When I saw the pictures of the Duchess of Sussex having lunch with her hairdresser in London, I have to confess I had only one thought: thank heavens Meghan is back.

After six decidedly dull years without her on our shores, the sight of the 45-year-old stepping out in the capital for the second time in a week lifted my spirits.

Hot on the heels of her afternoon tea at Claridge’s with Malala Yousafzai, the lunch at The Park restaurant on Wednesday made the rest of the royals look like insipid cardboard cutouts.

There she was, wearing an £85 tuxedo jacket from Marks & Spencer, no less! Accompanied by the coolest hairdresser in the business (George Northwood’s other clients include actress Rachel Weisz and model Alexa Chung), Meghan brought a vibrancy to proceedings that was missing at the branch of Ikea in Belfast last week, where the Prince and Princess of Wales put in an appearance working the tills. (If you didn’t register this happening, that’s probably because it was so dull, barely anyone bothered to report on it.)

But the best thing about Meghan being back is the message it sends to women up and down the country. In the words of the wonderful Margaret Atwood: nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

Or, for those of you who haven’t heard this mock Latin phrase, which became a rallying call for feminists everywhere after the author included it her seminal book The Handmaid’s Tale: don’t let the bastards grind you down.

Meghan joins Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai for afternoon tea at Claridge’s

Meghan has stepped back into the public eye, appearing in Nottingham for her first public engagements with Harry since they left the country in the spring of 2020

And thank God Meghan hasn’t let them grind her down, despite their best efforts. After all, this is a woman whose every move is dissected and criticised by her many trolls.

The vitriol she receives never fails to amaze me, as if she’s Vladimir Putin, rather than a mother of two who started a business selling jam.

She cannot do right for doing wrong. Take the reaction to a post she put up at the weekend, promoting a non-profit organisation that supports disadvantaged mothers. Meghan wore a charity jumper that went on to sell out within two hours, but the reaction from the baying crowd on X was anything but charitable. Much of it is unprintable, but all of it is designed to demean and devalue her.

‘Meghan showing us again just how much she adores herself,’ wrote one armchair critic, summing up the not-so-subtle sentiment that soaks the platform.

How a picture in a fundraising jumper is proof of self-adoration is anyone’s guess, but even if Meghan had posted about liking herself, can we please put an end to the ridiculous notion that this is somehow a bad thing?

Love Meghan’s outfit? Kate wore a similar look – and we know where to find it on the high street

Meghan’s burgundy outfit is very on trend for autumn – so much so Princess Kate has already stepped out in a similar ensamble. 

We’ve found both monochrome looks on the high street, including Kate’s exact ME+EM blouse and Meghan’s Joseph jumper. Read where to shop them here. 

The old ‘too big for her boots’ idiom is misogynistic claptrap designed to keep females in their place, and it says far more about a world that dislikes the potential of confident women than it does about Meghan herself.

Given the level of abuse she’s experienced, I wouldn’t blame Meghan if she chose to leave the public appearances entirely to her husband, and spent her time hiding in private members’ club Soho Farmhouse.

Instead, she’s stepped back into the public eye, appearing yesterday in Nottingham for her first public engagements with Harry since they left the country in the spring of 2020. And she did it all with a beaming smile (as well as some more chic British fashion, this time from Joseph), spending 15 minutes greeting people who had waited outside the Community Recording Studio.

Of course, when it comes to Meghan, no good deed can be left unpunished. There are critics who believe that even these charitable visits belie a cynical PR exercise. The couple are, of course, damned if they do and damned if they don’t, and it seems particularly churlish to start nitpicking over engagements that bring an enormous amount of publicity to charities that might otherwise struggle.

Meghan isn’t perfect and nor does she pretend to be, but she brings a much-needed sparkle to proceedings, one that has largely been absent from ‘official’ royal engagements in recent years.

