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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex invited close friends and family to gather for a “casual, intimate backyard picnic” on Saturday at their Frogmore Cottage home, a spokesperson for the couple shared on Monday.

In the sweet photo, Lili smiles as she plays in the yard of her family’s home. She wears a blue dress and a white lace bow in her red hair — which she inherited from dad Harry!

Close family friend and guest Misan Harriman who attended Lilibet’s party with his wife and children took the “candid, spontaneous photograph that the Duke and Duchess are pleased to share today,” the spokesperson added.

Baker Claire Ptak from East London’s Violet Bakery was tasked with creating a special cake for Lilibet. Ptak also created Meghan and Harry’s wedding cake in 2018.

Harry and Meghan “remain incredibly touched by the countless birthday wishes for their daughter, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor,” the couple’s spokesperson said.They were “amazed to learn that people around the world made donations” amounting to over $100K to the World Central Kitchen (WCK) in her honor,” the spokesperson continued, adding that the couple “extended their gratitude to all who have shown support for the organization, which is especially near to their hearts.” WCK is first on the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate and community crisis. They build resilient food systems with locally-led solutions. Most recently, they provided support in Uvalde, TX and Ukraine.

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Official portraits lilibet’ 1st birthday – june 4 2022

The couple, who will travel from their California home to the U.K. with their two children for the weekend of festivities marking the monarch’s 70 years on the throne, is expected to attend the service of thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, June 3, according to The Telegraph.

Many members of the royal family are expected to attend the event, including Prince Andrew, the Queen’s son who is no longer a working royal following his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Some of the Queen’s older great-grandchildren, including Prince George and Princess Charlotte, may also attend the Friday ceremony, although Meghan and Harry’s two children — Archie Harrison, 3, and Lilibet Diana, who will turn 1 on June 4 — are believed to be too young for the outing.

News that Meghan, 40, and Prince Harry, 37, would travel to the U.K. for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations came shortly after Queen Elizabeth, 96, announced that only working members of the royal family will appear for the traditional Buckingham Palace balcony appearance as part of Trooping the Colour, the monarch’s annual public birthday celebration.

“After careful consideration, the Queen has decided that this year’s traditional Trooping the Colour balcony appearance on Thursday 2nd of June will be limited to Her Majesty and those members of the Royal Family who are currently undertaking official public duties on behalf of the Queen,” a Buckingham Palace spokesman said.

This change in tradition does not include Meghan and Harry, who stepped back as senior members of the royal family in 2020, and Prince Andrew following his recent lawsuits. However, it’s possible that Meghan and Prince Harry will appear at Trooping the Colour in another capacity, such as taking part in a carriage ride as part of the parade.

It’s likely that Meghan and Prince Harry will attend other events throughout the weekend as well.

On Saturday, June 4, members of the royal family will attend the Derby at Epsom, followed by the Platinum Party at the Palace in the evening, with performances by Queen + Adam Lambert, Diana Ross and more.

The four-day celebration will wrap with the Platinum Jubilee Pageant on Sunday, June 5, featuring a parade down The Mall to the Palace in London.

Source: https://people.com/

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are heading to the U.K. next month — with son Archie Harrison and daughter Lilibet Diana!

“Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are excited and honored to attend The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations this June with their children,” according to a spokesperson for the couple.

The trip will be the first time Lili, who was born in California last year, will visit her dad’s homeland. She’ll likely even celebrate her first birthday on June 4 during the trip.

The news comes shortly after Queen Elizabeth announced that only working members of the royal family will appear for the traditional Buckingham Palace balcony appearance as part of Trooping the Colour, the monarch’s annual public birthday celebration.

Prince Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, will not be part of the appearance. Harry’s uncle Prince Andrew, who is no longer a working royal following his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, will also not be included on the balcony.

“After careful consideration, the Queen has decided that this year’s traditional Trooping the Colour balcony appearance on Thursday 2nd of June will be limited to Her Majesty and those members of the Royal Family who are currently undertaking official public duties on behalf of the Queen,” a Buckingham Palace spokesman says.

The family members who will appear on the palace balcony during Trooping the Colour will be the Queen, Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex. The Queen’s cousins, the Duke of Kent, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Alexandra will also be in attendance.

William and Kate’s children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, are expected to be there along with Edward and Sophie’s kids, Lady Louise and James, Viscount Severn. Princess Anne’s husband Sir Tim Laurence may also appear as he’s a frequent supporter of his wife during her public duties.

The birthday parade, which will take place on June 2, kicks off a long weekend of commemorations for the Queen’s 70 years on the throne. The long weekend ends with a special parade through central London on Sunday, June 5.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex may appear at another event, such as the Service of Thanksgiving on June 3. Traditionally, members of the extended family have attended the Thanksgiving Service at the Jubilees — most recently of 10 and 20 years ago.

Harry and his wife Meghan stopped in the U.K. for a visit with the monarch at Windsor Castle in April as the couple made their way to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games.

“It was great, it was really nice to see her. To see her in an element of privacy was nice,” Harry said.

