12 Meghan Markle Princess Diana Similarities
Ever since she entered the royal family fold, Meghan Markle has made an indelible impression on the world. She's certainly left her own unique impact, and we have a feeling the Duchess of Sussex is just getting started when it comes to her post-royal life. Yet, despite being her own distinctive person, with a bold voice and confidence all her own, there've been so many times Meghan Markle reminded us so much of the late Princess Diana.
From the time she married Prince Harry in May 2018, Meghan made it clear service was front-of-mind. Much like her late mother-in-law, Meghan's interests have always leaned towards humanitarian efforts, and using her platform to shed light on issues that are so important to her.
It's not just her philanthropic endeavors that strike us as very Diana-like, though. From her fashion to her compassion for children, her hands-on parenting style, and so much more, there've been a number of times Meghan made us think of Diana. Even the youngest son of the late royal sees the similarity.
'So much of what Meghan is and how she is, is so similar to my mum,' Prince Harry says in the first episode of Harry & Meghan. 'She has the same compassion. She has the same empathy. She has the same confidence. She has this warmth about her.' Take a look at the times Meghan Markle reminded us of Princess Diana, in honor of Meghan's 43rd birthday today.
A version of this article was originally published on Jan 2023.
More from SheKnows
Iconic Photos of Princess Diana That Will Always Live On
Best of SheKnows
24 Times Kate Middleton Perfectly Recreated Princess Diana's Iconic Fashion
Every Time Paris Jackson's Bold Red Carpet Fashion Took Our Breath Away
Every Single Time Kate Middleton's Royal Fashion Made Us Stop in Our Tracks
One of the more heartbreaking similarities between Diana and Meghan is their relationship with the press — especially tabloid media. The late Princess of Wales was constantly hounded by paparazzi, with varying degrees of headlines written about her. What once was an adoring press often turned harmful, not dissimilar to Meghan's experience.
As chronicled in Harry & Meghan, the global reaction to Meghan was so warm. But as Meghan's time as a prominent member of the royal family continued, the headlines became intrusive and painful. Both women simply wanted to retreat from the flashing cameras and constant attention, trying to regain any semblance of control over their lives.
Even though we'd like to think conversations about mental health are more open than ever before, the stigma still exists and persists. Both Princess Diana and Meghan Markle opened up about their struggles with their mental health. They sought support from Buckingham Palace during their respective struggles, and each dealt with suicidal ideation.
'All of this will stop if I'm not here,' Meghan said in Harry & Meghan, recalling just how dark her thoughts became while she was a senior working royal. 'And that was the scariest thing about it because it was such clear thinking.'
During Diana's controversial interview with Martin Bashir, the late Princess of Wales disclosed her suicide attempts.
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts or thoughts of self-harm, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text 'STRENGTH' to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
We can only imagine what Princess Diana's post-royal life would look like today. But we have a feeling it wouldn't be dissimilar to that of Harry and Meghan's. In the final episode of Harry & Meghan, the Duke of Sussex commented that his mom might've ended up in Santa Barbara one day. But beyond where they settled, Meghan's continued philanthropic and humanitarian efforts remind us most of Diana's post-royal life.
Even the Duchess of Sussex remarked in Harry & Meghan that if the couple are going to have a microscope on them after taking a step back as members of the royal family, they're going to use their platforms for good — something we think Diana would be proud of.
In 2024, Meghan Markle had a successful tour with Prince Harry to Nigeria, similar to the one Princess Diana did in Nigeria in March 1990.
On May 17, news broke that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were in a 'near catastrophic car chase' with paparazzi tailing them, which was the same type of incident that took Princess Diana's life.
Both of them reportedly found the restrictions from the British royal family's extensive protocols to be frustrating, leading both of them to repeatedly break it while in the Windsor House.
We can't get over how much Meghan reminds us of Diana's personality once she finally came into her own. During his engagement interview with Meghan Markle, Prince Harry commented that his late mother and now-wife would have been 'thick as thieves.'
And like we said at the top of this round-up, Harry can't help but see the similarity between his mom's personality and that of his wife. 'So much of what Meghan is and how she is, is so similar to my mum,' he says in the first episode of Netflix's Harry & Meghan. 'She has the same compassion. She has the same empathy. She has the same confidence. She has this warmth about her.' Indeed, there is a warmth and personability to Meghan, one we've seen before in Diana.
