Get ready for Meghan 2.0: Duchess poses for charity and dines with Hollywood royalty as she prepares to accept US ‘racial inequity’ award tonight – as experts say expect to see more of her with new celeb pals thanks to Kate’s current charm offensive
Meghan Markle began her US relaunch this week as she posed with youngsters on a charity visit and dined with Hollywood royalty before preparing to accept a ‘racial inequity’ award tonight.
The Duchess of Sussex went to ground as Prince Harry promoted Spare and their popularity plunged – but the former actress is now making a very public comeback.
On Friday night, she and Harry were spotted leaving a sushi restaurant in Montecito with celebrity couple Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden following a Michelin-star meal.
Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband, TV producer Brad Falchuk – as well as Bumble chief executive Whitney Wolfe Herd and her husband, Texas oil heir Michael Herd, are said to have dined with them.
There is speculation Meghan may have been bending Ms Paltrow’s ear about relaunching her blog, The Tig, having seen how the actress’s Goop lifestyle website has made at least £200million.
Yesterday, Harry and Meghan popped up for a royal-style engagement with young people from a Santa Barbara youth group to discuss mental health. And tonight, Meghan will be in New York to collect a ‘Women of Vision’ gong.
Meghan at a mental health workshop in Santa Barbara this week as experts said a flurry of appearances is a sign she is relaunching after negative press and plunging popularity
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Prince Harry and Meghan visited a youth group this week
The mental health event was Harry and Meghan’s first official engagement since the Coronation
Brand and culture expert Nick Ede told MailOnline that Meghan has expertly used the focus on the Coronation and drawn it onto herself this week through appearances with Hollywood glitterati, young people and now an awards ceremony with a Black Lives Matter leader.
He said: ‘Meghan has cleverly circumnavigated herself away from the Royal Family and Coronation scrutiny and got all eyes on her and what’s she’s doing next’.
PR guru and king of the publicity stunt Mark Borkowski, said the ‘savvy’ Duchess of Sussex is fighting back, with Kate also on manoeuvres. He predicted that Meghan will be seen with more celeb friends and calling on their help for her ‘glam’ relaunch after the negative press caused by Spare and the Sussexes’ Netflix series.
It came as the Sussexes’ friends Amal and George Clooney arrived at a Prince’s Trust event in London today. The organisation was set up by King Charles when he was heir to the throne and has helped one million young people develop skills and find jobs.
Mr Ede said: ‘Meghan’s positioning herself as an inspirational figure, which she is to many, and she’s doing what she does best: highlighting causes whilst highlighting herself.
‘She’s also giving herself space from Harry to stand on her own two feet and be recognised not as a duchess but as her own person, which she will be very happy about’.
Prince Harry and a smiling Meghan Markle (centre) are seen leaving Sushi Bar Montecito in California last Friday with Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden (right)
Experts have suggested that Meghan is also competing against Kate, pictured at a Dame Kelly Holmes Trust event in Bath today
Referring to Kate’s Eurovision cameo on Saturday, when she was shown playing the piano, Mr Borkowski said: ‘Meghan will need the support of her super influencer friends. Kate has been basking in the Coronation glow especially with the Eurovision stunt – but Meghan is sitting in the heart of showbiz so expect lots of glam photo ops. I expect well placed moments not boring ubiquity’.
Experts had already predicted her relaunch would come in the days after the Coronation, culminating in an appearance in New York tonight as a guest of honour at the annual ‘Women of Vision Awards’.
This evening she will be described as ‘one of the most powerful and influential women in the world’ and collect an award for being a ‘feminist, champion of human rights and gender equity, and global role model’.
The 41-year-old royal will receive a top prize from activist Gloria Steinem in honour of her ‘global advocacy to empower and advocate on behalf of women and girls’.
Other winners include Black Lives Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown. Both women will be welcomed as ‘incredible leaders’ with ‘many accomplishments and tireless work on behalf of gender and racial equity across the country and the world.’
Royal expert Kinsey Schofield, host of the To Di For Daily royal podcast, said: ‘I guarantee you a million dollars she’s going to demand that she’s referred to as Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, upon receiving this award…
‘The irony is that she’s receiving this feminism award, demanding that she’s referred to as a duchess, which is a title that you only receive by marrying a duke’.
