As Meghan and Prince Harry step back in the public eye, embarking on their first official engagement in the UK just last week, many are starting to compare The Duchess’ likeness with the late Princess of Wales. But what are the actual similarities between Meghan and Princess Diana?
Words: Amy Dowrick | Images: Getty
Over the years, royal fans have praised the many similarities between The Duchess and the late Princess Diana, from their philanthropic efforts and hands-on parenting styles to the tabloid scandals and high-pressure environments that eventually lead to them both leaving the system.
Even experts have noted on their likeness. Royal author, Andrew Morton, whose biography Diana: Her True Story was a New York Times bestseller when it was first published in 1992, said recently that he observes striking similarities between the Duchess of Sussex and Princess Diana.
“Meghan’s gone from ‘Duchess Dazzling’ to ‘Duchess Difficult,” he said during an interview with Good Morning America, suggesting that both Meghan and Diana struggled emotionally and mentally in the Royal Family, and share the “same trajectory” in the public spotlight.
The royal biographer also suggested that one of the biggest misconceptions about Meghan is that she was in control of their lives while they were senior royals, but actually, Prince Harry was the real expert.
And even Prince Harry publicly shares his admiration for his wife’s similarities to his late mother.
“So much of what Meghan is and how she is, is so similar to my mum,” Prince Harry says in the first episode of Harry & Meghan. “She has the same compassion. She has the same empathy. She has the same confidence. She has this warmth about her.”
Humanitarian efforts
Both women have used their global platforms to spotlight marginalized issues, with Princess Diana famed for fighting the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS, and Duchess Meghan having championed gender equality, women’s empowerment, and racial justice.
They both also established or guided major philanthropic entities to institutionalize their personal missions. Diana was a patron or president of over 100 charities during her lifetime, and Meghan founded the Archewell Foundation alongside Prince Harry – a non-profit organization focused on community well-being, compassion, and digital safety.
Both women also infamously adopted a very hands-on approach on official engagements, and rather than relying on ribbon-cuttings or distant appearances, both favored direct, up-close environments, Diana especially being named the “People’s Princess” for connecting so closely with sick patients and children.
Politics
But it’s not just their advocacy for certain humanitarian issues that make the pair so similar – it’s also their humble responses when things get political.
During a conversation with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin in 2021, Meghan was asked whether she saw her advocacy for paid parental leave as inherently political. “I don’t see this as a political issue, frankly,” she said. “There’s certainly a precedent amongst my husband’s family, and the royal family of not having any involvement in politics. But I think this is, I mean, paid leave, from my standpoint, is just a humanitarian issue.”
In the mid-90s, Diana had a similar response to a journalist commenting on the “distraction” that the perception of her work was political. Diana replied, “I’m not a political figure; I am a humanitarian figure and always have been and always will be.”
Motherhood
Diana continuously ripped up the royal rulebook, ensuring that she was as involved a parent as she could be in William and Harry’s childhood – and the Duchess has similarly followed suit with Archie and Lilibet.
As a royal, Diana would often have the boys alongside her on official engagements, breaking the tradition of royal children being left at home with a nanny. This was first seen when a nine-month-old Prince William accompanied her and Charles for their Australia tour in 1983 – and thirty years later, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan did just the same. In 2019, the pair took four-month-old baby Archie to South Africa on their second major tour as a married couple.
Safeguarding
And even after leaving the institution, both mothers have kept their parenting styles similar, ensuring their children are out of the public eye.
“She always understood that there was life outside of palace walls,” Prince William once said in ITV’s commemorative documentary of Diana twenty years after her death. “My mother cherished those moments of privacy and being able to be that mother, rather than the Princess of Wales.”
Meghan has similarly kept the lives of her children private, safeguarding them from British press and shielding their identities on social media, as The Telegraph recently reported that both Meghan and Harry “plan to take a firm line on privacy” and “intend to protect [Lilibet and Archie] as much as they can.”
This means that the couple will not release photos of their children on their first day of school in the U.K. or share birthday portraits like Kate Middleton and Prince William do with their children.
