--- title: Michelle Obama Gave Meghan Markle About Raising Daughters description: The Duchess of Sussex asked Michelle Obama for parenting advice for British Vogue. Here's what she said about the masterclass in letting go. canonical: https://time.com/5637655/meghan-markle-michelle-obama/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-29T15:50:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:06.004Z og:title: Here’s The Advice Michelle Obama Gave Meghan Markle About Raising Daughters og:description: "A masterclass in letting go." og:url: https://time.com/5637655/meghan-markle-michelle-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12cf4bd3f4e865f9/698a0091db29875e2b263e54/michelleobamameghanmarkle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3124 og:image:height: 1757 og:image:alt: 2019 ESSENCE Festival Presented By Coca-Cola - Louisiana Superdome- Day 2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here’s The Advice Michelle Obama Gave Meghan Markle About Raising Daughters twitter:description: "A masterclass in letting go." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12cf4bd3f4e865f9/698a0091db29875e2b263e54/michelleobamameghanmarkle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here’s The Advice Michelle Obama Gave Meghan Markle About Raising Daughters > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Just Stepped Out With Their Royal Baby [Watch (HLS stream): Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Just Stepped Out With Their Royal Baby](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/clZgS99X.m3u8) (2:40)  _Published 2019-05-08. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Just Stepped Out With Their Royal Baby._ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 29, 2019 3:50 PM UTC  NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - JULY 06: Michelle Obama speaks onstage during the 2019 ESSENCE Festival Presented By Coca-Cola at Louisiana Superdome on July 06, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for ESSENCE) NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - JULY 06: Michelle Obama speaks onstage during the 2019 ESSENCE Festival Presented By Coca-Cola at Louisiana Superdome on July 06, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for ESSENCE) Bennett Raglin—Getty Images for ESSENCE by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 29, 2019 3:50 PM UTC [Meghan Markle](https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2018-meghan-markle-runner-up/), Duchess of Sussex when she married Prince Harry, has guest-edited the 2019 September issue of _British Vogue_. As the [first guest editor](https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ebtb9FMMH/) of the September issue in the magazine’s 103-year history, Markle knew how to make a splash. For an issue titled “Forces for Change,” the British royal sat down “over a casual lunch of chicken tacos and \[her\] ever-burgeoning bump” to chat with [American royalty](https://time.com/5624491/meghan-markle-beyonce/), former First Lady [Michelle Obama](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567670/michelle-obama/). While during that lunch, Obama agreed to answer just a few “simple questions” what she returned to Markle was “a thoughtful, reflective and beautifully curated narrative” and some very good parenting advice for Markle who was soon-to-be a new mother. In her note, which can be read in its entirety on [_British Vogue’s_ website](https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/michelle-obama-duchess-of-sussex-interview-2019), Obama wrote that “being a mother has been a masterclass in letting go.” As she learned to weather the “bruised knees, bumpy roads and broken hearts” along with her daughters, Sasha and Malia, she also learned that they are very resilient. As she has watched them grow, she realized that as their mother, her “job is to give them the space to explore and develop into the people they want to be. Not who I want them to be or who I wish I was at that age, but who they are, deep inside.” She also learned not to protect them from all of life’s challenges, but to provide “a safe and consistent place for them to land when they inevitably fail; and to show them, again and again, how to get up on their own.” As her daughters grow up to be young women, she is teaching them to not “just check the boxes you think you’re supposed to check” and instead “keep trying on new experiences until they find what feels right. And what felt right yesterday might not necessarily feel right today. That’s OK – it’s good, even.” Obama added that she likes to tell her daughters that “[becoming](https://time.com/5457854/michelle-obama-becoming-review/) who we are is an ongoing process,” which is a good thing. “What I hope my daughters will realize a little earlier is that there is no prescribed path, that it’s OK to swerve, and that the confidence they need to recognize that will come with time,” Obama wrote. While Obama only has experience raising daughters, her advice for parents of sons “would be exactly the same.” Markle just may follow that advice as she hones her own parenting skills on her new son, [Archie](https://time.com/5532649/meghan-markle-royal-baby-latest-news/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5637655/meghan-markle-michelle-obama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5637655/meghan-markle-michelle-obama/"},"headline":"Here’s The Advice Michelle Obama Gave Meghan Markle About Raising Daughters","datePublished":"2019-07-29T15:50:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:06.004Z","description":"The advice works equally well for sons.","url":"https://time.com/5637655/meghan-markle-michelle-obama/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Michelle Obama","meghan markle"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12cf4bd3f4e865f9/698a0091db29875e2b263e54/michelleobamameghanmarkle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12cf4bd3f4e865f9/698a0091db29875e2b263e54/michelleobamameghanmarkle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2019 ESSENCE Festival Presented By Coca-Cola - Louisiana Superdome- Day 2","caption":"2019 ESSENCE Festival Presented By Coca-Cola - Louisiana Superdome- Day 2","creditText":"Bennett Raglin—Getty Images for ESSENCE","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5637655/meghan-markle-michelle-obama/","name":"Here’s The Advice Michelle Obama Gave Meghan Markle About Raising Daughters"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Just Stepped Out With Their Royal Baby","description":"Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Just Stepped Out With Their Royal Baby.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/clZgS99X/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-05-08T12:24:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/clZgS99X.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5637655/meghan-markle-michelle-obama/","duration":"PT2M40S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5637655/meghan-markle-michelle-obama/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```