Meghan Markle Makes First Solo Royal Appearance With Short Film

Just months after becoming a British Royal, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, has made her first royal appearance in a surprise film cameo.

Meghan Markle has proven once again that she is committed to jumping head first into her new royal duties, this time the newly minted Duchess marking her first leap into solo public royal work by working side-by-side with women who suffered after the Grenfell Fire, which took more than 70 lives.

“Together is a cookbook, but it’s also the story of a west London Community who gathered together in a kitchen and discovered the healing power of sharing food,” Markle says in the short film, released by the Royal Foundation on Monday, which shows the 37-year-old working with women at the Hubb Community Kitchen.

“In January 2018, as I was settling into my new home of London I met a group of women whose community had been affected by the Grenfell Fire,” Markle continues. “They had decided to get together to cook fresh food for their families and their neighbors.”

After discovering that the group of women, who came together to form the Hubb Community Kitchen to help feed the families and neighbors displaced by the Grenfell Fire, were only able to operate two days of the week due to funding, Markle suggested they create a cookbook.

“I immediately felt connected to this community kitchen; it is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry and cook together. Melding cultural identities under a shared roof, it creates a space to feel a sense of normalcy — in its simplest form, the universal need to connect, nurture, and commune through food, through crisis or joy — something we can all relate to,” Markle said. “Through this charitable endeavour, the proceeds will allow the kitchen to thrive and keep the global spirit of community alive.”

Profits from the sales of Together, a cookbook featuring recipes from the women at the Hubb Community Kitchen, will go towards benefiting the kitchen and helping it operate seven days a week, “widen its reach to others in the community, and enabling similar projects to continue transforming lives through the power of cooking.”

Markle, whose biography on the Royal Family website focuses on her charitable work and activism, has seamlessly stepped into her royal duties following her May 19 royal wedding to Prince Harry. In fact, just days after walking down the aisle and officially being minted the Duchess of Sussex, the Suits alum attended her first Garden Party alongside the rest of the British royals in celebration of Prince Charles’ 70th birthday.