‘After six decidedly dull years without her on our shores, the sight of the 45-year-old stepping out in London for the second time in a week lifted my spirits,’ writes BRYONY GORDON

Meghan meeting her wedding reception hair stylist for lunch in London – wearing an £85 tuxedo jacket from Marks & Spencer

Sickness and scandal have dogged the institution, but to see Harry and Meghan out there at Nottingham’s Community Recording Studio and the Himmah food bank is to be reminded of how very good they are at connecting with members of the public – or the ones who don’t hide behind anonymous social media accounts, at least.

A few months before the couple left the country, I accompanied Meghan on a visit to the Luminary Bakery, a social enterprise that helps disadvantaged women in north London get back into work. I watched as she listened intently to people who’d endured domestic violence, drug addiction and homelessness, instantly putting everyone at ease.

It was great to see her back at it yesterday, fresh-faced, engaged, unbeaten by the trolls who have spewed so much bile about her.

And I suppose this is why I am so impressed by Meghan. Because in a world that tells women they must always be likeable, but never commit a crime as heinous as actually liking themselves, she reminds us that this isn’t true. That we don’t have to play it small, safe or by the rules.

No woman’s a ‘whore’ for wearing shorts

The American comedian Shane Gillis has caused uproar after he hosted Saturday Night Live and made a joke about women dressing like ‘whores’ when they go to the gym. ‘Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe [it],’ he said, though of course, there are plenty of other ways to describe what women wear to the gym that don’t involve calling them prostitutes. 

The American comedian Shane Gillis has caused uproar after he made a joke about women dressing like ‘whores’ when they go to the gym

Why are men allowed to work out topless, while women can’t even wear a pair of shorts without their bodies being commented on? Whatever the case, let’s use this moment to remind ourselves of one very important thing: a woman wearing shorts to the gym doesn’t make her a whore, but thinking it does definitely makes you a perverted creep.

Like all self-respecting women born in the 1980s, I was utterly thrilled to find out that the TV show Girls is returning for five episodes next year.

The series, which was written by Lena Dunham and starred her too, was the Bridget Jones for the millennial generation, a glorious celebration of young women in all their mess as they tried to navigate life in Manhattan. 

After a decade off our screens, I’m so looking forward to seeing Dunham’s girls as women – older, and hopefully, like me, still struggling to nail the ‘wiser’ bit.

How Covid made us holiday addicts

The number of people taking holidays is finally back to pre-pandemic levels, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, long term, Covid ended up being the best thing that ever happened to the travel industry. Sure, times were tough, but if lockdowns taught me anything, it’s how important going away is. I’m now something of a holiday obsessive – I never want to be trapped in the UK again. 

The City of London is going to put cyclists who ignore red lights in a ‘time-out zone’, where they can watch an educational video and think about what they’ve done. Given that most people on rental bikes behave like toddlers in a playground, I don’t think this approach is as misguided as it first seems. Send them all back to school, I say. 

I’d welcome return of ‘fat shaming’ What Not To Wear

Trinny Woodall, one of the hosts of What Not To Wear – alongside Susannah Constantine – in June this year

Trinny Woodall has said she and Susannah Constantine have been asked to bring back What Not To Wear, the smash-hit 2000s show where the duo passed judgment on women’s appearances, using phrases such as ‘chicken-wing arms’ and ‘thunder thighs’. 

I suppose I should be up in (chicken-wing) arms about this, but times have changed, and Trinny and Susannah have, too. It might even be a healing opportunity, reminding us all to be a bit kinder – and congratulate ourselves on surviving the Noughties.

READ MORE: 

• I got within inches of Meghan and Harry on their very cringe day on a glamour-free estate in Nottingham… and it was so revealing to me: JAN MOIR
• Meghan wears £85 M&S blazer to set off £20,000 outfit as she meets her wedding reception hairstylist for lunch at restaurant near Kensington Palace
• SHANE WATSON: Meghan’s not playing it safe any more. She’s back – in £3,300 of stealth wealth burgundy… without those pesky tights 
• The day two rival royal courts went head-to-head… and the Palace IS irritated: REBECCA ENGLISH