Now we know why Meghan and Malala had tea at Claridge’s: Duchess donates day’s profits from her brand’s jams and teas to Nobel prizewinner’s girls’ education fund

DAILYMAIL.COM • 6h ago

By REBECCA ENGLISH, ROYAL EDITOR 02:49 12 Oct 2026, updated 02:51 12 Oct 2026

When pictures surfaced last week of the Duchess of Sussex enjoying tea with women’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai at luxury Mayfair hotel Claridge’s, there was intense speculation over what they were discussing.

It was the first time that Meghan had been seen in public since her return to the UK with husband Prince Harry.

And it was a surprisingly public choice of venue given that her people have repeatedly claimed she’s been keeping a determinedly low profile of late.

Yesterday, however, all became clear. The former royal posted to her 4.9 million followers on Instagram two pictures of the pair hugging and holding hands over afternoon tea.

They were accompanied with an announcement that, to mark yesterday’s International Day of the Girl, she was giving ‘100 per cent of net proceeds from her As Ever jams and teas’ from the day to the Malala Fund.

The Malala Fund works to ensure that girls worldwide have access to free, safe education in honour of Ms Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while returning home from school for advocating for girls’ education.

The Duchess of Sussex also released a £75 charity jumper to mark International Day of the Girl. It was designed in a collaboration between the Archewell foundation she runs with Harry and Moms Offering More, a ‘community-driven initiative’ in the US and Canada to help single mothers.

The words on the jumper: ‘It’s the little things’ were the last words the father of one of the initiative’s organisers said to her before he died in 2014. Supporters of Moms Offering More have been dubbed the Mom Army.

Yesterday it was reported that Meghan would start selling her As Ever products in Britain for the first time. The Sun reported that As Ever tea, scented candles and bookmarks featuring her own distinctive handwriting will soon be on sale in the UK but her jam will not be sold here because of food import rules, nor will her ‘flower sprinkles’.

Meanwhile The Sunday Times said that Harry and Meghan will this week undertake their first joint engagements since returning to live in Britain. The couple are due to travel to Nottingham – where they undertook their first visit together as a newly engaged couple in 2017– on Thursday to meet with three charities.

The Sussexes also plan to spend Christmas back in California, a friend has claimed.

The festive period could have presented a chance for the Sussexes to repair relationships with King Charles and Prince William. The monarch hosts members of the Royal Family at Sandringham in Norfolk each December.

But a friend told the Daily Mail that Harry and Meghan are trying to ‘keep their heads down between now and Christmas, when they will go back to California for the holidays’.

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