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It makes for an unbeatable photo-op, doesn’t it? Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, out for a bougie afternoon tea at Claridge’s with Nobel Peace Prize-winning education activist Malala Yousafzai.
The two women were unwittingly snapped by another diner, with a video shared to TikTok of the group toasting glasses of Champagne in the foreground while the two extremely famous faces appear deep in conversation on a velvet-padded booth behind, alongside the words: “POV: Claridge’s decided to seat Meghan Markle and Malala in front of you.”
The Duchess paired pleated white Ralph Lauren flares with a white top, camel coat from British brand Tove and a quilted Chanel pouch; Malala can be seen wearing a taupe coat.
Lest you think Meghan’s people called Malala’s people just for the – admittedly fabulous – “optics”, the pair have genuine history. They’ve known each other for years, notably first joining forces in October 2020 for a video chat to celebrate the International Day of the Girl. Meghan’s husband, Prince Harry, also joined the conversation about the barriers to education faced by young women.
Afterwards, Malala wrote on social media of their shared outlook: “Meghan and I are on the same page: we both believe that when girls have access to education, everyone wins.”
This most recent catch-up took place in the Claridge’s Art Deco-inspired Foyer and Reading Room café, with a security detail present throughout, as reported by The Times. It’s only the Duchess’s second public social engagement since she, Harry, and their two children, Archie (7) and Lilibet (5), officially moved back to the UK for an extended stay in late August.
The first outing was also a strictly A-list affair – in September, Meghan was photographed with Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, her friends and former Montecito neighbours, at 18th-century pub The Three Horseshoes in Oxfordshire.
As my colleague, Charlotte Cripps, previously noted, it’s been far from clear-cut just who Meghan could gather around her as the new glitzy Cotswolds social set. After all, plenty of the more obvious choices – Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozz, say, or Zara Philips and her husband Mike Tindall – might be minded to stay away initially, for fear of being seen as taking “sides” in the ongoing messy Royal Family feud.
This latest social manoeuvre with Malala, even if born out of genuine respect and mutual affection, is unlikely to be entirely spur of the moment. Meghan is, after all, the master of branding and painstakingly careful curation when it comes to her public persona. Everything from the authentic look of each slice-of-Sussex-family-life Instagram post to the precisely imprecise rustic culinary and craft creations on her magazine-style Netflix lifestyle show, With Love, Meghan, is evidence of the Duchess’s strategic nous. Nothing is by accident.
She has what could be termed “studied authenticity” down to an art – just look at her multi-million dollar lifestyle brand, As Ever, with best-sellers including a £195 wicker holiday hamper, £112 advent calendar, flower sprinkles, signature candles and lashings of artisanal jam – and her public-facing friendships are arguably simply another facet of the well-oiled PR machine.
You only have to do a swift roll-call of previous pals to get a flavour of the rarefied circles Meghan enjoys being associated with: tennis legend Serena Williams, for example, is one of Meghan’s oldest celebrity friends, after they met at a Super Bowl party in 2010; actor and activist George Clooney and his wife, international human rights lawyer Amal, became pally with the Sussexes before they left the UK in 2020; and music royalty, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, publicly endorsed Meghan in 2019 when they stood in front of a portrait of the Duchess wearing a crown during their pre-recorded Brit Awards acceptance speech.
“Thank you, Meghan, for your courage and leadership,” said the Cowboy Carter singer. “We are all strengthened and inspired by you.” The couples officially met later that year on the red carpet for the Lion King premiere in London; Harry and Meghan were spotted at Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour in LA in 2023.
Meghan’s swift reacquaintance with DeGeneres and de Rossi back in Blighty served as a reminder of her starry, Hollywood roots. Now, a possible deepening of the friendship with a woman who famously survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012 after advocating for girls’ education rights in Pakistan and became the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2014 speaks volumes about how Meghan would like to position herself and be perceived in this next chapter.
Perhaps, after the cancelling of With Love earlier this year and the recent news that a potential return to acting in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen is reportedly off the cards following huge backlash, Meghan’s keen to shake off the frivolous “just add edible flowers!” la la land image and pivot back to cultivating a more “serious” persona – potentially producing more hard-hitting feminist fare.
Whatever the behind-the-scenes reasoning, it’s a move made to align herself with such an inspirational and unimpeachable figure. After all, as the old proverb goes, “A man is known by the company he keeps”. Who knows? Maybe Malala’s unique combination of integrity, intellect and star power might just rub off on a Duchess who’s still finding her feet on British soil.