Practically everything we ever saw of Princess Diana, and all the photos and clips we've seen of Meghan have shown that these two women are hands-on parents. Diana was always so openly affectionate with her boys, Princes William and Harry, and always made them her first priority. With Meghan, it's no different.
From her trip to South Africa with little Archie, to the clips and photos we've seen of her with both her son and daughter Lilibet, it's clear that Meghan is a very hands-on mom, something reiterated in Harry & Meghan. Plus, Meghan isn't afraid to be protective of her kids, like Princess Diana. Keeping Archie and Lilibet's lives as private as possible is of the utmost importance to her, reminding us just how much Diana fought for her own sons to have as normal a life as possible.
Following their weddings, Princess Diana and Meghan Markle embarked on tours of Australia — something of a tradition for newlyweds in the royal family. All eyes were on the women and their husbands, and both tours were practically perfect. The tours were a huge success, and announced Diana and Meghan as two influential royal family members.
There was one moment during the Duke and Duchess' November 2021 trip to NYC that struck us as so similar to Princess Diana. During her conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin, the editor-at-large, columnist, and founder of DealBook with the New York Times, Meghan was asked whether or not she saw her advocacy for paid parental leave as inherently political. 'I don't see this as a political issue, frankly,' she said. 'There's certainly a precedent amongst my husband's family, and the royal family of not having any involvement in politics. But I think this is, I mean, paid leave, from my standpoint, is just a humanitarian issue.'
Meghan's words immediately brought us back to Princess Diana's visit to Angola in the mid-'90s. Commenting on the 'distraction' that the perception of her work was political, Diana said, 'I'm not a political figure; I am a humanitarian figure and always have been and always will be.'
Some of the most memorable images of Princess Diana feature the late royal with children. Diana always met kids on their level and never shied away from showing them affection. It's a quality Meghan possesses, too, and one we love to see time and again.
While there was a time Meghan and Diana felt they didn't have a voice in The Firm, they most certainly regained it once they separated themselves from the royal family. In her controversial interview with Martin Bashir, Diana was hardly hesitant to share her thoughts on the monarchy; how they had failed her, didn't prepare her for the role, and how they didn't protect or support her when she needed it most.
Meghan, and even more so her husband Prince Harry, has also spoken about how the conflicts between the family members and the institution often made for unhealthy situations. Between her struggles with her mental health and the family's supposed lack of protection from an over-eager British press, Meghan, like Diana, saw for herself how difficult it is for an outsider in the royal family.
It doesn't take much imagination to see this similarity. Meghan Markle and Princess Diana are both total fashion icons. To this day, Princess Diana's style has stood the test of time, even influencing her daughters-in-law.
While Meghan has a style all her own, it's always so classic and elegant with a contemporary spin. We've seen Meghan pay homage to Princess Diana with her sartorial statements before, and there's no denying both these women have set trends and become fashion inspirations.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Duchess of Sussex announces launch of own wine
New products from the Duchess of Sussex's lifestyle brand have sold out in just a few hours, as she also announced she is also launching her own wine. The rose, described as having 'soft notes of stone fruit, gentle minerality, and a lasting finish', on her As Ever website, will be available to buy next month. The new range of food items that went on sale on Friday included a 'limited edition orange blossom honey' at a cost of 28 dollars (£20). Also available were an apricot spread in 'keepsake packaging', and a crepe mix, both £10 each, flower sprinkles for £11 and a range of different herbal teas at £9 for a box of 12 sachets. The new range went on sale at 4pm UK time, and had all sold out by just before 8pm. Meanwhile, a message on the homepage of the As Ever site read: 'Our debut Napa Valley rose is launching just in time for summer entertaining. 'With soft notes of stone fruit, gentle minerality, and a lasting finish, this bespoke blend is launching just in time for summer entertaining, and will be available for purchase on July 1st.' In an Instagram post at the same time as the new products went live, the California-based duchess wrote: 'Yummies, and honeys, and fruit spreads, oh my!' Meghan had promised some 'delicious surprises' as she teased, earlier this week, that she would be offering some new products on the site. She previously said the original April launch had been 'absolutely extraordinary'. But she also spoke of her fear that she annoyed customers when the first batch of her jam and herbal teas sold out in less than an hour. She said wanted to wait until it is 'completely stable and we have everything we need'. In the run-up to her re-stock, Meghan shared a photo of jam-making preparations including bowls of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, and freshly squeezed lemons, on her Instagram stories, writing: ''June gloom?' Not over here! Because this month your favourite products are back.' Her official As Ever account also posted: 'To all who've been wondering and waiting, thank you! 'Your favourites are returning, plus a few NEW things we can't wait to show you. Coming this month … get excited!'
