While the much anticipated September issue of British Vogue, featuring Guest Editor The Duchess of Sussex, won’t be hitting stands until August 2nd, the publication has given us a sneak peek at what we can expect from the issue, releasing one of the interviews set to be featured in within its glossy pages.
The interview, which Meghan describes in a foreword as being expected to just entail a quick Q&A on the back page of the magazine, left her “speechless”, when her interviewee in question, former US First Lady Michelle Obama, replied with a “thoughtful, reflective and beautifully curated narrative.”
“A gentle reminder not of how but of why she has become such a globally respected public figure,” Duchess Meghan wrote.
Meghan asked Michelle if she would be happy to do a ‘quick’ Q&A over a “casual lunch of chicken tacos.” (Images: Getty)
Meghan had emailed the “simple” Q&A to Michelle following her agreement to be involved, but adds that if she had known Michelle would answer so openly and generously she would have done the interview differently: “my questions would have been lengthier, more probing, more engaging,” Meghan wrote.
“I would have included the banter on these pages – the laughs and signs and ping-pong of dialogue as I chimed in. But to re-engineer that now would rob Michelle’s words of authenticity, which for me, is the crux of what makes this piece special.”
And from a quick glance at the thoughtful replies written by Michelle, it’s evident Meghan wasn’t exaggerating when she said Michelle had really opened up.
Speaking of what she’s learned as a mother Michelle writes “it has been a masterclass of letting go.
“Try as we might, there’s only so much we can control. And, boy, have I tried – especially at first. As mother’s we just don’t want anything or anyone to hurt our babies. But life has other plans.
“Bruised knees, bumpy roads and broken hearts are all part of the deal.”
Michelle also writes that motherhood has taught her that most of the time, her job as a mother is to give her children, Malia and Sasha, the space to explore and develop into the people they want to be. That as difficult as it might be, she doesn’t need to “bulldoze” a path void of adversity, but to be the safe and consistent place for them to land when they fail.
“To show them, again and again, how to get up on their own.”
When asked what advice she would give her daughters Michelle says hopes her daughters are open to trying new experiences until they find what they feel is right, and not to think they need to stick to the status quo or what they think people expect of them.
“When I was in college, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer because it sounded like a job for good respectable people,” Michelle wrote.
“It took me a few years to listen to my intuition and find a path that fit better for who I was, inside and out.
“Becoming who we are is an ongoing process, and thank God – because where’s the fun in waking up one day and deciding there’s nowhere left to go?”
Adding: “What I hope my daughters will realise a little earlier is that there is no prescribed path, that it’s OK to swerve, and that the confidence they need to recognise that will come with time.”
Read Michelle’s full interview for Duchess Meghan’s co-edited British Vogue September issue here.