Source: https://people.com/

The honor, recognizing notable achievement and valued public service, will be handed out at the ceremony airing live on Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. on BET. Previous honorees include Muhammad Ali, Colin Powell, Soledad O’Brien, Condoleezza Rice, LeBron James, Rihanna and Jay-Z.

“We’re thrilled to present this award to Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who together have heeded the call to social justice and have joined the struggle for equity both in the U.S. and around the world,” said NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson in a statement. “Not only do they continue to lead by example, The Duke and Duchess have also decided to inspire the next generation of activists through the NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award, ensuring the support and recognition of generations of civil rights leaders to come.”

The NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award is a newly established annual award that is supported by the couple’s global nonprofit, Archewell Foundation, and administered by the NAACP. The award will honor individuals who are not only leaders of transformational change in progressing civil and human rights, but who also seek advancements in the digital rights space and work to expand equity.

This year’s recipient is author and scholar Safiya Noble, Ph.D., an internet studies scholar and professor of Gender Studies and African American Studies at UCLA. Additionally, she is co-founder and faculty director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2), which works with the Archewell Foundation.

“It’s a true honor to be recognized by President Derrick Johnson and the NAACP, whose efforts to propel racial justice and civil rights are as vital today as they were nearly 115 years ago,” said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in a statement. “We’re proud to support the NAACP’s work and to also partner with the organization on the newly created annual NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award, which will be bestowed to Dr. Safiya Noble as part of the 53rd NAACP Image Awards.”

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com

Meghan spoke about how Harry and their son Archie inspired the book in the video. “I wrote this as a poem for my husband and our son, Archie, and then turned it into a book so you can enjoy it too,” she said.

Before she began reading, she also touched on why the illustrations in the book—by Christian Robinson—are so special. “I asked him to do something special for me and use watercolors, which isn’t the usual medium he works in, but he did it to make this extra special,” she said. “I hope you love the pictures as much as you love the words.”

Watch her read the story below:

Meghan released The Bench on June 8. She spoke on NPR about how she purposely made sure every family was represented in the illustrations. “Growing up, I remember so much how it felt to not see yourself represented,” Meghan said. “Any child or any family hopefully can open this book and see themselves in it, whether that means glasses or freckled or a different body shape or a different ethnicity or religion.”

Archie loves The Bench, Meghan added: “[He] has a voracious appetite for books. Archie loves the book! Now the fact that he loves The Bench, and I can say, ‘Mommy wrote this for you’ feels amazing.”

Source: https://www.elle.com/

Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, are getting into the investment business. They are joining Ethic, a fintech asset manager in the fast-growing environmental, social and governance space, as “impact partners” and investors. Ethic has $1.3 billion under management and creates separately managed accounts to invest in social responsibility themes.

The couple could attract more attention to sustainable investing. Harry and Meghan can make E.S.G. investing part of pop culture in a way that, say, BlackRock’s Larry Fink can’t. “From the world I come from, you don’t talk about investing, right?” Meghan told DealBook in a joint interview with Harry. “You don’t have the luxury to invest. That sounds so fancy.”

“My husband has been saying for years, ‘Gosh, don’t you wish there was a place where if your values were aligned like this, you could put your money to that same sort of thing?’” Meghan said. They were introduced to Ethic by friends, she said.

Harry and Meghan said they hoped that their involvement would help democratize investing, making people — especially younger people — more deliberate in their choices and conscious of investing in sustainable companies. “You already have the younger generation voting with their dollars and their pounds, you know, all over the world when it comes to brands they select and choose from,” Harry said, suggesting it was a natural extension to do the same with investments.

The move is the couple’s latest corporate partnership since relocating to the U.S. Harry and Meghan moved to Los Angeles last year and later gave up official royal family duties. Seeking financial independence, they have signed production deals with Netflix and Spotify. Harry also recently produced a documentary series about mental health for Apple TV+ in connection with Oprah Winfrey and is writing a memoir.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/

Duchess Meghan is making her 40th birthday one to remember. To coincide with the special milestone, the Duchess of Sussex has launched a new charitable initiative to support women around the world.

As part of the Archewell Foundation’s ongoing call for Compassion in Action, the new 40×40 initiative encourages people to contribute 40 minutes of mentorship or community service to help women affected by the pandemic reenter the workforce.

Meghan’s decision to focus on this growing problem comes after millions of women around the world have been forced to leave work during the pandemic, including 2 million in the U.S., through job loss or having to focus on schooling children and care for family members.

And she isn’t doing it alone. The duchess has asked 40 activists, athletes, artists, and world leaders to participate, including Adele, Amanda Gorman, Amanda Nguyen, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Gloria Steinem, José Andrés, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, and Stella McCartney.

With the help of actress Melissa McCarthy, Meghan announced the project on the Archewell website during a special skit (featuring a cameo from a juggling Prince Harry!). “We should get matching tattoos,” McCarthy suggested to mark her big day, holding up a “besties forever” design. “Y’know, maybe we should save it for when I turn 50,” Meghan laughed.

In an open letter about the idea of giving 40-minutes of service, Meghan wrote, “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?”

