Joe Biden inauguration: Kamala Harris sworn into office
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down as senior royals last year after a difficult few years enduring intense public and press scrutiny. They have now moved to the US, and encouraged Americans to vote in the presidential election in November that resulted in Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump. While Prince Harry and Meghan stopped short of explicitly supporting the Democrats, many people interpreted their statements about “hate” and “misinformation” as condemnation of Mr Trump.
What’s more, in an interview with Gloria Steinem, Meghan hinted at her support for Ms Harris, saying the “representation” of people of colour in politics “excited” her.
The new Vice President, Ms Harris, who is the first woman, first African American and first Asian American to hold that position, has also come out in support for Meghan previously.
When the Duchess spoke to ITV about her struggles with negative press during her pregnancy in 2019, Ms Harris tweeted: “This is incredibly important.
“We must remember that it’s a sign of strength to show emotion. Meghan, we are with you.”
READ MORE: Kamala Harris ‘poised to join Meghan and Harry on Archewell podcast’
Kamala Harris came out in support of Meghan Markle on Twitter (Image: GETTY)
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been elected as President and Vice President (Image: GETTY)
This was not the last time Ms Harris made comments in admiration and solidarity with Meghan either.
In June 2020, we welcomed Meghan’s video message about racism, approving of her statement that “the only wrong thing to say is nothing”.
Ms Harris wrote: “Thank you, Meghan, for this powerful statement.”
On the face of it, both Meghan and the Vice President are ambitious, intelligent, mixed-race, Californian women with a clear history of supporting the Democrats.
Meghan and Harry have moved to the US with their son Archie (Image: GETTY)
Back in 2016, before she married Harry, Meghan came out in support of Hillary Clinton, branding her rival Mr Trump as “misogynistic” and “divisive”.
She said on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore: “Yes, of course Trump is divisive, think about female voters alone, right?
“I think in 2012 the Republican Party lost the female vote by 12 points.
“That is a huge number and, with as misogynistic as Trump is, and so vocal about it, that’s a huge chunk of it.
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Meghan Markle on The Nightly Show with Larry Whilmore (Image: YouTube (Guardian News))
“You’re not just voting for a woman if it’s Hillary.
“Yes, you’re voting because she’s a woman but certainly because Trump has made it easy to see that you don’t really want the kind of world that he’s painting.”
Despite their apparent liking and admiration for each other, Meghan did not publicly congratulate Ms Harris when she won the election.
However, several of Meghan’s celebrity friends did, such as Oprah Winfrey and Priyanka Chopra.
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This is likely because, while Meghan can express herself more politically now she is not a working royal, there are still certain limitations, given that she retained her Duchess title and HRH status, although she has been instructed not to use the latter commercially.
Meghan and Harry’s TIME video, in which they encouraged Americans to vote, was accused of “crossing the line” by a Palace insider.
However, there has been much speculation that Meghan may want to wade into politics fully later on down the line.
Rosa Silverman in the Telegraph argued that Meghan and Harry may invite the Vice President onto their podcast or have some other collaboration.
One source told her: “I think there’s a real feeling of solidarity between the two women.”
Ms Silverman argued that a podcast could work because: “It would serve as a one-off collaboration to discuss and promote some shared aims and interests before Kamala becomes too busy to enter into such enterprises with figures like Meghan.”
Alternatively, she posited that they may do a sit down interview or work that falls under “fighting for gender and racial equality” or work to do with their campaign against hate and misinformation online.
All these possibilities would allow Meghan to sit on the edges of politics, while not requiring her to explicitly support one party.