Atlantic
8 hours ago
- Atlantic
A Love Story That's Afraid of Romance
Modern dating, experts have lamented, has become a numbers game; the more matches you make, the more likely you are to land a mate. But in the new film Materialists, the only number that really matters is a suitor's net worth. Take Harry (played by Pedro Pascal), for example: He's a partner in a private-equity firm and the owner of a $12 million penthouse apartment in Manhattan. John (Chris Evans), meanwhile, lives paycheck to paycheck as an aspiring actor and part-time cater waiter who splits his rent with roommates. Between the two of them, Harry's the obvious 'unicorn'—the most desirable kind of bachelor, according to Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a professional matchmaker and the film's protagonist. Lucy sees dating as a marketplace of potential spouses whose worth is determined by their income as much as their looks. Never mind their interests or how they'd treat a partner; a guy like Harry is inherently more valuable than someone like John. Lucy isn't heartless. Rather, she sees herself as pragmatic about modern romance. Materialists, the writer-director Celine Song's follow-up to her sensitive Oscar-nominated feature, Past Lives, tracks Lucy as she finds matches for her clients, many of whom also think about future partners as commodities. The men tell her that they want women under a certain BMI and age; the women want men above a certain height and tax bracket. As amused as she might sometimes be by their demands, Lucy promises to introduce them to their 'grave buddy.' To her, finding love should be easy—it's just math, she likes to say—yet Lucy's own love life has remained stagnant. She asserts to anyone who asks that she'll either marry rich or die alone. This being a romantic dramedy, Lucy ends up in something of a love triangle anyway: She falls for Harry while harboring a lingering affection for John, who happens to be her ex. But her predicament isn't really about which suitor she'll choose; instead, she's caught between two versions of herself—the cash-strapped idealist who once pursued acting alongside John, and the polished working girl she's become. The core conflict of Materialists is similar to that of Past Lives, yet Song renders it less successfully here. Lucy's journey takes too many cynical turns to be satisfying, and the film's ideas are too scattershot to be convincing. Materialists falters most when it tries to mesh its competing aims: to deliver a throwback love story while also deconstructing the reality of modern dating. Instead, in the end, the film resembles the very world it tries to critique, offering a litany of observations about finding The One without ever substantially arguing for any of them. The film's glossy veneer of confidence, much like that of its lead, belies an uncertainty. Apart from some punchy dialogue probing the economy of marriage, its tale is shallow, with almost nonexistent stakes. John and Harry pose little challenge to Lucy's notions about partners needing to check each other's superficial boxes; both are handsome and smitten with her, and the disparity in their wealth never presents much of an obstacle for Lucy either. She had taken issue with John's poverty when they were together, as shown in a clunkily inserted flashback, but his finances are a mere asterisk to their present-day dynamic. Lucy is as thinly written as her suitors—a nod, maybe, to the threadbare profiles of app-fueled dating, but one that makes her a frustratingly inscrutable romantic lead. It doesn't help that Johnson, whose flat affect can be an asset in enigmatic dramas such as The Lost Daughter, isn't particularly believable as a woman with hang-ups about money. (If she's the provenance behind ' iPhone face ' in the misguided Netflix adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion, here she has what I call 'property-portfolio face.') The bigger problem, however, lies in Lucy's inelegant transformation from a skeptic about love to a wholehearted believer in it. When her most persistent client, Sophie (Zoë Winters), is sexually assaulted on a date, Sophie alternates between being furious at and grateful for Lucy, leaving the third act a confused mess. Although Winters captures Sophie's despair, her character gets compressed into a plot point and her arc produces a jarring shift in mood. Lucy's realization that she should, as Sophie advises her, treat her clients as more than 'merchandise' rings hollow as a result. Not to sound like someone still pining for an ex, but Materialists made me miss the work Song did in Past Lives. In that film, which followed a married woman yearning for the person she used to be after reconnecting with her childhood crush, Song used intimate specificity to unearth reflections about love—romantic, platonic, and otherwise. In Materialists, the director has essentially done the opposite: Her characters are mouthpieces for broad philosophies about connection, while their stories end up getting buried. The effect is a work that's tonally at odds with itself. Though Materialists is