Meghan Markle is well-known for being a positive and affirming influence in the lives of many women and underprivileged people across the world, but she's rarely used fruit to express her sentiments. But while helping out women escaping addiction and sex work, the Duchess of Sussex wrote messages on bananas, but said messages have been heavily criticised by a sex worker, who labelled them "offensive".
Since announcing her pregnancy last October, Meghan Markle has been hard at work with plenty of charitable endeavours, helping out women at shelters and starting a cookbook intended to raise money for the victims of the Grenfell Tower Fire, which ravaged London back in June 2017.
But back on Friday of last week, Meghan and Harry went to visit One25, a charity that specialises in helping women break free of addiction, sex work and other life issues that can seriously hamper their future. Part of Meghan's visit was spent packing lunches for women, and that's when she came up with the idea.
Writing messages like "You are special," "You are strong," or "You are brave" on various banana skins, Markle reportedly got the idea from a school lunch programme out in America, according to Hannah Furness, the Royal correspondent for the Daily Telegraph.
"I saw this project this woman had started somewhere in the States on a school lunch programme. On each of the bananas she wrote an affirmation, to make the kids feel really, like, empowered."
But one of the intended recipients of the lunches and bananas has slammed Meghan Markle for the gesture, branding the entire idea "stupid". Known only as "Nikki", the sex worker said that Meghan Markle had the means to help out more than she did.
“People out here struggle to eat and sleep and she gifts us some words on a piece of fruit," Nikki lamented. "She has the means to help us more than that. It’s offensive, you know." But another sex worker - this one homeless - thought the bananas were "sweet".
"It’s so cold right now, it’s a struggle to raise money to get a bed for the night, so any food and bedding is a big help. I think it’s great Meghan is supporting them. It is really sweet. The messages were lovely and sensitive. I think the women who would have received them would have appreciated it. Knowing there’s someone supporting them would mean a lot."
Meanwhile, a volunteer who was nearby as Meghan wrote a message on a banana, thought the same, although she did think that the gesture would lead to fewer people eating the bananas. "I can imagine being on the van, and ‘Meghan wrote this thing, and what?’ I think they might not eat it," said the volunteer.
"I think that banana would be at home until it is rotten. Because I would do the same. It sounds really cheesy, but little things like that when you are out – especially tonight, we can see the weather – just to get that little thing… Meghan took her time out to write that one. It’s lush."
While not everyone may agree with everything she does, Meghan Markle is clearly doing her part to give back to the community.
