In this week’s royal news update, King Charles III meets United Kingdom’s new prime minister, Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle gets a few wins and Prince William shows his support for the first woman to cross Antarctica solo and unsupported.
This week’s royal update
King Charles III meets UK’s new Prime Minister
Britain’s King Charles III on Tuesday, appointed new Conservative leader Rishi Sunak as the second prime minister of his reign, shortly after accepting the resignation of Liz Truss.
Photographs distributed by Buckingham Palace showed Charles shaking Sunak’s hand as he appointed him to become Britain’s first prime minister of colour.
Speaking on the steps of Downing Street after being appointed premier by King Charles III, Sunak spoke of Truss’s “noble” aims but said some “mistakes” had been made.
“Right now our country is facing a profound economic crisis, the aftermath of Covid still lingers, Putin’s war in Ukraine has destabilised energy markets and supply chains the world over,” he said.
He said, however, he wanted to “pay tribute” to Truss whose tenure as leader lasted just seven weeks.
Meghan Markle is Nigerian
The former actress shared the surprising information during the latest episode of her podcast. A small clip of her finding out that she is 43% Nigerian has gone viral.
The royal shared, that after taking a genealogy test which found that majority of her lineage and heritage is Nigerian. Markle is biracial, her father is white and her mother is black.
Markle said she took the genealogy test a few years ago and will now do a bit more research on what tribe she belongs to.
Watch Meghan Markle reveal she is 43% Nigerian:
Meghan Markle keeps winning
Despite her podcast, Archetypes causing controversy here and there, the numbers don’t lie. The Duchess of Sussex Spotify podcast is the most listened to in a couple of countries around the world.
The stats were revealed on Tuesday. Spotify released its annual earnings for the third quarter, reaching around 456 million monthly listeners, up by 20%, Variety magazine reported.
The music and podcast platform made a special mention to Markle’s Archetypes, reporting that the exclusive podcast premiere was trending at number one in six countries.
Prince of Wales supports Preet Chandi
It was shared on Wednesday on the Prince and Princess of Wales’ social media pages that they will be supporting Preet Chandi after her “extraordinary challenge to become the first woman to cross Antarctica solo and unsupported”.
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Chandi said she feels quite grateful for the support of Prince Willam, adding “Feeling very grateful to have the Princess of Wales as Patron for the expedition”.
Writing about her experience a few weeks ago, she said: “I’m so proud of myself. It feels strange writing that because I don’t say it very often but it is true. Take a minute and give yourself a pat on the back for your achievements. However tough it’s gotten for you, you are reading this now and you made it through.”
*Additional reporting by AFP
