Gloria Steinem: Duchess Meghan is different from the picture of her in the media
Gloria Steinem and the Duchess of Sussex have been friends for several years now. Steinem invited Meghan over to her farmhouse in 2020, and they did some get-out-the-vote cold calls for the presidential election. Steinem and Meghan also did a feature in Vogue this year about abortion rights, and they went out to lunch in New York. My point is that Meghan and Steinem spend time together, they’re friends and Steinem understands what Meghan has gone through and what Meghan is still going through, to a certain extent. At the 2022 Women’s Media Awards, People Magazine asked Steinem about her friend Meghan. Her comments were interesting!
When asked about why she partnered up with Meghan for a candid conversation about reproductive rights in Vogue earlier this year, Gloria Steinem had nothing but kind words for her friend, whom she called a “great human being.”
“I’m not an expert on the media, but it seems to me that she is different from the picture of her in the media,” the feminist activist tells PEOPLE. “She’s smart and funny and devoted to social issues. Maybe it’s the British tabloids that are the problem,” Steinem adds with a laugh.
The pair’s conversation earlier this year wasn’t the first time that they teamed up. Meghan, 41, and Steinem, 88, joined forces two years ago to have a “backyard chat” about the importance of voting. “For a while, we were living almost next… well, what in California counts as next door, which is like 45 minutes away,” Steinem said. “So we got to know each other.”
During their chat in 2020, Steinem gifted the Duchess with a bracelet that reads: “We are linked not ranked.” Upon receiving it, Meghan said that the phrase “means everything to me on every level,” and it continues to hold great significance to the feminist icon.
“I think we as human beings — or maybe living things on planet Earth, right? — are linked, not ranked,” Steinem tells PEOPLE. “We have systems of race and gender and class that rank us, and that’s actually not accurate.”
When asked whether she and Meghan will team up again, Steinem says that she will help the Duchess of Sussex with “any of her projects” if she can, especially as “she and her husband are doing media projects.” Outside of projects, Steinem says that they will continue their relationship “as friends.”
I do think Meghan is a lot different in person and she’s certainly not the (racist) caricature that the British media would have people believe. I think Meghan is probably very sweet and personable, used to being popular, plus she’s comfortable being the center of attention (a typical Leo, basically). I’ve genuinely enjoyed finding out more about Meghan and her interests through Archetypes too, and I think that was one of the smartest frameworks for Meghan to show who she really is beyond the tabloid bullsh-t.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar and Archewell.
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US First Lady Melania Trump delivers her speech during the second night of the Republican National Convention, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 25 August 2020. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the Republican Party has moved to a televised format for its convention. Credit: Michael Reynolds / Pool via CNP | usage worldwidencG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcHFkZn94e8alpquhkZTAtbHIp5yml5SqsKmx0qyWpp2Xna6vq8islp2hlpuys7HNrZafqp%2BirLW0xJinopukqr%2Bmq86flqGdopS2r6vToZyYpZWZtqJ7