The Duchess of Sussex has shared a previously unseen picture of Prince Archie as she paid tribute to feminist activist Gloria Steinem after her death.
The image was taken at Meghan and Harry’s home in Montecito, California, and shows Steinem reaching towards Archie, whose face is covered by a white heart emoji.
It was posted on Instagram as part of a carousel of pictures of Steinem, who died aged 92 at her home in New York City on Wednesday.
Steinem, one of the trailblazers behind the US feminist movement, dedicated her life to advocating and campaigning for a number of issues including equal pay and reproductive rights.
Paying tribute on Instagram, Meghan wrote: “Celebrating the life and legacy of my friend and mentor, Gloria Steinem, and also grateful to know that in these last few weeks and days she knew exactly how loved and admired she was.
“You all know her many accolades and the way in which she helped shape the world for women and all people – ‘we are linked, not ranked’ she would tell me, and the bracelet she gave me said exactly that. I still wear it with pride.”
She added: “Publicly, we did interviews together, called young voters to encourage them to have their voices heard, attended award ceremonies, and brainstormed how to help this beautiful yet complicated world to become more equitable.
“But privately, she was even better than you would imagine – spending Thanksgiving with our family, introducing me to one of my best friends (forever the champion of female friendship), loving our children with her whole heart, counseling me during hard times, and giving extraordinary advice and perspective with a cup of tea and an unrivaled cheekiness and wit.”
Meghan, Harry, Archie and Princess Lilibet have returned to the UK to begin a new life after six years living in the US.
The family is said to be settling in the UK for an “extended period” of time, and the Cotswolds has been suggested as the most likely place for the Sussexes to live.
News of Steinem’s death was announced on Thursday in an Instagram statement which said the late activist “lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humour”.
Several famous faces have paid tribute to the American journalist, including former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton who wrote that Steinem’s activism was “rooted in optimism”.
Practical Magic star Sandra Bullock wrote that Steinem “paved the roads that millions of us are able to walk on”, and Hollywood actress Julianne Moore said the time she spent studying the activist in order to portray her in the 2020 biopic The Glorias, was “one of the most edifying of my life”.
American singer-songwriter Patti Smith praised Steinem’s “revolutionary spirit”, and US TV presenter Oprah Winfrey wrote that the activist left us with “more freedom than she inherited”.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Steinem began her career as a freelance journalist in New York City and first gained prominence in 1963 after going undercover as a Playboy Bunny.
The expose for Show magazine revealed the working conditions at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Club and the sexist and underpaid life of the bunny/waitresses.
Despite making a name for herself, Steinem was still not taken seriously by the heavily male-dominated newsroom.
She went on to write as a columnist for New York magazine where she reported on political campaigns and progressive social issues including the women’s liberation movement.
A crucial moment in her advocacy came in 1969 when she spoke at an awareness rally about her own experience of having an abortion when she was 22.
She quickly became the face of the women’s liberation movement and second-wave feminism – advocating for reproductive rights among many other causes throughout the 60s and 70s.
Steinem also founded the Women’s Action Alliance alongside Brenda Feigen and Dorothy Pitman-Hughes in 1971, a US organisation which supported grassroots activism to fight against sex discrimination.
In 1972 she co-founded Ms magazine – the first magazine owned, run and written by women. It published stories that broke away from the mainstream tales concerned with homemaking, parenting or beauty.
Steinem helped co-found the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) in 1971, a multi-partisan grassroots organisation dedicated to increasing women’s participation in the political process at a national and state level.
She also played an influential role in the movement to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1972 which prohibited sex discrimination.
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour, in 2013, by former US president Barack Obama.
Meghan and Steinem are understood to have become friends after reportedly connecting during the pandemic.
In 2023, Steinem presented Meghan with the Ms Foundation’s Women of Vision Award, which recognised her “global advocacy to empower and advocate on behalf of women and girls”.
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