She continued, “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 kickoff a global effort by contributing 40 MINUTES OF MENTORSHIP to support women re-entering the workforce. With this time, I hope they each help someone advance a professional life on her own terms, and, I hope that they inspire countless others to give 40 minutes of their time as well.”

One of Meghan’s first patronages, the British-based charity Smart Works, has joined three other organizations to partner with the #40×40 initiative. “The Duchess of Sussex has personally dedicated many hours to supporting and mentoring Smart Works’ clients ahead of their job interviews,” the charity, which coaches unemployed women ahead of job interviews, tweeted. “We look forward to playing a small part in bringing this initiative to life for the women we exist to help.” The YWCA, a charity dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting justice, and volunteer action center LA Works have also joined as partners.

Supporters of the duchess have also found other impactful ways to celebrate Meghan’s birthday. Sussex Squad members launched the #Meghans40celebration hashtag to raise money for the Myna Mahila foundation in India, which has spent the past six years working to break taboos surrounding menstrual hygiene in a country where more than 140 million women are using unsanitary menstrual solutions. Over the past month, the grassroots initiative has raised upward of $47,000 to help 850 girls go back into full-time education by providing yearlong supplies of sanitary products.

Despite numerous tabloid reports of lavish birthday parties and five-start party planners, sources close to the duchess tell BAZAAR that Meghan will be celebrating her 40th “privately” at home with family.

Source: https://www.harpersbazaar.com

Soon after leaving the royal family and naming their charity, Archewell, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced that they opened a production studio and signed a major deal with Netflix with an eye towards “making inspirational family programming.” Now, nearly a year after the September 2019 announcement, Meghan and the team at Archewell Productions have shared details about the company’s first show aimed at children, an animated series tentatively called Pearl, which will mix fantasy and history.

Meghan will executive produce alongside David Furnish, and the show will focus on the adventures of a 12-year-old girl as she meets notable women from history. “Like many girls her age, our heroine Pearl is on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to overcome life’s daily challenges,” Meghan said in a statement. “I’m thrilled that Archewell Productions, partnered with the powerhouse platform of Netflix, and these incredible producers, will together bring you this new animated series, which celebrates extraordinary women throughout history. David Furnish and I have been eager to bring this special series to light, and I am delighted we are able to announce it today.”

Furnish, the husband of Meghan and Harry’s close friend Elton John, expressed his admiration for his collaborators in a statement. “Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex and I are deeply passionate about bringing the inspirational and positive stories of extraordinary women from around the world to a global audience of all ages,” he said. “The team collaborating on the series are first class, and Netflix are the perfect partner.”

In April, Netflix announced that it had picked up its first Archewell show, Heart of Invictus, a docuseries helmed by Prince Harry following competitors on their road to compete in the Invictus Games for wounded service members. The games will take place in the Hague in 2022.

Source: https://www.vanityfair.com

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are now a family of four! The Duchess of Sussex welcomed the couple’s second child — a baby girl — on Friday.

“It is with great joy that Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, welcome their daughter, Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, to the world,” read a statement from the couple released on Sunday.

“Lili was born on Friday, June 4 at 11:40 a.m. in the trusted care of the doctors and staff at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA. She weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. Both mother and child are healthy and well, and settling in at home,” the statement continued. “Lili is named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet. Her middle name, Diana, was chosen to honor her beloved late grandmother, The Princess of Wales.”

“This is the second child for the couple, who also have a two-year-old son named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. The Duke and Duchess thank you for your warm wishes and prayers as they enjoy this special time as a family.”

Meghan and Harry also took to their Archewell website to share a personal message, writing, “On June 4th, we were blessed with the arrival of our daughter, Lili. 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. Thank you for your continued kindness and support during this very special time for our family.”

The couple announced Meghan’s pregnancy on Valentine’s Day, sharing, “We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child.”

During their interview with Oprah Winfrey in March, they revealed that they were expecting a baby girl.

“To have a boy then a girl — what more can you ask for?” Harry said.

They also shared they won’t have any more children following their baby girl’s arrival: “Two is it.”

Prince Harry added of his feelings upon learning the baby is a girl, “Grateful, having any child, any one or a two would have been amazing, but to have a boy and then a girl . . . now we’ve got our family and we’ve got four of us.”

Meghan and Harry announced their pregnancy news with a stunning black-and-white photo that was taken remotely via iPad by their friend and longtime photographer, Misan Harriman. A smiling (and barefoot!) Harry looks lovingly at Meghan, who cradles her baby bump as she rests in his lap.

The happy news came after Meghan revealed she suffered a miscarriage last July. “Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few,” she wrote in a searingly honest and heartbreaking New York Times essay on November 25.

Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, officially stepped down from their roles as senior royals last year. Their desire to have a normal family life played a role in their groundbreaking decision.

A palace source previously told PEOPLE that by the time of Archie’s birth, “they knew they were going to hit the nuclear button” on their royal exit.

When Archie was born, the couple’s focus shifted, even more, to “doing what’s right for their family,” added another friend.

Source: https://people.com/