title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: Meghan Markle's engagement to Prince Harry was announced on November 27, 2017, by Harry's father Charles (then the Prince of Wales). The announcement was greeted with enthusiasm by the British media, and prompted generally positive comments about a mixed-race person as a member of the royal family, especially in regard to Commonwealth countries. Markle announced that she would retire from acting, and her intention to become a British citizen.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In preparation for the wedding, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, baptised Markle and confirmed her in the Church of England on March 6, 2018. The private ceremony, performed with water from the River Jordan, took place in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace. The marriage ceremony was held on May 19 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Her wedding dress was designed by Clare Waight Keller. Markle later revealed that there was a private exchange of vows three days earlier, with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the couple's garden. However, this private exchange of vows was not a legally recognized marriage. It was reportedly agreed in advance that excess funds generated from the BBC broadcast of the wedding ceremony would go to a charity chosen by the newlywed couple. In April 2020, Feeding Britain (which provides food packages to families in food poverty) was nominated to receive £90,000 from the BBC.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: After the wedding, the Duke and Duchess lived at Nottingham Cottage within the grounds of Kensington Palace in London. They later moved to Frogmore Cottage in the Home Park of Windsor Castle. The Crown Estate refurbished the cottage at a cost of £2.4 million, paid out of the Sovereign Grant, with the Duke later reimbursing expenses beyond restoration and ordinary maintenance. Meghan gave birth to a son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, on May 6, 2019. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's office moved to Buckingham Palace and officially closed on March 31, 2020, when the Sussexes withdrew from undertaking official royal engagements. After some months in Canada and the United States, in June 2020 the couple bought a house on the former estate of Riven Rock, Montecito, California. The next month, Meghan suffered a miscarriage. She gave birth to a daughter, Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, on June 4, 2021. The Duke and Duchess own a Labrador named Pula, and two Beagles named Guy and Mamma Mia. Meghan previously owned a Labrador-German Shepherd cross named Bogart, which was rehomed with a friend in Canada due to its inability to travel as a result of old age.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: Members of the British royal family are politically neutral by convention. However, Markle was politically vocal before marrying Prince Harry. At age 10, she and her friends reportedly campaigned against the Gulf War. Decades later, she backed Hillary Clinton during the 2016 United States presidential election and publicly denounced the opponent and eventual winner, Donald Trump. In the same year, when the referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union resulted in favor of Brexit, Markle expressed her disappointment on Instagram. In 2017, Markle recommended the book "Who Rules the World?" by left-wing intellectual Noam Chomsky on her Instagram account.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: Meghan married Prince Harry in May 2018. In July 2018, Irish Senator Catherine Noone tweeted that the Duchess was "pleased to see the result" of the Irish referendum on legalizing abortion. Meghan received criticism for potentially breaching the protocol that prohibits royals from interfering in politics; Noone deleted her tweet and emphasized that her statement was misleading and "the Duchess was not in any way political".


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: After she returned to the United States and as an eligible voter, she released a video with her husband encouraging others to register for the 2020 United States presidential election on National Voter Registration Day. Some media outlets took it as an implicit endorsement of the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, which prompted then-President Trump to dismiss their messaging at a press conference. In October 2021, she penned an open letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, advocating for paid leave for parents. Her remarks were met by backlash from Republican representatives Jason Smith and Lisa McClain, who found her statement "out of touch" and criticized her interference with American politics while utilizing her British royal titles. Meghan has reportedly lobbied senators from both parties on the issue of paid family leave, including Democratic senators Patty Murray and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Republican senators Shelley Moore Capito and Susan Collins. She has also publicly spoken in support of federal voting protections.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In February 2022, she voiced her support for the Supreme Court nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, stating "Judge Jackson's nomination has opened new ground for women's representation at the highest level of a judicial system that for too long has tilted against the very community she hails from". In June 2022, she publicly supported Moms Demand Action, an organization which campaigns for safer gun laws in the US. In the same month, in an interview with Jessica Yellin for "Vogue", Meghan criticized the Supreme Court of the United States's decision that abortion is not a protected constitutional right, and voiced her support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. Meghan also voted in the 2022 United States elections.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: After becoming engaged, Markle's first official public appearance with Prince Harry was at a World AIDS Day walkabout in Nottingham on December 1, 2017. On March 12, the 2018 Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey was the first royal event she attended with the Queen. On March 23, Harry and Meghan made an unannounced day visit to Northern Ireland. In total, Markle attended 26 public engagements prior to the wedding. Meghan's first official engagement after marriage was on May 22, when she and her husband attended a garden party celebrating the charity work of Charles III (then Prince of Wales).


