Meghan Markle Says Wearing a Cap and Keeping Her Head Down While Sneaking Around New York in 2019 Was a "Really Big Deal"

Meghan Markle just opened up about a big moment from her time as a working royal—five years after it happened.

In her recent surprise appearance at the grand opening of Godmothers, a bookstore near her home in Montecito, California (alongside neighbor and fellow author Oprah Winfrey no less), the Duchess of Sussex discussed the important role a bookstore played for her during a particularly chaotic moment in her life, back in 2019.

“For me, sneaking to New York five years ago was a really big deal,” Markle told the crowd at the Godmothers grand opening event, according to Town & Country. “I was still so uncomfortable being out in the world. The safety of what I was craving, I knew I could find in a bookstore.”

Markle said that, during that visit to New York five years ago when she "snuck" around the city, she wore a cap and kept her head down to avoid being recognized—a description that conjures images of the outfit the former Suits actress was photographed wearing on her way to the airport at the end of her visit to NYC in February 2019 to attend a baby shower thrown for her by friends.

As a refresher (since it was five years ago, after all), Marke's airport-ready look at the time was an all-black outfit with leggings, fashion sneakers, a camel-colored coat, and a "Rectify" cap (a promotional item from her friend and fellow actress Abigail Spencer's old show Rectify—and the same cap Spencer was photographed wearing on her way into Markle's baby shower just hours before the Duchess of Sussex was seen donning it).

Markle didn't explicitly confirm the date of the bookstore moment she shared with the audience at Godmothers, we know now that 2019 was an emotionally draining time for her. In one of the most emotional moments from the Sussexes' televised 2021 interview with Winfrey, Markle revealed her struggles with suicidal ideation and described sharing those struggles with Prince Harry before attending an event at Royal Albert Hall that took place in January 2019, just a month before she traveled back to the United States for her baby shower.

She didn't say which bookstore she found safety in back in 2019, but Markle's connection to Godmothers runs deep. Not only is the store close to her home in Montecito, but, according to Town & Country, her husband inspired the shop's name when he called Winfrey and Godmothers' co-owners, literary agent Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and cosmetics mogul Victoria Jackson, his "fairy godmothers" at a book party for his memoir, Spare.

When Rudolph Walsh and Jackson decided to open the store, Winfrey reminded them of Harry's nickname for the group, saying, “There’s really only one thing you can name it: Godmothers.”