Meghan Markle Is Being Accused of Copying Her Vogue Cover From This Book She Helped Produce

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Meghan Markle has proved once again that she’s more than just a duchess — now she’s a magazine editor too. Not everyone is impressed, however.

On Sunday, the Sussex Royal Instagram account announced that Meghan acted as a guest editor for Vogue’s famed September issue.

“For the past seven months, The Duchess has curated the content with British Vogue's Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful to create an issue that highlights the power of the collective,” the caption reads. “They have named the issue: ‘Forces for Change.’”

According to the Instagram post, the Duchess chose a “diverse selection of women from all walks of life, each driving impact and raising the bar for equality, kindness, justice, and open-mindedness.” She purposefully left one space open on the cover. Instead of a portrait, the Duchess left a mirror so “when you hold the issue in your hands, you see yourself as part of this collective.”

The cover features New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, as well as actress Jane Fonda and climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg. Inside, readers can also find an interview between the Duchess of Sussex and former first lady Michelle Obama.

The issue’s cover undoubtedly looks gorgeous and its message inside is one all women should read. However, Meghan is being accused of drawing inspiration for the cover from a previously published book.

Authors Samantha Brett and Steph Adams are accusing the Duchess of ripping off the cover of their book The Game Changers, which Meghan also happened to contribute to more than three years ago.

"It's obviously very flattering, she obviously likes our concept!" Brett told The Daily Mail. "I love Meghan and am a huge fan, but if what people are alerting us to is true, then it's extremely disappointing."

According to The Daily Mail, Meghan herself approved the cover of The Game Changers, which published in 2016, and wrote an essay for the best-selling coffee table book.

The similarities don’t stop at the cover. As The Daily Mail noted, royal officials said the Vogue issue features “trailblazing change-makers united by their fearlessness in breaking barriers.” Meanwhile, a blurb for the coffee table book also read that it’s about “fearless, trailblazing” women.

However, there may be a silver lining to this controversy. Now, Meghan’s cover isn’t just bringing attention to Vogue, it’s also bringing attention to the book. And, the more women we celebrate at once the better, right?

Memories (and the People who Helped Form Them)

Spurred by the writing of my next book about my years on the road, I find myself wandering the halls of memory reminiscing about my last decade of travel.

I dig through old photos and journal entries. I search Facebook for people I met years ago. Stories and faces long forgotten zoom back into my mind as I wonder where they are and what they are doing.

Those whose lives briefly intersected with my own on the highway of life.

The five backpackers who inspired my original trip. The girl from that hostel in Prague who welcomed me into her friend group when I was too afraid to say hello. The Dutch guys I spent weeks traveling with in Australia. The motley crew I spent a month with in New Zealand. My friends from when I lived in Bangkok. The folks I picked up on my road trip across the states. My first Couchsurfing host. Or this group of crazy cats I spent a month in paradise with:

As strangers in a distant land, we were each other’s support. We were the best of friends, partners in crime, and sometime lovers.

Yet, as we all wander further along life’s path and cast our head backwards, we notice each other’s light fading like a star being snuffed out, until one day, it’s gone and nothing but dust remains.

What happened to the folks I hitched with in Iceland?

Where are all these people now?

Where are the Spaniards from Valencia who I partied with in Florence?

What happened to Lennart, the guy I played poker with in Amsterdam?

Does Jen, a German girl and my first relationship on the road, still live in Australia?

Where is that American couple from Bocas del Toro whose information I forgot to write down?

Where are those people I met in Thailand that inspired me to quit my job?

Those folks I live with at that hostel in Taiwan with?

I met these folks in Thailand and visited them in Bordeaux. I remember this perfect day – a journey to beach, sunset on this sand dune, and a wine and cheese dinner. But where are they now? I know not.

Where are the countless others I spent days, hours, and minutes with in hostels around the world? The ones who wandered unfamiliar streets, partied into the night, broke bread and laughed with me?

What are they doing? Do they still travel? Did they make it all the way around the world like they hoped? Are they happy? Married? Do they like their jobs? Are they healthy? Are they even alive?

And do they have similar thoughts?

Do they think about the people they met? Do they come across a photo on Facebook, sit back, and get lost in memory?

These guys made me realize I worked too much when I traveled….and I don’t remember their names.

Is there someone out there right now telling that tale about a crazy night in Prague and including me in it?

Wandering your past is like wandering a minefield of emotion – joy, excitement, sadness, regret. There are so many people I miss and wonder about. I know it’s foolish to think that everyone will stay in your life forever. People come, people go. Growing apart is a fact of life. People, life, and situations change. This is true for any aspect of life.

What happened to these cool dudes??

But that doesn’t make me wonder any less.

Our paths may not intersect again and the memory of them may fade (really, what was the name of that couple from Bocas?), but their effect on my life will remain with me forever. They taught me to let go, laugh, love, be more adventurous, push myself, and so much more. My life is better because they were in it.

One day, far from now, I’ll look back again and more lights will have faded. I’ll again wonder where they went. And, like a time traveler, I’ll zoom back to the moments we had, relive them in my mind, and imagine a happy future for my friend where all his or her dreams came as true as mine.

Maybe they too are staring out at the sky and thinking the same.

Maybe they’re telling their friend/loved one/kid, “There was this one time….”, remembering me, and saying “That was a cool guy. I hope life is treating him well.”

As we go our separate ways on this long twisting journey, maybe that’s as much as one can really hope for.