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In July 2018, Meghan's first official trip abroad as a royal was to Dublin, Ireland, alongside Harry. In October 2018, the Duke and Duchess traveled to Sydney, Australia for the 2018 Invictus Games. This formed part of a Pacific tour that included Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. As representatives of the Queen, the couple were greeted warmly by crowds in Sydney, and the announcement of Meghan's pregnancy hours after their arrival delighted the public and media. During their visit to Morocco in February 2019, the Duke and Duchess focused on projects centered on "women's empowerment, girls' education, inclusivity and encouragement of social entrepreneurship". Meghan also participated in her husband's work as youth ambassador to the Commonwealth, which included overseas tours.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: As part of establishing a separate office from Kensington Palace in 2019, the Duke and Duchess created an Instagram social media account, which broke the record for the fastest account at the time to reach a million followers. In July 2019, the Duchess's security team were criticized for creating an empty zone of about 40 seats around her at Wimbledon where she was watching a match between Serena Williams and Kaja Juvan. In August 2019, Meghan and her husband were criticized by environmental campaigners for using private jets regularly when taking their personal trips abroad, which would leave more carbon footprint per person compared to commercial planes. The criticism was in line with similar criticism faced by the royal family in June 2019, after it was claimed that they "had doubled [their] carbon footprint from business travel".


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In September and October 2019, a Southern African tour included Malawi, Angola, South Africa and Botswana. Archie traveled with his parents, making it "their first official tour as a family".


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In January 2020, Meghan and Harry returned to the UK from a vacation in Canada and announced that they were stepping back from their role as senior members of the royal family, and would balance their time between the United Kingdom and North America. A statement released by the Palace confirmed that the Duke and Duchess were to cease to undertake royal duties as representatives of the Queen, and would therefore no longer receive the relevant financial support. The couple would retain their HRH styles but not use them. The formal role of the Duke and Duchess was subject to a twelve-month review period, ending in March 2021. Meghan's final solo engagement as a senior royal was a visit to Robert Clack School on March 7, 2020, in Dagenham ahead of International Women's Day. She and Harry attended the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on March 9, 2020, which was their last engagement as a couple before they officially stepped down on March 31. Two years later, they made their first official appearance in the UK in June 2022 while attending the Platinum Jubilee National Service of Thanksgiving.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: They visited the UK and Germany in September 2022 for a number of charity events in Manchester and Düsseldorf. On September 8, 2022, while Meghan and Harry were in London preparing to attend a charity event, Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The couple chose not to attend the charity event that night, with Meghan staying in London and her husband traveling to Balmoral. On September 10, 2022, the Prince and Princess of Wales were joined by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor to view the tributes to the Queen and spent time talking to the crowds. This was the first time since March 2020 that the two couples had been seen together.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In summer 2019, before announcing their decision to step down in January 2020, Meghan and her husband were involved in talks with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the founder of the now-defunct streaming platform Quibi, over a possible role in the service without gaining personal profits, but they eventually decided against joining the project. In September 2019, it was reported that the couple had hired New York-based PR firm Sunshine Sachs, which represented them until 2022. In June 2020, they signed with the Harry Walker Agency, owned by media company Endeavor, to conduct paid public speaking engagements. In September 2020, the Sussexes signed a private commercial deal with Netflix "to develop scripted and unscripted series, film, documentaries, and children programming for the streaming service". In October 2020, the couple hosted a special episode of "Time 100 Talks" with the theme being on "Engineering a Better World". In December 2020, it was announced that Meghan had invested in Clevr Blends, a coffee company based in Southern California. In the same month, Meghan and Harry signed a multi-year deal with Spotify to produce and host their own programs through their audio producing company, Archewell Audio. A holiday special was released by the couple on the service in December 2020, while Meghan's podcast, titled "Archetypes", premiered in August 2022.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: "The Bench", a picture book written by Meghan, was published in June 2021 by Random House Children's Books. It is based on her perception of the relationship between her husband and their son. The book received a mixed response; it garnered praise for its illustrations and messaging but was criticized for its structure and writing. Following its release, Meghan, alongside Archewell, donated 2,000 copies of "The Bench" to libraries, schools, and other nonprofit programs across the United States. On June 17, the book reached number one on the children's picture books category of "The New York Times" Best Seller list. In July 2021, it was announced that Meghan would executive-produce, alongside David Furnish, a Netflix animated series called "Pearl". The series was originally pitched to Netflix in 2018. "Pearl" would depict the adventures of a 12-year-old girl who is inspired by influential women from history, but the project was canceled in May 2022. In the same month it was reported that Meghan and Harry had signed a four-book publishing deal that includes a wellness guide by Meghan and a memoir by Harry.