Meghan Markle Wears "Justice" String Bracelet In South Africa

The Duke and Duchess Of Sussex Visit South Africa

(Image credit: Chris Jackson)

published 23 September 2019

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, is nothing if not a fearless equal rights activist. Long before she met Prince Harry, she was speaking at the UN about gender equality and doing nonprofit work in India to further girls' education; she says she's been an advocate for women since she was just 11. Having touched down in South Africa for a ten-day tour—just days after flying to Rome for best friend Misha Nonoo's wedding, at which Meghan was the only guest to deliver a reading—Meghan was spotted wearing a string bracelet reading "Justice."

Here she is hugging a little boy in a Nyanga township in Cape Town, South Africa (she's also giving me major Princess Diana vibes, who was famous for eschewing royal tradition to warmly hug the people she met):

I initially thought the bracelet might say "Archie," but a closer look reveals what seems to be the word "Justice":

Wrist, Arm, Bracelet, Finger, Hand, Jewellery, Fashion accessory, Elbow, Joint, Muscle,

It's not clear where Meghan got the bracelet; she's wearing it in the first photos of her South Africa royal engagement, so she seems to have acquired it either before or at the beginning of the couple's first stop. It looks homemade, so it's possible a child in Cape Town gave it to her before she was officially photographed?

And it looks like Harry has a matching one:

Bracelet, Brown, Jewellery, Beige, Footwear, Fashion accessory, Hand, Leather, Finger, Ankle,

Like his wife, Prince Harry is a feminist. (I mean, do you think that Meghan would have married him if he wasn't?) We learned this for sure back in January, when the CEO of nonprofit Tomorrow's Women Wirral in the U.K. shared details of a private conversation with Harry: "During a discussion about Tomorrow’s Women Wirral being a women’s only centre Prince Harry, to our delight, declared ‘I’m a feminist’ and highlighted that it is equally important for men to support the movement in female empowerment," she said.

Speaking to the women and girls of South Africa a little later on Monday, Meghan Markle had a powerful message to share: "While I'm here with my husband as a member of the royal family. I want you to know, I am here with you as a mother, a wife, as a woman, as a woman of color and as your sister."

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Jenny is the Digital Director at Marie Claire. A graduate of Leeds University, and a native of London, she moved to New York in 2012 to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was the first intern at Bustle when it launched in 2013 and spent five years building out its news and politics department. In 2018 she joined Marie Claire, where she held the roles of Deputy Digital Editor and Director of Content Strategy before becoming Digital Director. Working closely with Marie Claire's exceptional editorial, audience, commercial, and e-commerce teams, Jenny oversees the brand's digital arm, with an emphasis on driving readership. When she isn't editing or knee-deep in Google Analytics, you can find Jenny writing about television, celebrities, her lifelong hate of umbrellas, or (most likely) her dog, Captain. In her spare time, she writes fiction: her first novel, the thriller EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD, was published with Minotaur Books (UK) and Little, Brown (US) in February 2024 and became a USA Today bestseller. She has also written extensively about developmental coordination disorder, or dyspraxia , which she was diagnosed with when she was nine.