Meghan Markle Celebrates International Women's Day With A Panel Talk

Meghan Markle, who's spoken openly on gender equality and female empowerment in the past, has marked International Women's Day with a panel talk on the issues affecting women today.

The pregnant Duchess of Sussex was joined by Annie Lennox, model Adwoa Aboah, former Australian PM Julia Gillard, founder of Let Us Learn Chrisann Jarrett and CAMA co-founder Angeline Murimirwa.

Senior editor of The Economist Anne McElvoy chaired the talk hosted at King's College in London on Friday morning.

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Meghan and the panel discussed the importance that International Women's Day still holds, touching on access to education and limitations within employment across the globe.

"If things are wrong and there is a lack of justice and an inequality, someone needs to say something - and why can't it be you?" the pregnant royal told her fellow panellists, who in return described her as "a royal not afraid to embrace full-on feminism".

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Kensington Palace said the talk highlighted "obstacles [that] still affect female empowerment across the world, including access to education and limitations within employment".

Former Suits actor Meghan touched on her pregnancy while sitting at the centre of the panel, saying that it was going: "Very well."

She added: "It's funny, I'd actually been joking these past few weeks I'd seen this documentary on Netflix about feminism and one of the things they said during pregnancy was, 'I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism.' I loved that.

"So boy or girl, whatever it is, we hope that that's the case."

On the same day, the Queen made Meghan the vice-president of The Queen's Commonwealth Trust.

The palace announced: "The Duchess of Sussex will today become Vice-President of The Queen's Commonwealth Trust. The Trust, of which Her Majesty The Queen is Patron and The Duke of Sussex is President, exists to champion, fund and connect young leaders around the world who are driving positive social change, serving their communities and providing hope, work and self-employment opportunities for others."

Topics: Celebrity News, Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle

Rachel Andrews

Rachel Andrews is an NCTJ trained Journalist at PRETTY52. She specialises in Fashion and Beauty Journalism, and has experience at a range of online and print publications and joined the team in 2017. Contact her - [email protected]

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