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In September 2021, Meghan and Harry went to New York, where they visited the 9/11 Memorial with New York governor Kathy Hochul and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, and held meetings with the U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed and the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield. In October 2021, Meghan and Harry announced their partnership with Ethic, a sustainable investment firm based in New York City, which also manages the couple's investments. According to state filings from Delaware, where the couple's Archewell foundation is registered, Meghan and Harry incorporated 11 companies and a trust beginning in early 2020 which include Orinoco Publishing LLC and Peca Publishing LLC to hold the rights for their books as well as Cobblestone Lane LLC and IPHW LLC which are holders of their foundation's logos. Frim Fram Inc., which ran "The Tig", had been registered earlier as a new corporation in Delaware in December 2019.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: "Harry & Meghan", an docuseries about the Sussexes, was produced by Netflix and the couple's Archewell Productions and premiered on December 8, 2022. It is directed by Liz Garbus.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: Markle became a counsellor for the international network One Young World in 2014 and spoke at its 2014 summit in Dublin and attended the 2016 opening ceremony in Ottawa. Also in 2014, she toured Spain, Italy, Turkey, Afghanistan and England with the United Service Organizations. During her time in Toronto, she volunteered for the Community Meals Program of St. Felix Centre and donated food from the set of "Suits".


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In 2016, Markle became a global ambassador for World Vision Canada, traveling to Rwanda for the Clean Water Campaign. After a trip to India focused on raising awareness for women's issues, she penned an op-ed for "Time" magazine concerning stigmatization of women in regard to menstrual health. She has also worked with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women as an advocate. Meghan is a vocal feminist and intended to use her role as a member of the royal family to continue supporting women's rights and social justice. In 2017, Markle joined Prince Harry in teaming up with the charity Elephants Without Borders to assist with the conservation efforts taking place in Botswana.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In January 2018, Markle became interested in the Hubb Community Kitchen run by survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. She visited the kitchen regularly, and suggested that the displaced women publish a cookbook to assist in funding for the group. "Together: Our Community Cookbook", her first charity project as Duchess of Sussex, was announced in September. In August 2020, Meghan used proceeds from the cookbook to donate £8,000 to the UK charity Migrateful, which supports refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants by helping them organize cookery classes. In March 2021, she donated £10,000 from the proceeds to the UK-based charity Himmah to assist them with stocking the group's food bank, provide them with equipment and help the Salaam Shalom Kitchen, the only Muslim and Jewish community kitchen in the UK.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In March 2020, it was announced that Meghan's first post-royal project would be the narration of Disneynature's documentary "Elephant", which was released on April 3. In support of elephants, Disneynature and the Disney Conservation Fund would donate to Elephant Without Borders for species conservation in Botswana. In April 2020, Meghan and her husband, in a private capacity, volunteered to personally deliver foods prepared by the Project Angel Food to Los Angeles residents amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. In June 2020, the couple backed the Stop Hate for Profit campaign and encouraged CEOs of different companies to join the movement. In July 2020, she spoke in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In August 2020, Meghan and Harry collaborated with Baby2Baby and participated in drive-through distribution of school supplies to students.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In April 2021, the couple were announced as campaign chairs for Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World, an event organized by Global Citizen to increase access to COVID-19 vaccinations. They also announced their support for a vaccine equity fundraiser initiated by the same organization, and penned an open letter to the pharmaceutical industry CEOs urging them to address the vaccine equity crisis. In July 2021, Meghan and Harry were among people who were selected by UK-based charity Population Matters to receive the Change Champions award for their decision to have only two children and help with maintaining a smaller and more sustainable population. In August 2021, to mark her 40th birthday, Meghan launched 40x40, a campaign that asks people around the world to spend 40 minutes of their time mentoring women reentering the workforce. In September 2021, Meghan and Harry spoke again in support of vaccine equity at the Global Citizen Live concert. In the following month and ahead