Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s Archewell Foundation has announced a multi-year global partnership with an American consumer goods firm.
The affiliation with Procter & Gamble will focus on gender equality, more inclusive online spaces and resilience and impact through sport.
The couple said they would be working to ‘build more compassionate communities’ as the Sussexes are on a mission to bring a more ‘just future for unblocked games 77 women and girls’.
But the alliance has raised eyebrows due to the company’s checkered history, with it being linked to child and forced labour, animal testing and price fixing.
Even the Duchess has hit out at the firm previously, having called for it to change a ‘very sexist’ dish soap advert when she was just 11.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘s Archewell Foundation has announced a multi-year global partnership with an American consumer goods firm.
The couple are pictured during their Oprah chat in March
The couple announced their affiliation with Procter & Gamble by posting this picture on Archewell.
They said they will focus on gender equality, more inclusive online spaces, and resilience and impact through sport
Meghan appeared in an interview in 1993, saying she was ‘furious’ at the advert for P&G’s Ivory Clear
Aged 11, Meghan wrote to Procter & Gamble to object to sexism in a dish soap advert which included the line: ‘Mothers around America are fighting greasy pots and pans’
The Archewell site said: ‘Archewell Foundation believes that with community, and through compassionate service to others, we can unleash systemic cultural change.
‘In service of doing this, and building more compassionate communities, Archewell Foundation announced a multi-year global partnership today with Procter & Gamble.’
It would ‘elevate the voices of adolescent girls’ to make sure ‘their point of view and lived experience is heard at the tables where decisions are made’.
The foundation also pledged to work with men and boys to encourage gender equality.
It said: ‘Together we will underscore the importance of engaging men and boys in the drive for gender equity throughout society and encourage shared caregiving at home so everyone in the family can thrive.’
Aged 11, Meghan wrote to Procter & Gamble to object to sexism in a dish soap advert which included the line: ‘Mothers around America are fighting greasy pots and pans.’
She asked them to change the advert to ‘people all over America’ and the company subsequently amended the language.
She appeared in an interview in 1993, saying she was ‘furious’ at the advert for P&G’s Ivory Clear.
She added: ‘When they heard this, the boys in my class started saying, ”Yeah, that’s where women belong – in the kitchen”.’
Recalling the letter in 2018, she said: ‘Truth be told, at 11 I don’t think I even knew what sexism meant.’
She continued: ‘I just knew that something struck me internally that was telling me it was wrong.
‘And using that as my moral compass and moving through from the age of 11, at that age I was able to change this commercial.’
She added: ‘It really set up the trajectory for me to say, if there was a wrong, if there is a lack of justice, and there is an inequality, then someone needs to do something.
And why not me?’
The couple said they would be working to ‘build more compassionate communities’ as the Sussexes are on a mission to bring a more ‘just future for women and girls’.
Pictured: Harry at Vax Live on May 2
Procter & Gamble is best known for owning major brands such as Crest, Oral B, Gillette, Pampers and Tampax.
Pictured: Harry and Meghan outside Kensington Palace in 2017
The Sussexes’ move to associate with Procter & Gamble (pictured, announcing the partnership on Archewell today) has surprised some due to its checkered history
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS news" data-version="2" id="mol-a66327d0-b286-11eb-a715-3b1456a3f307" website and Meghan team up with Procter & Gamble
