Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, personally called Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) to advocate for paid family leave, according to Politico.
“I’m in my car. I’m driving. It says caller ID blocked. Honestly … I thought it was Sen. Manchin. His calls come in blocked. And she goes ‘Sen. Capito?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She said, ‘This is Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex,” Politico quoted Capito as saying.
“Much to my surprise, she called me on my private line and she introduced herself as the Duchess of Sussex, which is kind of ironic,” Collins told Politico’s Senate reporter Marianne LeVine. “I was happy to talk with her. But I’m more interested in what the people of Maine are telling me about it.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) had apparently given Meghan the numbers to the U.S senators.
“I talked to each of the women senators and let them know that she’s going to reach out, because she only completed two of the calls,” Gillibrand said, according to Politico. “She’s going to call some others, so I let them know in advance.”
“She wants to be part of a working group to work on paid leave long term and she’s going to be. Whether this comes to fruition now or later, she’ll be part of a group of women that hopefully will work on paid leave together,” Gillibrand said of the duchess.
Meghan wrote an open letter to Senate leadership last month in support of paid family leave as an “engaged citizen and a parent.” In her letter, she touched on the recent birth of her daughter, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
“Like fewer parents, we weren’t confronted with the harsh reality of either spending those first few critical months with our baby or going back to work. We knew we could take her home, and in that vital (and sacred) stage, devote any and everything to our kids and to our family,” wrote Meghan.
“No family should have to choose between earning a living and having the freedom to take care of their child (or a loved one, or themselves, as we would see with a comprehensive paid leave plan),” she wrote.
Members of the British royal family are largely expected to maintain political neutrality in public. Last year, Meghan and Harry stepped down as working members British royalty and moved to California.