Meghan Markle opens up about her ‘hopes, fears and insecurities’

The Duchess of Sussex donned an apron this week as she joined in with a baking workshop for disadvantaged women.

Meghan said humans are not ‘mechanical objects that need to be fixed’ as she her ‘hopes, fears and insecurities’ during an intimate chat this week at a new branch of the Luminary Bakery in Camden, North London. 

The 38-year-old royal lamented a ‘culture of instant gratification’ where people want an ‘instant fix’, saying humans must instead be seen as ‘wounded creatures that need to be healed’.

She was visiting the Luminary Bakery – a social enterprise which trains women who have been victims of violence and sex trafficking – as it opened its new premises in Camden, following on from the first outlet in Hackney, East London.

Meghan featured the project when she guest-edited an issue of British Vogue, and she posed for a series of photographs with women at the bakery this week.

The Duchess posted a video this morning to Sussex Royal, her Instagram account with husband Prince Harry, showing her cutting into a cake and speaking with staff.

Speaking to Tanya, a woman who was stabbed repeatedly by her violent ex-partner, she said: ‘I was talking about this with someone the other day. 

‘We get into this habit of wanting things done immediately nowadays. There’s a culture of instant gratification, of the instant fix. 

‘But we aren’t mechanical objects that need to be fixed. You’re a wounded creature that needs to be healed, and that takes time.’

Meghan, who married Prince Harry in 2018 and gave birth to their baby son, Archie, in May, told the Daily Telegraph’s Bryony Gordon: ‘I find that when you strip all the layers away, as people, and especially as women, we can find deep connection with each other, and a shared understanding. 

‘Our lives may be different, our backgrounds, our experiences, all varied, but I find that in these moments of connection it becomes abundantly clear that our hopes, our fears, our insecurities, the things that make us tick…. well, those are very much the same. And there’s comfort in that.’

The royal also said since she has moved to the UK ‘people have an expectation when I’m coming somewhere’ but she wanted them to be ‘nice and chilled’.

Meghan also revealed she would be watching the Rugby World Cup final with Archie in his England baby grow, while her husband cheers on the team in the stands.

It came as Labour MP Holly Lynch revealed how she discussed the public eye being ‘a lonely place for women’ during a phone call with Meghan this week.

Meghan personally phoned Ms Lynch, MP for Halifax in West Yorkshire, to thank her for writing an open letter that 72 female politicians signed to support her over negative Press coverage of the Duchess. 

The MP admitted she was ‘touched’ to hear from her, and told how Meghan, 38, was remaining positive and channeling the negative energy into turning attitudes around.

Politicians including Diane Abbott and Jess Phillips wrote to the Duchess, saying they ‘stand with’ her and relate to her experience.

Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, the MP said: ‘I was moved to hear from her.

‘She wanted to say that she appreciated the gesture and to pass on her thanks to all the women who have signed. 

‘We spoke about how being a women in the public eye it can sometimes feel like a lonely place to be but there’s actually a lot of us that feel feel this way way and when we work together we can be a real force for good, bringing about the changes that we want to see.’  

The MP shared her campaign on Twitter yesterday, before speaking to ITV about the open letter.

She said: ‘She was calling to thank myself and other women MP for standing with her and sending the open letter to say that we, as women in public office, absolutely understand what she is going through.

‘Although in very different public roles, we stand with her in solidarity to say that we shouldn’t be tearing down women in public life through the press or otherwise, so she was pleased to have seen that letter.’ 

She added that she was ‘very concerned’ about ‘incredibly sexist’ coverage of the Duchess. 

‘She is here, she has married our prince, they got a young son, we want to welcome her to our society and I am afraid not all of the articles in our national press reflect that, and it’s time that stops,’ she said. 

Others who also put their name to the letter included Liberal Democrat MP Angela Smith and Conservative MP Tracey Crouch. 

The letter said that ‘as women MPs of all political persuasions’ the group wanted to ‘stand against’ stories they said were ‘often distasteful and misleading’ in a number of national newspapers across the UK.

It continued: ‘On occasions, stories and headlines have represented an invasion of your privacy and have sought to cast aspersions about your character, without any good reason as far as we can see.

‘Even more concerning still, we are calling out what can only be described as outdated, colonial undertones to some of these stories.

‘As women members of Parliament from all backgrounds, we stand with you in saying it cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.’

The letter addressed that even though the women held different lives in the public eye, that they shared an understanding of the ‘abuse and intimidation’ which is used as a means of ‘disparaging women in public office’ from getting on with their work.

‘We expect the national media to have the integrity to know when a story is in the national interest, and when it is seeking to tear a woman down for no apparent reason.

‘You have our assurances that we stand with you in solidarity on this.

‘We will use the means at our disposal to ensure that our press accept your right to privacy and show respect, and that their stories reflect the truth.’

The letter from MPs comes after Prince Harry addressed being in the spotlight during his recent ITV documentary. 

Harry described the way he deals with the pressures of his life as being a matter of ‘constant management’, adding: ‘I thought I was out of the woods and then suddenly it all came back, and this is something that I have to manage.

‘Part of this job, and part of any job, like everybody, is putting on a brave face and turning a cheek to a lot of the stuff, but again, for me and again for my wife, of course there is a lot of stuff that hurts, especially when the majority of it is untrue.

‘But all we need to do is focus on being real, and focus on being the people that we are, and standing up for what we believe in. 

He added: ‘I will not be bullied into playing a game that killed my mum.’ 

During the documentary he also highlighted the behaviour of the press and said it played a role in the public scrutiny that he and wife Meghan Markle have faced. 

In his statement, Prince Harry said he and Meghan believed in ‘media freedom and objective, truthful reporting’ as a ‘cornerstone of democracy’. 

However, he added that his wife had become a ‘victim’ of the tabloid press in a campaign he claimed had ‘escalated ruthlessly’. 

He also said that there was a ‘human cost’ to such articles being published and said his wife was the ‘same person now as she was on our wedding day’.  

During the honest documentary,  the Duchess of Sussex’s documentary following the royal couple’s first official engagement in Africa this year.

Speaking to Mr Bradby, who asked how she was adapting to the pressures of being a royal, the Duchess admitted she was ‘not okay’. 

She said: ‘Look, any woman especially when they are pregnant you’re really vulnerable and so that was made really challenging, and then when you have a new born, you know…

‘And especially as a woman, it’s a lot. So you add this on top of just trying to be a new mum or trying to be a newlywed.’

Earlier this month Harry launched legal action against the Mail on Sunday over a claim that the paper unlawfully published one of her private letters to her father Thomas.