of the 2021 G20 Rome summit, the couple penned an open letter together with the Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom, asking the G20 leaders to expedite efforts for the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In January 2022 and following criticism aimed at Spotify for their handling of COVID-19 misinformation, Meghan and Harry made an announcement stating that since April 2021 they had begun "expressing concerns" about the issue on the platform. In February 2022, the couple were selected to receive NAACP's President's Award for their works on causes related to social justice and equity. In the following month, they were among more than a hundred people who signed an open letter published by the People's Vaccine Alliance, asking for free global access to COVID-19 vaccines and calling out the UK, EU and Switzerland for opposing a waiver that would allow vaccine intellectual property protections to be lifted. In October 2022, Meghan and Harry were named as Ripple of Hope Award laureates for their work on racial justice, mental health, and other social initiatives through their foundation Archewell.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: From January 2019 to February 2021 Meghan was patron of London's National Theatre and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. She continued her role as the private patron of Mayhew until 2022. She remains a private patron of Smart Works. From March 2019 to February 2021, she was the vice president of The Queen's Commonwealth Trust. Until February 2021, periodically, online QCT chat sessions were conducted and uploaded to YouTube for general public viewing. In October 2019, along with other members of the royal family, Meghan voiced a Public Health England announcement, for the "Every Mind Matters" mental health program.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In 2019 Meghan was a contributor and guest editor for the September issue of British "Vogue" and highlighted the works of 15 women from different areas, who were described as "Forces for Change". Edward Enninful, editor-in-chief of the British "Vogue", later revealed that the issue had become the "fastest-selling issue in the history of British "Vogue"". In the same issue, it was announced that she had collaborated with a number of British fashion houses and stores to launch a capsule collection, called The Smart Set, in September 2019 to benefit the charity Smart Works. The collection sought to help "unemployed and disadvantaged women", through selling items "on a one-for-one basis, meaning an item is donated for each item purchased". Taking advantage of "the Meghan effect" (driving consumer purchases), in 10 days the collection provided a year's worth of clothes for the charity.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In February 2018, Markle and fiancé Harry attended the first annual forum of The Royal Foundation. After marriage Meghan became the foundation's fourth patron alongside Prince Harry, Prince William and his wife, Catherine. In May 2019, as a part of their Heads Together initiative, the Duchess of Sussex together with her husband and in-laws, launched Shout, a text messaging service for those who suffer from mental issues. In June 2019, it was announced that Harry and Meghan would split from the charity and establish their own foundation. Nevertheless, the couples would collaborate on mutual projects, such as the mental health initiative Heads Together. The following month, "Sussex Royal The Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex" was registered in England and Wales. However, it was confirmed on February 21, 2020, that "Sussex Royal" would not be used as a brand name for the couple, following their step back from official life as working royals. On August 5, 2020, Sussex Royal Foundation was renamed "MWX Foundation" and dissolved the same day.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In March 2021, it was reported that the Charity Commission for England and Wales was conducting a review of the Sussex Royal organization in a "regulatory and compliance case" regarding its conduct under charity law during dissolution. Representatives for the couple claimed that Sussex Royal was "managed by a board of trustees" and that "suggestion of mismanagement" directed exclusively at the Duke and Duchess would be incorrect. The commission later concluded that the foundation did not act unlawfully, but criticized the board of directors for expending a "substantial proportion of funds" to setting up and closing the charity.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In April 2020, Meghan and Harry confirmed that an alternative foundation (in lieu of Sussex Royal) would be called "Archewell". The name stems from the Greek word "arche", which means "source of action"; the same word that inspired the name of their son. Archewell was registered in the United States. Its website was officially launched in October 2020.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: Between 2010 and 2012, Markle anonymously ran the blog "The Working Actress", which detailed the "pitfalls and triumphs of struggling to make it in Hollywood". In 2014, she founded her own lifestyle blog "The Tig", which posted articles about food, fashion, beauty, travel and inspirational women. The viewing audience consisted primarily of the fans of Markle and "Suits". Promotion of the blog on other social media platforms targeted three million followers on Instagram, 800,000 on Facebook, and 350,000 on Twitter. In April 2017, "The Tig" closed. In January 2018, she took all articles offline and deleted her social media accounts. It is estimated that Markle's social media activities annually earned her about $80,000 from endorsements and sponsorships. She was also known for socializing at Soho House.