followers by sharing snippets of a basic life: yoga, food she liked, hikes with friends, her beagle, Guy. Fans watched as she attended events with her Suits castmates and charity galas, nights out at Soho House in London and Toronto. She ran that account for years before she met Harry, but on the heels of their engagement, control over her Instagram was just one of the things (along with The Tig, her passport, and the freedom to open her own mail) she gave up. She’d loved sharing her life with people, she says, but she loved Harry more. “It was a big adjustment — a huge adjustment to go from that kind of autonomy to a different life,” says Meghan.

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The Duchess of Sussex released the first episode of Archetypes, featuring guest Serena Williams

Meet Meghan Markle!

In a promo for her new Spotify podcast Archetypes, which debuted on the platform Tuesday, the Duchess of Sussex shared what her listeners will hear.

Sitting on a couch in front of a microphone, Meghan says, “People should expect the real me in this, and probably the me that they’ve never gotten to know — certainly not in the past few years, where everything is through the lens of the media as opposed to, ‘Hey, it’s me.’ ”

“I’m just excited to be myself and talk and be unfiltered and…yeah, it’s fun,” she adds.

Meghan, 41, spoke with longtime friend and longtime pal and tennis champion Serena Williams for the podcast’s first episode, tackling the double standard for men and women when it comes to ambition.

“I loved talking about so many important topics with my dear friend Meghan as her first guest on #archetypes for @spotify!” Serena, 40, captioned an Instagram photo featuring Meghan and her daughter, Olympia. “It’s out now and worth the listen, especially if you’re ambitious.”

“I don’t remember ever personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ‘ambitious’ until I started dating my now-husband,” Meghan shared.

Reflecting on life in the limelight as Prince Harry’s partner, she continued, “and apparently ambition is a terrible, terrible thing, for a woman that is — according to some. So, since I’ve felt the negativity behind it, it’s really hard to un-feel it. I can’t unsee it, either, in the millions of girls and women who make themselves smaller — so much smaller — on a regular basis.”

Meghan also got personal about motherhood, revealing for the first time that a fire broke out in son Archie’s nursery during the couple’s royal tour to Africa in 2019. Although Archie was ready to go down for his nap, his nanny Lauren decided to bring him downstairs with her while she grabbed a snack — the same time that the heater in Archie’s room caught on fire.

“He was supposed to be sleeping in there,” Meghan said.

The Duchess of Sussex, who welcomed daughter Lilibet Diana in June 2021, said they then “had to leave him and go do another official engagement.”

Serena replied, “I couldn’t have done that. I would have said, ‘Uh-uh.’ ”

Source: https://people.com/

Meghan Markle deconstructs the history of societal stereotypes about women in “Archetypes,” her first show for Spotify, which premiered Tuesday.

The first hourlong episode of “Archetypes” features Serena Williams, who recently announced her plans to retire from pro tennis, talking with Markle about the double standard women face when they are labeled “ambitious.” and Dr. Laura Cray, a professor at UC Berkeley and an expert on gender in the workplace. (The inaugural episode is available at this link.) Next week’s episode will feature a conversation with Mariah Carey.

The Duchess of Sussex’s weekly podcast is available exclusively on Spotify worldwide. “Archetypes” is the first series to land on Spotify under the streaming service’s exclusive deal with Markle and Prince Harry’s Archewell Audio — inked in December 2020.

In the series, Markle will have “uncensored conversations” with guests including historians and experts to uncover the origin of stereotypes about women and how they shape narratives in the culture.

“Archetypes” will delve into “how we talk about women: the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us,” Markle says in the trailer for the series. “But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up in defining our lives?”

In partnering with Spotify, Archewell Audio said it was “committed to producing programming that uplifts and entertains audiences around the world; spotlights diverse perspectives and voices; and builds community through shared experience, narratives and values.” Until “Archetypes,” it had produced only one podcast for Spotify: a 2020 holiday audio special.

Earlier this year, Markle and Prince Harry had raised concerns with Spotify over COVID misinformation on the platform (amid a wider backlash over vaccine misinfo on “The Joe Rogan Experience”). After meeting company execs, the couple came away assured that Spotify was adequately addressing the misinformation.

“Archetypes” is produced by Archewell Audio in partnership with Spotify’s Gimlet Media. Markle serves as executive producer alongside Terry Wood and Catherine Cyr. Archewell Audio’s executive producers are Rebecca Sananes and Ben Browning. Spotify Studio’s executive producers are Dawn Ostroff, Julie McNamara and Courney Reimer.

In addition to the couple’s deal with Spotify, Archewell Productions has an exclusive deal with Netflix.

Source: https://variety.com