Success Stories: Two San Diegans Overcome Fear of Travel

Greetings from Africa! Somewhere right now, I’m trying to snap a photo of a lion without being eaten. In the meantime, this week I want to share stories of readers who used my tips and advice to realize their travel dreams. If you’ve been thinking about traveling for a while, let these reader stories inspire you and show you that the advice here can work for anyone!

Continuing my new series on travel success stories, today we’re going to meet Katie and Steve Nauman, a 30-year-old couple from San Diego. Katie and Steve spent a year saving up for their 11-month trip before they quit their jobs and headed out into the world for the majority of 2012.

Nomadic Matt: Tell everyone about yourselves.
Katie and Steve: We are two 30-year-olds from San Diego, California. Katie had some overseas travel experience prior to our trip, and Steve essentially had none, but we really wanted to get out into the world before we have kids, so this past January we quit our corporate jobs, rented out our condo, and took off for a year around the world.

What kind of trip were you planning on doing?
We were planning an 11-month trip around the world. We left on February 1, 2012, and have been to South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. We plan to return home just in time for Christmas.

Did you have any fears when you decided to do this trip?
Yes! We typically make conservative decisions, but we took a massive leap of faith when we pulled the trigger on this trip. We read articles on your site that gave us general reassurance, and it also helped to hear encouragement from friends and family who know us personally.

We have an entire blog post about how our feelings changed as we got closer to our travel date.

How did this site help you overcome those fears and plan your trip?
Your insights and advice helped us during our planning phase as we dove into what RTW meant and how to do it. We spent at least six months researching everything from weather patterns and itineraries to budgets and how to pack our backpacks. There is so much that goes into planning a trip like this: insurance, visas, flights, immunizations, and on and on. It can be massively overwhelming when you’re already nervous about the whole undertaking. Your articles gave us solace that it’s possible.

There have been other ways you’ve helped, too. From your $50/day book, we used the coupons to save money on multi-destination flights with Airtreks. And we chose our scuba diving certification shop (Master Divers) in Koh Tao, Thailand, based on a discount in the same book. The dive shop told us we were the only people who have ever redeemed the coupon! We also purchased a Tiger Airways domestic flight in Australia based on one of the travel deal links in your newsletter.

How did you save for your trip?
Each month we put a portion of our paychecks into a travel fund, so that we had enough for our trip and also for a cushion when we get back. We rented out our condo, which helped us break even on our mortgage. And, money that used to go toward expenses like car insurance are now used for bus, train, and plane tickets.

When we announced our trip to our friends, we were really surprised that nearly everyone’s first reaction had something to do with money. But it’s not as expensive to travel as everyone thinks. We read a lot of blogs about traveling on a budget and did our research to find the right airline tickets, tour operators, hostels, and discount cards to make everything possible. It takes more work, but it does pay off.

What about life on the road has surprised you the most?
We have been surprised at how much we identify with the word “traveler.” There is a funny but clear designation between “traveling” and “vacationing.” Before this trip we had never distinguished between the two, but now we are absolutely certain that we are traveling. Vacationers get to stay in nice places and spend money on trendy dinners and bottles of wine. Travelers nit-pick every expense… and many times end up with the more genuine experience. No doubt, it is harder to travel than it is to vacation. But we also think the challenges make it more rewarding.

How do you stay on budget when you travel?
We travel as cheap as possible. We stay in hostels, usually dorms unless we’re in a country where private rooms are just as affordable. We do a lot of research on our activities to make sure that our dollar is going as far as possible. We take public transportation. Traveling closer to the street is better anyway because you get more interaction with locals and have a more genuine experience.

We also use the Cash Trails app to log every penny we spend. We tag our entries by country and by type (lodging, food, nightlife, activities, transportation, etc.) so that we can keep good track of our budget.

What one thing that you thought would be a challenge has turned out not to be?
Traveling through countries where we don’t speak the language hasn’t been as impossible as we initially worried about. Sure, it can be challenging at times when the language is very different (i.e., character based), but for the most part we haven’t found this to be too big of a stumbling block. People are generally patient when communicating. Hand motions and a smile go a long way.

What advice would you have for other people who want to travel but might not think they can?
We were those people. We talked about a trip like this for years and wondered if we could ever do it. But if you only ever wonder, you’ll never do.

When we broke the news of our trip to our family, friends, and coworkers, the response was always the same: “I wish I had done that.” We didn’t want to look back in 20 years and say to ourselves those dreaded words: “We wish we had done that.”

The hardest part will be making the initial commitment. We know it’s the hardest part because hardly anyone does it. At first you will commit to it in your own mind. But then you will be forced to commit to it in a more tangible way — be it a deposit or plane ticket. Once you pull that trigger, there’s no turning back and you have no choice but to go all in. It’s the most exciting gift you’ll ever give yourself.

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What I loved about Katie and Steve’s story is that it echoes many concerns I hear from potential travelers. The Naumans didn’t have a lot of travel experience and weren’t really risk takers but took the leap anyway and were amazed at how easy everything turned out to be. A lot of people have this fear — I did! But you realize once you start traveling that the hardest part isn’t the travel, it is getting the courage to go. I hope this article helped give you some of that courage.

Become the Next Success Story

One of my favorite parts about this job is hearing people’s travel stories. They inspire me, but more importantly, they also inspire you. I travel a certain way, but there are many ways to fund your trips and travel the world. I hope these stories show you that there is more than one way to travel and that it is within your grasp to reach your travel goals. Here are more examples of people who gave up living a typical life to explore the world:

We all come from different places, but we all have one thing in common: we all want to travel more.