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: Markle became known through "The Tig" for her fashion sense, releasing two fashion collections with Canadian clothing company Reitmans in 2015 and 2016. The lines were based on her personal style and that of her "Suits" character. Markle has cited Emmanuelle Alt as her style inspiration. In 2016, she hosted USA Network's video series "Power Lunch with Meghan Markle" in collaboration with Lexus and "Eater", discussing the culinary inspirations of five different New York kitchens.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: Markle was featured in the cover story for the October 2017 issue of "Vanity Fair" and the December 2017 issue of "Elle France". Shortly after her engagement to Prince Harry in 2017, she caused a surge of interest in Scottish retailer Strathberry after carrying one of its handbags to a public event. This was reported as an indication that her fashion choices would produce results similar to the Kate Middleton effect. After Markle and Prince Harry's first appearance as a couple, brands Mackage, Birks, R&R Jewelers, Crown Jewelers and Everlane noted an upswing in their website hits and sales. It was speculated that Markle's effect would be broader internationally because she already had a strong American appeal. Consequently, the United States saw a boost in yellow gold jewelry sales in the first quarter of 2018.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In 2018, "Tatler" included Meghan with other senior royal women on its list of Britain's best-dressed people. Following the announcement of her pregnancy she appeared in a Karen Gee dress that resulted in the Australian designer's website crashing. Fashion website Net-a-Porter ranked Meghan as one of the best dressed women in 2018. She was nominated for the 2018 Teen Choice Awards in the category Choice Style Icon. In 2019, British brand Reiss reported a growth in profits after Meghan was seen wearing a mini-dress by them on International Women's Day. In 2022, the black Armani dress worn by Meghan during her Oprah interview was selected by the Fashion Museum, Bath as Dress of the Year 2021. In the same year, Meghan was featured in the cover story for the 2022 Fall Fashion issue of "The Cut".


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In 2018, "Time" magazine selected Meghan as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World and placed her on its shortlist for Person of the Year. Her name appeared again on the listicle in 2021 and she and her husband were featured on one of the magazine's seven worldwide covers. In 2019, the magazine named Meghan and Harry among the 25 Most Influential People on the Internet. She was also chosen as one of the 25 most influential women in the United Kingdom by British "Vogue" magazine in 2018, 2019, and 2021. Her influence was also recognized in both the 2019 and 2020 editions of "Powerlist", the 100 most influential Britons of African and Afro-Caribbean descent. In 2022, she was named as one of the 50 Women Changing the World over the past year by "Worth" magazine. In the same year, "Variety" named her as a stellar honoree for its Power of Women issue, and "Financial Times" included her on its list of "25 most influential women of 2022".


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In October 2019, the Duchess launched a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of "The Mail on Sunday" and MailOnline over the publication of a letter she had sent to her father. Thomas Markle Sr. had provided the publisher with excerpts of the letter after five of Meghan's friends referenced it in a "People" article. The Duchess subsequently received support from more than 70 female MPs from different parties who in an open letter condemned the use of "outdated, colonial undertones" against her in some national media outlets. In May 2020, the court dismissed claims of the tabloid's alleged dishonesty and malice, as they were deemed either vague or irrelevant to the case. In February 2021, the High Court of Justice found in summary judgment that ANL's "Mail on Sunday" had invaded the Duchess's privacy by publishing the letter, and she won her claim for "misuse of private information and copyright infringement" in May 2021. She was given a £450,000 downpayment on her £1.5 million legal fees as an interim payment, and pursuant to copyright law, her legal team asked for a front-page statement by "The Mail on Sunday" and MailOnline to acknowledge her legal victory.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: The Court of Appeal granted ANL permission to appeal against the ruling. The appeal was subsequently launched by ANL in November 2021. Meghan and Harry's former communications secretary Jason Knauf—who had previously denied co-authoring the letter with Meghan—gave a statement to the court of appeal, mentioning that the Duchess of Sussex gave him briefing points to share with "Finding Freedom"s authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand and the Duke of Sussex welcomed the suggestion that they should conceal their involvement, while they both discussed the book "on a routine basis". ANL had previously applied to use the book in their defense, arguing that the Duke and Duchess had "co-operated with the authors of the recently published book "Finding Freedom" to put out their version of certain events". Knauf also revealed that the Duchess wondered whether she should refer to her father as "daddy" in the letter, as she believed "in the unfortunate event that it leaked, it would pull at the heartstrings". Meghan subsequently apologized to the court for not remembering the emails earlier and stated she "had absolutely no wish or intention to mislead the defendant or the court", adding that the "extent of the information" Knauf shared with the book's authors was "unknown" to her and her exchanges with Knauf were "a far cry from the very detailed personal information that the defendant alleges that I wanted or permitted to put into the public domain".


