Meghan Markle once declared herself a committed feminist, promising to carry her advocacy for women’s rights into her royal duties and beyond.
But as the Duchess of Sussex now curates a lifestyle brand and Netflix image with aesthetics of jam jars and floral whimsy, a different royal figure is stepping into the spotlight for tangible, on-the-ground activism.
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, has quietly but powerfully become the Royal Family’s true advocate for women’s rights. Just last week, she visited the UK’s first exhibition dedicated to victims of sexual violence in conflict at the Imperial War Museum.
During the visit, Sophie emotionally recounted her 2019 journey to Kosovo where she met rape survivors, highlighting the brutal social stigma that many women endure even after the violence ends.
“The stigma that is sadly placed on the women…it’s about the mothers,” she said. “In so many countries they can’t even go back into the home place.”
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline that Sophie’s impactful work in war zones and with victims of conflict is the kind of meaningful advocacy Meghan could have embraced—had she remained a working royal.
“Meghan is struggling to be an influencer. Sophie has influence in ways that really matter, which Meghan could have been,” Fitzwilliams said. “She’s always promoted feminism, yet contrast the occasional speech in comfortable surroundings with the remarkable work of Sophie, who visits areas devastated by war and supports women victimized by rape and exploitation.”
Fitzwilliams called Meghan’s departure from royal duties a case of “wasted potential,” lamenting how a cause she once championed has now taken a back seat to brand-building. “While Meghan sends pots of jam to celebrities, Sophie meets survivors in Ukraine and denounces rape as a weapon of war,” he said.
Sophie’s visit to Ukraine in 2023 marked a historic first for a British royal since the Russian invasion. There, she condemned the use of sexual violence by Putin’s forces and offered solace to displaced women. Meanwhile, Meghan’s feminist credentials are rooted in speeches from before and during her early royal tenure. Her 2015 keynote at the UN Women Conference in New York drew acclaim, and in 2018 she made headlines for voicing support for #MeToo and Time’s Up. But those moments are now overshadowed by what critics see as a pivot toward lifestyle branding rather than activist legacy.
“In her visits to Rwanda and India, and in her powerful UN speeches, Meghan showed real promise,” said Fitzwilliams. “But since stepping back, that momentum has largely disappeared.”
When she first became a royal, Meghan said, “With fame comes opportunity, but it also includes responsibility to advocate and share, to focus less on glass slippers and more on pushing through glass ceilings.”
As Sophie steps further into the role Meghan once claimed, royal watchers are left wondering whether Meghan’s feminist voice has faded beneath the sparkle of curated content—and if the crown’s true champion of women’s rights was never the Duchess of Sussex, but the Duchess of Edinburgh all along.
Meghan Markle is a self-proclaimed feminist and vowed to continue her work for women’s advocacy even when she stepped down from official royal duties with Prince Harry.
But since the launch of her Netflix series and lifestyle brand, As Ever, it’s another royal who was become synonymous with working tirelessly in the women’s rights realm, while Meghan’s public persona is all jam and flower sprinkles.
Just last week, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, was at the Imperial War Museum to visit the UK’s first exhibition dedicated to victims of sexual violence in conflict and spoke movingly about a visit she made to Kosovo in 2019 to meet rape survivors.
Discussing the horror of the many women who fell pregnant by their attackers, she said: ‘The stigma that is sadly placed on the women….it’s about the mothers. In so many countries they can’t even go back into the home place.’