Meghan Markle is celebrating her 44th birthday today, and is likely spending the day at home with Prince Harry, and their two children Archie and Lilibet

Meghan Markle is celebrating her 44th birthday today and is likely enjoying a quiet celebration at home with Prince Harry and their two children, Archie and Lilibet.

This year’s birthday is a subdued event for the Sussexes, contrasting with Meghan’s significant 40th birthday in 2021.

To commemorate that day, Meghan initiated an online project to assist women in returning to work after the peak of the pandemic.

The project’s launch was accompanied by an online video featuring Hollywood stars, including Melissa McCarthy, and a cameo from Prince Harry. However, the initiative was discreetly discontinued after it failed to take off.

This follows the revelation of Prince Harry’s crushing defeat in the Royal rift as Meghan ‘holds all the cards’.

The project, dubbed ’40×40,’ saw Meghan request 40 of her celebrity friends to dedicate 40 minutes of their time to mentoring and supporting women re-entering the workforce. Meghan’s aspiration was to trigger a ripple effect of guidance extending beyond her circle, reports the Mirror.

However, shortly after the Archewell campaign went live, there was a noticeable silence from the Duchess of Sussex, and the project was quietly put on hold. With the ambitious project fading into the background, Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told the Daily Mail that he believes the initiative was merely a ‘gimmick’ intended to “boost Meghan’s appeal”.
Fitzwilliams expressed that part of the allure of the project, besides being a unique way to commemorate Meghan’s 40th birthday, was the involvement of numerous celebrities advocating for gender equality.

Adele, Melissa McCarthy, Princess Eugenie, Stella McCartney, and Serena Williams were among the big names associated with the project. However, Fitzwilliams pointed out that even these A-listers couldn’t salvage the “poorly organized” initiative.

The Royal expert commented: “There was never any clear idea of how it would be funded or how exactly it would be beneficial to spend just 40 minutes with someone. It was clearly just a gimmick designed to boost Meghan’s appeal, which she may have overestimated both then and now.”

Fitzwilliams further noted that as part of the 40×40 project, “Meghan recommended ‘time spent in service to others’, a topic about which she knows very little, though she did, as a senior working royal, have the chance to serve and didn’t last long in it.”

The Royal commentator believes that Meghan’s unsuccessful birthday initiative marked the beginning of a trend of the Duchess underperforming with her projects. He referenced Meghan’s Netflix series With Love, Meghan, which failed to break into the top 300 shows on the streaming platform.

He also mentioned Meghan’s podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, which was shelved at the end of its first season. While the podcast will return sometime in the future, Meghan said she is focusing on other projects right now.