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In December 2021, three senior appeal judges upheld the judgement of the High Court against ANL, prompting Meghan to call for reform of the tabloid industry. In the same month, ANL's "The Mail on Sunday" and MailOnline published a front-page statement on Boxing Day acknowledging the Duchess's victory, adding that there had been an agreement on "financial remedies". In addition to covering a portion of Meghan's legal costs, the outlet agreed to pay her £1 in damages for invading her privacy and a confidential sum for infringing her copyright. They were also banned from naming the Duchess's friends, who had spoken to "People" magazine about the letter in 2018.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In November 2016, the MailOnline was criticized for running an article on Markle's family background titled "(Almost) Straight Outta Compton", which triggered a response from Prince Harry's Communications Secretary. In the same month, "The Sun" ran the headline "Harry girl's on Pornhub". The outlet denied any smear after it was revealed that the clips were illegally uploaded scenes from the TV series "Suits", and not pornographic material. They subsequently apologized via an official statement in February 2017. In February 2018, a letter containing white powder and a racist note addressing Markle was sent to St James's Palace, triggering counter-terrorism and racist hate crime investigations by Scotland Yard. Meghan and Harry obtained a formal apology in May 2019 from the Splash News for privacy invasion. The couple had a legal warning issued to the press in general in January 2020 after the publication of paparazzi photographs. In March 2020, the couple took Splash UK to court after Meghan and her son were photographed without permission in Canada during a "private family outing". The case was settled later that year with Splash UK agreeing to no longer take unauthorized photos of the family. The Duke and Duchess announced in April that they would no longer cooperate with the "Daily Mail", "The Sun", "Daily Mirror" and "Daily Express". They won an apology in October from American news agency X17 for taking photographs of their son at their home using drones.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In March 2021, ITV News reported the Duchess had complained directly to ITV's CEO about Piers Morgan's comments on mental health following her interview with Oprah Winfrey. Ofcom received over 57,000 complaints about the program including one from the Duchess of Sussex. In the same month, it was reported that an American private investigator unlawfully handed over personal details about Meghan to "The Sun", including her Social Security number, cellphone number and address, when she first started dating Harry in 2016. Meghan and her husband condemned the "predatory practices" of the British tabloids, while "The Sun" stated that the investigator "was instructed clearly in writing to act lawfully", and they did not "use the information he provided for any unlawful practice".


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In July 2021, the Duchess filed legal complaints against "The Times" for two separate articles, with the first one covering an unproven allegation from Robert Lacey's book that she had left an engagement in Fiji for not being appointed by UN Women as a goodwill ambassador and the second one claiming that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had refused to talk to Harry after Prince Philip's funeral due to fears of a potential leak. In January 2022, the couple mutually filed a legal complaint against "The Times" for an article reporting on Archewell raising less than $50,000 in 2020. In the same month, she complained to the BBC regarding their five-part podcast "Harry, Meghan and the Media", in which the presenter Amol Rajan stated that the Duchess had "apologized for misleading" the Court of Appeal in her case against the "Mail on Sunday". The BBC responded by issuing a statement on its "corrections and clarifications" website to emphasize that she had "apologized to the court for not remembering email exchanges".


