Meghan Markle steps out for lunch with Gloria Steinem in New York after her UN appearance

The direct image Meghan Markle and Gloria Steinem

Meghan Markle had a special lunch during her visit to New York!

On Monday, the Duchess of Sussex stepped out with friend and political activist Gloria Steinem for lunch at the Crosby Hotel in SoHo.

Meghan, 40, started the day at the UN, where she supported her husband Prince Harry as he delivered an emotional speech in honor of Nelson Mandela Day.

Last month, the Duchess of Sussex and Steinem, 88, joined forces following the Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down the constitutional right to abortion in a vogue feature, where they both talked about the importance of normalizing conversations about women’s health.

Steinem also thanked Meghan for their friendship, sharing that the Duchess of Sussex reached out to her after she moved to California in 2020.

“Meghan, I owe you this friendship,” she said. “Because I didn’t realize that in California, where I was sheltering at a friend’s ranch, we were neighbors. Or at least what they call neighbors in California, which means you are, what, half an hour away.”

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Seth Wenig/AP/Shutterstock Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

The two women, who have grown closer in recent years, also sat down in 2020 to discuss voting, representation at the polls and what it means to be a feminist. They even got together to cold-call voters at Steinem’s dining room table.

Steinem has previously described the Duchess of Sussex, whom she simply calls “Meg,” as “smart, genuine, funny, political.”

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KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Prince Harry

In his Monday speech, Harry referenced the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, stating, “It’s been a painful year in a painful decade,” given the global COVID-19 pandemic, climate change issues, the war in Ukraine, the spread of misinformation, and the “backsliding constitutional rights here in the United States”.

However, he encouraged listeners to “do what Mandela did” by finding “meaning and purpose in struggle”.