Meghan Markle is never far from the headlines. She has had a busy couple of years since she began dating Prince Harry. Their engagement, wedding and welcoming a son soon after.
Meghan Markle quickly united with mothers all over the world in her recent interview with Tom Bradby and we along with every other mum can't help but want to reach out and give Meghan a big tight squeeze.
Markle's maternity leave ended when baby Archie was 4 months old. With the new mum's first order of business, launching a capsule clothing collection with her longtime friend and designer Misha Nonoo. She proudly launched her own high street clothing range to help women get back into the workplace.
She said in Vogue: “The reason I was drawn to Smart Works is that it re-frames the idea of charity as community, which, for me, is incredibly important: it’s a network of women supporting and empowering other women in their professional pursuits.”
For every piece purchased from the collection, one will be donated to the organization - an absolutely fantastic show of solidarity with women of all backgrounds and situations.
At the launch, Meghan was heard telling the group that she had to get back to nurse her son:
"I've got to get back to the baby, it's feed time," she said.
Fast forward to Meghan’s most recent interview quite visibly holding back tears, Meghan thanks Bradby for asking about the impact the pressure of motherhood has had on her mental and physical health.
"Thank you for asking. Not many people have asked if I'm OK, but it's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes."
Meghan Markle
When Bradby then asked Meghan if that meant she wasn't OK, and that it "really" has been a struggle, the former actress simply says 'Yes.'
It begs the question for me if Meghan was back in the workplace too soon, are women back in the workplace too soon?
We speak all the time about how parents need a village yet there are less and less villages available for us modern women and mums and Meghan has quite sharply shown us that this is having a massive impact on women. Even women with the resources available to them to have help and be in a position to return to work so soon.
It makes me strongly wonder if there is just far too much pressure on mums to ‘do it all’, to ‘have it all’ or you will quite quickly be replaced by someone who can have multiple plates spinning all at the one time.
Parenthood is huge. It is one of the most important jobs you will ever have in your life.
Often when a women has a baby and even returns to work the questions are all about the baby. How they are, how they are adjusting to the world.
Meghan bravely shows that not a lot of mums are asked how they are doing. We need to look after mums. We have to.
‘Just okay’ is not enough. It is not something we can aspire to. We live in a world where there is massive pressure to do it all. But parenthood is huge. It is one of the most important jobs you will ever have in your life.
We can all learn something from Meghan Markle and that is it is ok not to be ok. Ask a mum if she is ok, if she is really ok. Even if she has forgotten to ask herself.