Princess Diana and Meghan Markle.Photo: Getty
Like Diana, the Duchess of Sussex, 40, joined the royal family on awave of public enthusiasm. And, like Diana, her royal fantasy ultimatelyturned sourunder the weight of tabloid intrusion and a perceived lack of support from inside the royal family.
“I was ashamed to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry. But I knew that if I didn’t say it — then I would do it. I just didn’t want to be alive anymore,” the Duchess of Sussextold Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle speak to Oprah Winfrey.CBS/Youtube
Prior to her August 1996 divorce fromPrince Charles, Diana pioneered an entirely new brand of royalty that saw her get up close to the homeless and shake hands with HIV-positive patients at the height of the 1987 AIDS epidemic.
Through this simple act, “She transformed public attitudes and improved the life chances of such people,” the late South African leader Nelson Mandela said of Diana’s actions, adding that she used her royal status to “fight stigma attached to people living with HIV/AIDS.”
Diana visits Toronto’s Casey House Aids Hospice in October 1991.Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
In January 2018, Meghan’s second public event as an engaged royal took her to the Reprezent 107.3FM radio station in Brixton, south London, an area dubbed “London’s Harlem” and synonymous with the city’s Caribbean community.
Four months after her May 2018 wedding, she also publishedTogether: Our Community Cookbookin association with the all-female Hubb Community Kitchen, based out of the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in Notting Hill.
Meghan Markle visits Hubb Comunity Kitchen in November 2018.Chris Jackson/Getty Images
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Since then Meghan has famously stepped back from frontline royal duties and relocated to California withPrince Harry, far away from the prying eyes of the British tabloids. Here, the Duchess of Sussex is free to continue her cause-driven work and raise her children — and Diana’s grandkids — Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1, on her own terms.
source: people.com