similarly packed with insightful monologues, it's heavy-handed in a way that Past Lives never was. Song bookends her latest with sappy scenes of prehistoric humans falling in love, and she injects flippancy into moments that call for sentimentality: When Lucy and Harry finally have a much-needed conversation, the script incorporates an absurd bit of physical comedy that undermines the poignancy of their heart-to-heart. There's much about Song's movie that I enjoyed. The fizzy sequences of Lucy meeting one client after the next, inspired by the director's own experience as a matchmaker, remind me of classics such as Broadcast News; they offer a glimpse into a gig that consumes a person whole. Besides, there's a real pleasure in seeing Hollywood stars fall for each other. But in trying to both critique and poke fun at the costs of modern love, Materialists never coheres into an emotionally potent tale. To put it in Lucy's terms: The film is beautiful and smart, and it clearly contains enough appeal to make it stand out in the marketplace. It's just no unicorn.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Tom Hardy's 'MobLand' just wrapped up with a stunning finale — and I can't wait for a season 2
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. After the premiere of "MobLand," I felt the Paramount Plus show had a major problem, but showed a lot of promise. Fast forward to today's (June 1) season finale, and I can confirm the show wound up delivering on that promise — and then some. No, the show's not perfect by any means. Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren are incredible actors ... just not in this show. They're such caricatures of Irish gangsters that I'm still surprised they agreed to perform their roles the way they did. Then again, there is something very "Guy Ritchie" about their performance, and given the English director's involvement in the show's talented creative team, maybe Brosnan's and Mirren's performance was directed by him in particular. Even though this show isn't technically a Guy Ritchie series — he's an executive producer and director, but "The Day of the Jackal" creator Ronan Bennett is the creative lead behind "MobLand" — it has Ritchie's fingerprints all over it, including the finale. You don't even have to go back far to find a Guy Ritchie movie that feels related to "MobLand." I couldn't stop thinking about "The Gentlemen" while watching this show, especially how much Tom Hardy's Harry Da Souza reminds me of Charlie Hunnam's Raymond Smith. Also, there's plenty of violence. Spoilers for 'MobLand' beyond this point All season long, "MobLand" has been building toward an all-out gang war between the Harrigans and the Stevensons. To call it a simmering conflict would be an understatement. There's been dismemberment, car bombings and much more violence besides. But things go up a notch in the finale. The entire Stevenson crime family gets wiped out in a brilliant move by Harry that involves luring all of Richie Stevenson's (Geoff Bell) soldiers away from the rival gang leader, eliminating them in a hail of gunfire, grenades and bombs. Then, of course, Harry and Kevin (Paddy Considine) kill Richie and the Harrigan family lawyer, O'Hara (Lisa Dawn), who turned out to be a rat. It may be cliche, but this was my favorite part of the episode. First, seeing Harry's move play out in a way that lets you know what's coming just enough for you to get excited for the payoff. Second, Kevin delivering the line 'The Harrigans say hello' right before killing Richie is excellent. Yes, the killer delivering a final line right before the kill has been done before, but it still works. This show may have started slow, but now that the season is over, I can freely admit I've fallen for "MobLand." It's the perfect role for Hardy, who is great on screen with Conisidine. It's just the right blend of clever dialogue, brooding, double crossing and violence, even if the show definitely has some flawed performances and occasionally devolves into cliche. So, Paramount, give us "MobLand" season 2. I'm shocked that the show hasn't been renewed already, even after the finale's release on Paramount Plus. The show is clearly setting up a season 2 with Harry versus the notorious Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer) or a lieutenant of hers we have yet to meet. If we get that showdown, it could genuinely produce a great season of television. Watching Hardy and McTeer on screen this episode gave me real Timothy Olyphant and Margot Martindale in "Justified" season 2 vibes, and that might be one of the greatest seasons of television ever made. Paramount owes it to us and the show to give it the chance to build on a season that's gotten better and better with every episode. Stream "MobLand" on Paramount Plus 'Your Friends and Neighbors' season finale proves there are no consequences as long as you're rich and look like Jon Hamm 'Hacks' shocking season 4 finale has me hopeful season 5 could be the show's best yet — here's why 'The Last of Us' season 2 finale live — reactions, who survived, recap and more
