RIVALS!

Hot on the heels of Kate’s triumphant tour of Italy promoting children’s education, Meghan followed suit. Coincidence or strategy, asks royal editor Emily Andrews

- Emily Andrews

Donning a sombre and razor-sharp designer black suit, Meghan looked dressed for business. Her speech on the devastating effect of social media on kids was emotional and entirely fair.

Behind her in Geneva’s Place des Nations was the Lost Screen Memorial – an installation of 50 illuminated light boxes, each showing the home-screen photograph of a child who lost their life to online harm.

No one could fault the sentiment.

‘Children today are being shaped by systems designed to capture attention at any cost: relentless algorithms, exploitative engagement and endless exposure to harmful content that they are not seeking out.’

Few parents would dispute that.

And yet... this was not just a message about the evils of the internet. This was the Duchess of Sussex trying to step back into serious public life.

After trying (and some would say failing) to be a lifestyle hostess on the Netflix show With Love, Meghan, selling us jam with her As Ever range and attempting to be a producer, Meghan was asking the world to take her seriously again.

Not as a duchess, not as a fashion horse, but as an advocate.

Interesting timing

As someone close to her told me, ‘Of course she cares about these issues, as all parents do, particularly when she’s personally suffered so much trolling at the hands of social media and the internet.

‘She has always held strong opinions and wants to use her platform to drive change.’