Starting in January 2018, six months after the tragic fire that had claimed seventy-two lives in a rundown part of Notting Hill, fewer than three miles from Nottingham Cottage, the Sussexes’ first married home in the grounds of Kensington Palace, Meghan had begun paying secret visits to the Hubb Community Kitchen (‘Hubb’ is a play on the Arabic word for ‘love’) in the cellar of a nearby mosque. Dressed in jeans and T-shirt, she learned how to cook curries and chapatis with the survivors of the fire – largely poor, non-white, non-English-speaking women. They were the dispossessed in every sense and they became her friends.
‘She comes in natural, fits in, puts an apron on,’ said Ghaswala, a mother of two from west London. ‘It just feels very supportive, very real.’
That was the spontaneous and natural hands-on Diana-style of engagement that Meghan could bring to royal work. She and Harry launched the Community Cookbook in September 2018 at a casual garden party in the grounds of Nottingham Cottage, surrounded by her fellow Grenfell cooks in their national costumes displaying tasty samples of their produce. Meghan made an inspirational speech and Harry was caught on video trying to sneak out with some of the samosas.
‘This is a tale of friendship,’ she declared, ‘and a story of togetherness. It is a homage to the power of cooking as a community, and the recipes that allow us to connect, share and look forward.’
It was a perfect example of the fresh human touch that the new Sussex couple could bring to the old routine. And it proved an immense success. Sales of the Community Cookbook raised over half a million pounds for the Hubb Kitchen and the survivors of Grenfell – and also attracted creatively approving publicity.
It was the most characteristic project that Meghan had accomplished since joining the royal family – an original and imaginative venture conceived without a scrap of input from Sir Edward Young or Buckingham Palace. So why not get in touch with the black editor of British Vogue and see about starting another?
It wasn’t just the Duchess of Sussex who had noted the failure of Sir Edward Young and his staff to come up with a satisfactory role for Meghan’s unique identity and talents. Someone else in Buckingham Palace had identified the problem and had realised, in particular, what a mistake it had been to get rid of Sir Christopher Geidt – the Queen herself. She’s a realist, Her Maj. Elizabeth II does not often put a foot wrong, but when she does she is ready to admit it. Remember that sudden change of heart after Diana died and the Queen’s surrender to the cries for a flag at half-mast over Buckingham Palace?
Young kept his COO job. But the Queen lost no time in bringing Geidt back. Early in 2019, just eighteen months after his hustled departure, it was announced that Elizabeth II had invited her former private secretary to return to her side as her Permanent Lord-in-Waiting. This was a non-political appointment that would involve Geidt in ceremonial events and the greeting of heads of state, such as US President Donald Trump who was due at the palace that summer.
‘Her Majesty values Lord Geidt’s wise counsel,’ one courtier told Richard Eden of the Daily Mail, referring to the new Lord-in-Waiting by the life peerage that the Queen had bestowed on Geidt following his exit. ‘This new role gives him a formal status again.’
It also gave Geidt a special position in connection with Meghan, whom Elizabeth II had recently invited to team up with Harry as vice-president of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. The Queen had already made Harry the president, with Geidt the chairman of trustees – the trust existing to champion ‘young leaders around the world who are driving positive social change’. The idea was for Meghan to do special work ‘supporting women and girls’.
‘The support and encouragement which Her Royal Highness will bring to the young leaders with whom we work,’ said Geidt, ‘promises to have a profound effect.’
This was all part of a new strategy to integrate the young duchess more fully into royal life – ‘Lord Geidt will be Her Majesty’s eyes and ears,’ explained a courtier.
Geidt and the Queen sat down to frame a plan with Sir David Manning, a former diplomat – ambassador to the United States from 2003–7, including during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq – and since 2009 a part-time advisor to the joint household of William and Harry. The details of their discussions remain unknown, but we can guess the main drift from what we know about the Geidt–Manning strategy that emerged.
The big idea was to get Harry and Meghan out of the country for a decent spell. It would give everyone a breather. The Queen wanted to offer both honour and responsibility to the couple by handing them some role in her beloved British Commonwealth of Nations – the free association of fifty-four countries, large and small, from Australia to India and Fiji to the Falkland Islands, that were once British colonies. This was a highly personal token of trust, since arguably the greatest historic achievement of Harry’s grandmother had been to transform the warring enclaves of slavery and empire into a creative and forward-looking alliance of friends.
Both Geidt and Manning would have seen two ingenious practical advantages to the plan. It would extract the activist Sussexes from the dangers of controversy in the fratchety British arena: Meghan could campaign in Africa to her heart’s content to give teenage girls free access to sanitary products – she would be greeted with universal approval. And by handing the recently ennobled duke and duchess a semi-regal role visiting and being honoured ceremonially around the Commonwealth the plan also surely offered the best route yet devised to give a British ‘spare’ self-sufficient status that truly matched, but did not threaten, that of the heir.
The Queen added a personal touch. She had heard and read much of Harry and Meghan’s wish
