Meghan revealed the advice she received from a mystery woman days before her wedding. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan revealed the advice she received from a mystery woman days before her wedding. Photo / Getty Images
Speculation is growing around the identity of Meghan Markle’s “mystery mentor” who advised her not to give up activism before marrying Prince Harry.
The Duchess of Sussex revealed in the latest episode of her Archetypes podcast that “a very, very influential and inspiring” woman had advised her to keep her activism before marrying into the royal family.
It’s left many wondering whether that “influential woman” could be Serena Williams or Oprah Winfrey, who both attended Meghan and Harry’s wedding in 2018.
Meghan interviewed British actress and influencer Jameela Jamil and American-Iranian X-Men star Shohreh Aghdashloo for the latest episode of her podcast, called The Audacity of the Activist.
Aghdashloo spoke of the fight to “bring democracy back” to her home country amid raging protests in Tehran and throughout the country against the treatment of women breaking hijab rules.
During the conversation, Meghan recalled a message “shared with me just a few days before my wedding by a very, very influential and inspiring woman who for her own privacy, I won’t share who it was with you”.
Serena Williams attends the Wimbledon Winners' Ball. Photo / Getty Images
“But she said to me, ‘I know that your life is changing but please don’t give up your activism, don’t give up because it means so much to women and girls.’
“And I kept doing the work for women and girls because it matters, yes, but also because she encouraged me to do so.”
Elsewhere in the episode, the duchess and her guests discussed why “big ideas” from women are “often deemed audacious” and used to make them “feel small”, with Meghan declaring at one point that women get “no credit and all the blame”.
She then thanked Jamil for “fighting back” for her when the actress said the royal had been “demonised” ever since her relationship with Harry first came to light.
Jamil, 36, revealed that Meghan has reached out to women “in our most lonely and desperate moments”.