TalkTV host Cristo Foufas said: ‘This is a feminist changemaker award. These are people who have really plowed a path for women. Meghan marrying into a massively well-known family with a husband who is a prince. Nothing says feminism like that, does it?’
Amal Clooney and George Clooney at The Prince’s Trust Awards in London today. The couple attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding
Is Meghan Markle bringing back her popular lifestyle website, The Tig? She dropped a hint that it may be making a comeback in the Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan
Her decision not to be in London to see her father-in-law crowned King allowed her to celebrate Archie’s fourth birthday with her mother Doria and friends – but it will also give her time to plot her next move in TV, books and podcasting, insiders claimed.
One source told The Telegraph that Archewell, the Sussexes’ broadcasting business, is looking to hire writers to create ‘feel-good’ shows including romantic comedies for Netflix.
Meghan was reportedly upset by an episode of South Park, which lampooned the couple by depicting two royals on a ‘Worldwide Privacy Tour’ while plugging a memoir.
With multi-million-pound bills to pay, Meghan may also look for a second series of her Spotify podcast, Archetypes, while the couple could front more shows for Netflix, who signed them up for a reported $100million in 2020.
Friends of Meghan have claimed that her low profile in recent months has been to support her husband as he released Spare and put their children first – the opposite of what Harry claimed his childhood in Britain was like.
The Tig ran from 2014 to 2017 – at the height of her fame in TV show Suits – and featured everything from New Year’s resolutions to diet tips and fashion finds. She also explored feminist topics and shared musings from her childhood and career before she got her big break. If she were to relaunch it, she is now more famous and would be unshackled by any constraints of being a working royal.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was all smiles as she left Gracias Madre in West Hollywood after an International Women’s Day celebration.
The Duchess of Sussex, 41, first launched the website – which she branded as her ‘passion project’ – in 2014, and for three years, she used it as her personal blog. It was shut down in 2017 when she was in a relationship with Prince Harry
Mr Ede previously told MailOnline that Meghan was in the process of separating herself from the royals, for her own benefit.
Speaking before the Coronation, he said: ‘I think once the Coronation is over and the eyes of the world are off the King and Prince Harry, then Meghan will launch a new initiative. I suspect she will have been working on some new projects that will enable her to stand alone rather than use Prince Harry.
‘I think she is most likely to announce a wellness space like The Tig or a new documentary series’.
Mr Borkowski said that Meghan has difficult decisions to make as their popularity in the US has tumbled.
He added: ‘There will definitely be a relaunch by Meghan. It is impossible for them to stay quiet. They need the royal pomp and ceremony. They could end up becoming an entity like Edward and Mrs Simpson. Forlorn royals with no connection to the family being in exile. There are parallels there.
‘They will be very quick to regenerate interest. But it is going to be more and more and difficult. For many Spare was a set of stories that went too far’.
The Tig was, in her own words, her ‘passion project’. The brand is still owned by the Duchess’s Delaware-based company Frim Fram.
Rumours have been swirling that the lifestyle blog may soon return
When closing the blog down in 2017, she reflected on how it had ‘evolved into an amazing community of inspiration, support, fun and frivolity’
And even though Meghan shut down her old blog in 2017 to minimise public scrutiny ahead of marrying into the Royal Family, she has retained the rights. There have been an increasing number of reports that Meghan will imminently revive it.
Meghan founded The Tig while starring in legal drama Suits, naming it after her favourite red wine, a £135 to £215-a-bottle Tignanello from Tuscany.
The blog featured her tips on food, wellness, fashion, travel, fashion, the arts, design, and ‘conscious living’.
And, in the Sussexes’ recent Netflix series, Meghan gushed about it saying: ‘It wasn’t just a hobby, it became a really successful business’.
She said: ‘I’ve never really been the type of person to do only one thing, I guess that’s how my website was born.
‘There was fashion, tons of food and travel – all the things that I loved. The Tig wasn’t just a hobby, it became a really successful business.’
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