This parenting technique does share similarities to an infamous recording of Princess Diana on a ski trip with the children back in 1995, where Diana begged a cameraman to “Please leave,” pressing her hands to the man’s camera lens. “As a parent, could I ask you to respect my children’s space?” She continued, “I brought the children out here for a holiday and we’d really appreciate the space.”
Leaving the system
But the pair also share similarities in their suffering, and both experienced struggling with self-harm, feeling unsupported by the institution during unsurvivable press attention.
In their respective interviews after leaving the royal family, both the late Princess of Wales and Meghan exposed the truth behind how they truly felt in the institution – and their experiences are hauntingly similar.
Princess Diana spoke in the now infamous 1995 Panorama interview about how she “seemed to be on the front of a newspaper every single day,” and the Duchess of Sussex similarly said to Oprah Winfrey in 2021 that “I am everywhere.”
Diana said how she felt thwarted by “people in my environment,” and Meghan spoke of the intangible “institution.” “I didn’t like myself. I was ashamed because I couldn’t cope with the pressures,” Diana revealed. “I was really ashamed to say it at the time,” Meghan said. “But…I just didn’t want to be alive anymore.”
“I was the first person ever to be in this family who ever had a depression or was ever openly tearful. And obviously that was daunting, because if you’ve never seen it before, how do you support it?” said Diana. “When no one listens to you, or you feel no one’s listening to you, all sorts of things start to happen.” Meghan asked to seek treatment, but she said she was told it wasn’t a feasible option.
Being outspoken
Both women have also spoken profusely about being vocal – but it’s come at a cost. “I’ve always been outspoken, especially about women’s rights,” Meghan once said. “That’s the sad irony about the last four years is that I’ve advocated for so long for women to use their voice and then I was silent.”
Princess Diana also spoke about how the palace wasn’t a fan of her public outreach, saying in an interview that she thought the royal family was upset with her “because I do things differently. Because I don’t go by a rule book, because I lead from the heart, not the head. Albeit, that’s got me into trouble in my work, I understand that, but someone’s got to go out there and love people and show it.”
Style
Princess Diana was renowned globally for being a style icon – from her iconic revenge dress to her jewelry and bags, her style has stood the test of time. And even Meghan has been inspired.
We’ve seen the Duchess pay homage to the late Princess of Wales in wearing her aquamarine ring to her wedding reception in 2018, as well as carrying a Lady Dior purse, named after Diana, while attending the Global Citizen concert in 2021.
And just this summer, Meghan attended The Alliance for Children’s Rights’ 34th annual Champions for Children gala in Los Angeles with a nod to her late mother-in-law, wearing a Cartier gold Tank Française watch that once belonged to the Princess.
But some experts aren’t so trusting of this likeness.
Royal watchers were quick to spot that Meghan was wearing earrings from Princess Diana’s personal collection on a trip to Cananda this August – the exact ones the late Princess of Wales wore on a visit to the same province in 1986.
“It’s bizarre – is it a coincidence? I’m not sure if it can be a coincidence. I think it’s pretty calculated,” says Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine.
“I struggle to remember a time when Meghan has been as forensic with her style choices as Catherine until now,” adds editor-at-large Richard Kay. “It does feel to me as though she’s trying to stake a claim on Diana’s legacy. It would have taken an enormous amount of research to find out precisely what Diana wore on a visit to an obscure part of Canada. She does look to me like she’s channeling the mother-in-law she never met.”
“What we seem to see here is Meghan thinking very carefully but emphasizing those Diana connections which we’ve seen time and time again,” says editor Richard Eden. “Let’s be honest – that is something Harry loves. He’s written about that, how he loves that Meghan used the same perfume. There’s lots of things that remind him of his mother.”
What can we expect to see in the future?
As next year marks 30 years since the late Princess of Wales’s death, experts are expecting to get rather comfortable with seeing Meghan at official engagements alongside Harry – and a fair few homages are to be anticipated.
“I think we can expect a lot more of this because next year is the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death, and there’ll be events associated with that. I think we can expect more of this from Meghan,” adds Richard.
