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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have hired two new members of staff – a new private secretary and a digital communications expert.
According to The Sun, Meghan and Harry hired Fiona Mcilwham as their new private secretary, who has been described by royal sources as an “obvious choice”.
Talking to the Mail On Sunday, a royal sourced revealed Fiona “is the safest pair of hands you can get and that is what the couple really need right now.”
Fiona, who has previously held the position as one of the youngest British ambassadors when she was posted in Albania in 2009, joins the Sussex household following the departure Samantha Cohen, who was the Queen’s former aide.
According to The Sun, she was chosen from a shortlist drawn by the couple’s head of communications Sara Latham and reportedly won over Meghan and Harry with her passion for women’s rights.
Her role as private secretary to the Sussexes will include co-ordinating their official schedule, supervising staff and managing correspondence.
Fiona is said to live in North London with her husband Daniel Korski, who was the former aide to David Cameron, and their son and has just completed a strategic leadership course at the Royal College of Defence Studies.
Fiona has been described as an “obvious choice” for Meghan and Harry. (Image: Getty)
However Fiona is not the only new member of staff the couple have hired.
The Sun also reports that the royals have hired 26-year-old David Watkins as their digital communications expert, a £30,000 (NZD $57,300)-a-year job.
The role, which was advertised earlier this year on the royal website is said to be a 9-5 weekday job with David joining a “fast paced and dynamic team” at Buckingham Palace.
A royal source says, “Harry and Meghan want to conquer the world and they want to do it through the prism of social media to really connect to their followers,” reports the publication.
“David is the perfect person to help them do this: his amazing video skills and visionary photographs have already been [widely] praised by the Sussexes’ fans.”
David’s previous job was for iconic British fashion label Burberry as their global social media coordinator, with the young man describing himself as: “a marketing, sporting and travel fanatic with both experiences on and off these fields, an International hockey player, Ironman and four-time marathon finisher with passion and knowledge of these sectors,” on his LinkedIn profile.
While the Cambridges share the social media team with Buckingham Palace, David will solely be working for the Sussex household.
Fiona and David have joined the Sussex household, with the office based at Buckingham Palace. (Image: Getty)
Earlier this year Meghan and Harry broke away from the Kensington Palace household which saw them move out of their Kensington Palace home as well as form their own royal household, after Prince William and Prince Harry had shared royal staff together for ten years.
In line with the move the couple appointed Sara Latham as their head of communications, who is the former senior advisor on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 US presidential campaign.
Since setting up their own royal household with the Queen’s permission, the couple have also split from the joint foundation they supported alongside The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, to form their own charity.
Since the announcement of the split it has been confirmed that the Sussexes’ new charity will be called Sussex Royal The Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – to fall in line with their Instagram handle, @sussexroyal.
Experts say the split was a natural move for the two couples, as their futures are shaping up to look quite different with William one day becoming King. (Image: Getty)
While the two splits caused much speculation that relations were tense between the two couples, a royal source says the move is only natural, now that the two brothers have their own families and very different futures ahead of them.
“The development of another foundation for the Sussexes is going to be an ambitious and exciting time for all of them as they look to the future to the new projects they’ve got coming up,” a royal source told People at the time.
From the get-go it’s been evident that Harry and Meghan are eager to do things their own way, best shown in how they’ve been using their Instagram account to shed light on causes and issues they are hugely passionate about.
Just last week Meghan took to Instagram to highlight a small bakery in east London which is working to support and empower local women.
Captioning the carousel of images which show cupcakes with phrases of affirmation and women baking, Meghan wrote: “What they’ve created at Luminary Bakery is exceptional – it’s a space for baking, healing and rebuilding.
“When I visited earlier this year I was struck by how baking, itself, is a means of therapy for these women – which in many ways makes complete sense – feeling they had no control over their lives based on their previous (and often harrowing) circumstances, they found comfort in the measured nature of baking.
“Mixing equal parts of one ingredient and another could yield the perfect dessert, but the act of doing so provided personal balance.
“So while the baked goods are absolutely delicious, it’s the story of how the program at Luminary reshapes lives through baking that is the actual icing on the cake,” she concludes.
The bakery also featured in Meghan’s guest-edited issue of British Vogue, another venture which saw her stepping outside the ‘royal norm’.
She may still be on maternity leave, but this certainly hasn’t stopped the Duchess from continuing her commitment to helping others.
Following the release of her guest-edited British Vogue issue, the Duchess announced she was working on a capsule clothing collection, which will benefit one of her patronages, Smart Works.
