Meghan Markle has been making it through California’s many coronavirus lockdowns thanks in no small part to her two rescue dogs, a beagle named Guy and a black labrador called Pula, according to the CEO of her patronage
Caroline Yates, who runs Mayhew—the London animal welfare charity Markle has been supporting since 2019—spoke with Hello! about the royal’s newfound reliance on her pets. “Whenever we talk to the Duchess about the charity, she always references how important her dogs are and what a support they are,” she told the outlet. “Particularly during everything that’s happened this year, with COVID, and with the personal trials and tribulations she went through this year,” likely referring to the New York Times op-ed the Duchess wrote in November revealing she had suffered a miscarriage.
Yates continued, “It was really nice to share our experiences with her about how important animals are when things are tough and what a comfort they can be. That’s what Mayhew is all about, that’s what we want to try and encourage, we want to try to promote the human-animal bond and what a great source of comfort and stimulation, and joy pet ownership can be.” She also said the charity was “really thrilled” to be included on the list of recipients of the Sussexes’ 2020 Christmas card. “We had no idea what it would look like before we got the photo, and when we saw it, we thought, ‘Oh wow!’” she said. “It’s very family-oriented, it was really lovely.”
While Meghan may now live in California, she still regluarly checks in with her royal patronages. Mayhew revealed in May of last year that the Duchess had been working with them as it struggled to find funding amid the coronavirus pandemic, after all of its public fundraising events had been canceled. Sarah Hastelow, the PR and media officer for the animal charity, told Newsweek at the time, “The Duchess has been in touch, I can’t say much more than that…She’s been such a champion of animals and animal welfare. It’s always been a passion of hers.”
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