Last night the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended the London premier of The Lion King, and in a moment made for the cameras, the couple came face-to-face with a different kind of royalty – Beyonce and Jay-Z. Meghan’s presence last night was long-expected despite still being on maternity leave, and last week it was confirmed. Given Beyonce’s work in the film, it was widely expected these two would finally meet, which was hotly anticipated given not only their mutual celebrity, but the fact that Beyonce and Jay-Z have long made clear their support for the new duchess.
The couple accepted a BRIT award earlier this year via video footage in which they are standing in front of a Mona Lisa-esque rendering of Meghan. You can read more about that here.
When the four finally crossed paths, Beyonce complimented Archie, Meghan asked after the couple’s twins, and Jay-Z offered advice to Harry that it’s important he and Meghan still find time for themselves after parenthood. I think Rebecca English captured it best last night:
There was a second celebrity encounter when Meghan and Elton John greeted one another, and EJ said, “You’ll be fine,” to which Meghan responded, “I’m trying.” I have to imagine this at least a glancing reference to the slew of negative press HRH has recently received, and I heartily agree with this summation. She will be fine, and I hope the worst of it is over.
One more interesting tidbit is that apparently Disney announced a new global conservation campaign called “Protect the Pride” that is meant to, per the name, protect the world’s dwindling lion population. As part of this effort, they’ve reportedly made a donation to the Sussexes’ yet-to-be-announced charitable foundation, which will have an environment and community component. It’s strange to get news like this from Twitter, but here we are.
I would imagine quite a bit will be illuminated in the autumn when we finally get more information on what the Sussexes’ foundation will cover. Six more weeks, I suppose…
As for fashion, Meghan is wearing a dress by Jason Wu. I think I would normally not be a huge fan of this look, but given that her post-partum fashion has been a bit all over the place, I was pleasantly surprised by this. The cut was flattering to her figure, and still in keeping with her usual style. I’ll call it a win, even if it likely won’t make my end-of-year favorites.
As with Kate, it’s unclear when we’ll Meghan again, but based on how much we’ve seen of her in the past month, I think it’s highly possible we’ll get another sighting or two before the family decamps for August.