Serena Williams Sends Congratulatory Message to Meghan Markle for Completing New Project

Serena Williams could not be more proud of close friend Meghan Markle following the completion of her first project as a British Royal.

After Kensington Palace revealed Monday that the newly minted Duchess of Sussex had embarked on her first solo endeavor as a British Royal, helping a group of women affected by the Grenfell fire, close-friend Williams is praising her for her work.

I used to call you Meghan (and I still do) but dear Duchess of Sussex your first project “Together” a cookbook bringing women of all cultures together. I could not be more excited about it and proud of you.
It’s beautiful - diversity, inclusivity, coming together in grief or joy pic.twitter.com/RkB2O35qmG

— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) September 17, 2018

"I used to call you Meghan (and I still do) but dear Duchess of Sussex, your first project Together a cookbook bringing women of all cultures together," Williams wrote on Twitter, sharing images of the cookbook. "I could not be more excited about it and proud of you. It's beautiful - diversity, inclusivity, coming together in grief or joy."

The cookbook, Together: Our Community Kitchen, features dozens of recipes from the women who run the Hubb Community Kitchen.

The women began preparing meals at the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre and formed the Hubb Community Kitchen following the Grenfell Tower Fire, which claimed more than 70 lives, to help provide warm meals to those who had been displaced by the tragedy. In January of 2018, just months after her engagement to Prince Harry, Markle began visiting the kitchen.

"I immediately felt connected to this community kitchen; it is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry and cook together," Markle said in a short film released alongside the cookbook. "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."

After discovering that the Hubb Community Kitchen was only able to operate two days of the week due to funding, the Duchess suggested that the women put together a cookbook of their own recipes, sharing "the healing power of sharing food."

Markle's first solo charitable work came just four months after her royal wedding, which Williams had attended alongside her husband, Alexis Ohanian.

Markle recently shared the same friendly support when she attended the Ladies' Single Final at the Wimbledon Championships in July alongside sister-in-law Kate Middleton, where they watched Williams compete against Angelique Kerber.