Edward Enninful has spectacularly failed to dispel rumours of a rift with Meghan Markle after he hinted that he won’t work with her again.
The ex-Vogue editor once described the former Suits actress as a ‘bi-racial powerhouse’ and an ‘ultimate force for change’.
But six years on Mr Enninful has set up a new magazine and launched with a host of A-list friends including Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow.
And when asked if it will feature the Duchess of Sussex on the cover he said: ‘I feel like I have done it’.
In comments that shed new light on his rapport with Meghan, he mentioned that he would gladly highlight King Charles and Queen Camilla because they share similar passions with him.
In a recent interview, Mr Enninful was asked about his vast group of celebrity friends and how rarely he falls out with people.
However, he seemed to hesitate when questioned about excluding the Duchess of Sussex, noting her significant role as guest editor for Vogue’s September 2019 issue.
When asked if he’d feature her on the cover again, he stated, ‘Meghan and I had a wonderful experience with the issue we worked on, but I feel like we’ve accomplished that and don’t feel the need to repeat it.’
Edward Enninful has failed to dispel rumours that he has fallen out with the Duchess of Sussex, who he previously called a powerhouse and icon
Meghan with then Vogue Editor Edward in 2019 when she guest edited the magazine while pregnant with Archie
The 53-year-old journalist’s new creative project EE72 launched with a celebrity-studded party in London on Friday night.
He worked alongside the Duchess of Sussex, 44, when she guest-edited the September 2019 issue of Vogue.
But there was apparently a row three years later over another planned Vogue feature about the Duke and Duchess’s charitable work.
Meghan described herself and Mr Enninful as ‘like-minded thinkers’ who enjoyed ‘philosophising’ over steaming cups of mint tea.
He called her a ‘bi-racial powerhouse’ and lauded her active participation as a guest royal editor, especially given that she collaborated throughout her pregnancy and following childbirth.
In his editor’s letter he described Meghan as being ‘the real deal — and an ultimate force for change’.
But they have apparently ‘drifted’ apart.
One source claimed this happened when the planned Vogue feature in 2022 on the Sussexes’ philanthropy was abruptly pulled and scrapped completely.
Meghan allegedly wanted it to be the cover story and Edward did not ‘meet those expectations’.
Another insider instead put the change in closeness between them purely down to distance after she emigrated back to the US from London in 2020.
Enninful, who became the Global Ambassador for King Charles’s youth-oriented organization, the Prince’s Trust (currently the King’s Trust) in October 2021, confessed in a Times interview that he is inclined to collaborate with the monarch.
‘I love King Charles and Queen Camilla – I went to the coronation with Katy Perry’, he said.
He added: ‘I am happy to have them in the magazine. They care about the same things I do.’
Edward Enninful (pictured this month in London) has dismissed the possibility that he might work with Meghan Markle again in his new publication
The Duchess of Sussex has a love of fashion and charity work
He has talked about involving his celebrity acquaintances, including the first EE72 cover star Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, and his close friend Naomi Campbell, in his new venture, which includes an online platform and quarterly print editions.
Supermodel Naomi appeared on Edward’s remarkable final Vogue cover for the March 2024 issue.
Featuring 40 ‘legendary’ women, from Serena Williams and Oprah Winfrey to actors Cynthia Erivo and Anya Taylor-Joy, the cover had one notable absence: Meghan.
Ahead of the release of the issue, Meghan’s supporters questioned her omission from the cover, referencing the close friendship that she and Edward appeared to have enjoyed at one time.
It was, however, revealed in May by the Mail on Sunday that the pair’s friendship had imploded two years prior to Edward’s final cover.
A disagreement over how Vogue planned to present a series of articles about Meghan and Harry’s charitable work was reportedly to blame.
The coverage, designed to tie in with Meghan’s keynote appearance at the One Young World Summit in Manchester in September 2022, would have involved extensive features across print and digital – but Condé Nast insiders claimed it was abruptly scrapped.
A source said: ‘The duchess and her team had high expectations and were expecting she might get a print cover or at least a digital cover out of it, but Enninful was not able to meet those expectations. He already had a magazine cover in the bag for that month.’
The decision to shelve the project reportedly caused irreparable damage to their friendship.
‘Edward was furious to have lost the project, as were the powers that be at Conde Nast,’ a source told the Mail on Sunday.
‘The whole process became very difficult. Edward could only promise her a big showy feature inside the magazine and online – but she turned it down.’
According to insiders, the project needed a full production team, including photographers, videographers, stylists, and editors, to shoot exclusive images and film an in-depth video feature with the Sussexes.
Sources claimed that after Edward explained he had another cover in mind, Meghan’s team had asked if the couple could feature on Vogue’s special digital cover instead, which is released alongside the print edition.
But it is understood that Edward once again declined. ‘He didn’t think it was appropriate to give her the cover,’ the source explained.
It was then that Meghan’s team pulled the plug, apparently leaving relations between the pair in tatters.
Sources added that during the years that followed, Edward had increased his public involvement with the Royal Family, claiming that that was not something Meghan could’ve easily overlooked, particularly as he was initially supportive of her now-infamous ‘Megxit’ Oprah interview in 2021.
Edward, who was awarded an OBE in 2016 for his services to diversity in the fashion industry, is a trustee for The King’s Fund, King Charles’s charity, and interviewed the monarch for Vogue when Charles was still Prince of Wales in 2020.
Edward is a fan of King Charles (seen together at The Sovereign’s Creative Industries Garden Party at Buckingham Palace last year). He was appointed Global Ambassador of the Prince’s Trust (now the King’s Trust)
He also praised the King as ‘charming’, ‘funny’ and ‘kind’ when he penned the monarch’s entry in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023 list.
Edward acknowledged that the then-Prince’s Trust had helped people he knew into work when he was a child living on a council estate in west London.
Noting that the King ‘didn’t have to do any of it’, he lauded Charles for his commitment to improving opportunities for young people from underprivileged backgrounds.
Writing the entry, Mr Enninful said: ‘He could’ve let his privilege shield him from the realities of our hardship in a time when these were not a cause célèbre. But he always met us with an open mind and a listening ear.’
He added that the monarchy is ‘not perfect’ but that King Charles has the ability to modernise things.