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In March 2022, her half-sister, Samantha Markle, sued Meghan by filing a defamation lawsuit in Florida, accusing her of lying in the Oprah interview and disseminating false statements via her communications secretary for the book "Finding Freedom", and sought damages in excess of $75,000. Meghan's lawyers described the lawsuit as "a continuation of a pattern of disturbing behavior." In a response filed in May 2022, Meghan's attorneys argued that her half-sister's claims were "demonstrably false", and the statements made by Meghan during the Oprah interview were either "non-actionable opinion or substantially true". They also added that the alleged defamatory statements Samantha had referred to either were true or could not be found in "Finding Freedom" or in the emails that Meghan had sent to her communications secretary, for which Meghan could not be held accountable under Florida's two-year statute of limitations and due to the fact that she did not write the book herself. In June 2022, Meghan's initial motion to dismiss the case was rejected by a judge following amendments made by Samantha in her complaints. She filed a second motion in the same month, stating that the deletion of "numerous specific factual allegations and exhibits from her original complaint" combined with the lack of facts had undermined Samantha's case, and argued a judge or jury would not be able to pass judgements about the state of their relationship. Meghan's lawyers have argued that her comments regarding her upbringing in the interview were unfalsifiable and subjective statements of her feelings, rather than objective facts.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In August 2022 and in an interview with "The Cut", Meghan recalled being told at the premiere of "The Lion King" in London by a South African cast member that following her marriage to Harry, people in South Africa "rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison". Meghan was criticized by Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela for reciting the story, who stated that his grandfather's release from prison after "overcoming 350 years of colonialism with 60 years of a brutal apartheid regime in South Africa" could not be "compared to the celebration of someone's wedding". John Kani, the only South African cast member of "The Lion King", later stated that he did not recall meeting the Duchess and claimed there were no big celebrations in South Africa at the time of the wedding. Lebo M., the film's South African composer who was at the London premiere, revealed that he had spoken to Meghan for "less than a minute" and could not remember discussing Mandela with her. In the same interview, Meghan spoke of the reason behind her refusal to share photos of her children with the Royal Rota, claiming that she would not share it with the people who allegedly call her children the N-word, a claim that was disputed by British journalists.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In their 2022 Netflix docuseries "Harry & Meghan", the couple maintained the media were "destroying" them while they were in the UK, highlighting headlines that had racist or misogynistic connotations.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In 2021, shortly before the Duke and Duchess were due to be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, Valentine Low reported in "The Times" that the Duchess's former communications secretary, Jason Knauf, complained in October 2018 that her conduct at Kensington Palace had caused two personal assistants to quit and had undermined the morale of a third employee, prompting an investigation by Buckingham Palace into the bullying allegations. The palace hired an external law firm to examine the claims, with ten aides reported to cooperate with the review. Criticism of the Duchess for twice wearing earrings gifted from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2018, after he was accused of complicity in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, appeared at the same time. Her representatives denied her awareness of the accusations against Mohammed bin Salman, and said "The Times" was being used by Buckingham Palace for "a smear campaign" against her.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In an updated epilogue for the couple's unauthorized biography, "Finding Freedom" by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the authors claimed that "two of the individuals mentioned in [Knauf's] email asked for any allegations made to HR about their experiences with Meghan to be rescinded". Speaking on behalf of the Duchess in a BBC documentary, Jenny Afia, a lawyer who represents Meghan in her case against ANL stated that the bullying allegations were "just not true". In June 2022, "The Times" reported that the results from the inquiry made Buckingham Palace modify some of the policies and procedures in its HR department, but the report would not be published to ensure the privacy of those who took part in it.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: The television special "Oprah with Meghan and Harry" was broadcast on CBS on March 7, 2021. Meghan spoke about her personal and royal life and public pressure. She discussed contemplating suicide during her time as a working royal and talked about a perceived lack of protection for her and her son while being part of the royal institution. There was a wide and polarized reaction to the interview.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: In March 2019, European consulting firm 89up reported on their discovery of 1,103 highly connected Twitter accounts with more than two and a half million tweets in favor of the Duchess of Sussex, most of which appeared to be bots carrying out "coordinated attacks" on royal correspondents who had reported negatively on Meghan. In the same year, CNN had reported on a research by Hope not Hate, stating that out of 5,200 "abusive tweets directed at Meghan" in January and February 2019, 3,600 came from a small group of trolls. In October 2021, Twitter analytics service Bot Sentinel released their analysis of more than 114,000 tweets about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as a result of which they found 83 accounts with a combined number of 187,631 followers that were possibly responsible for approximately 70% of the negative content posted about the couple. The report prompted an investigation by Twitter. The company stated that it found no evidence of "widespread coordination" between the accounts, and said that it had taken action against users who violated Twitter's conduct policy.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: Bot Sentinel also released three more reports in the following months, arguing that the accounts were part of a "bot network" and a similar network could be found on YouTube. Christopher Bouzy, Bot Sentinel's founder, was himself responsible for initiating a discourse that criticized Meghan's in-laws, William and Catherine, for their appearance by tweeting that they were "aging in Banana years". In January 2022, the BBC named Meghan and Harry among people whose photos and videos were used in fake instant profits advertisements and bitcoin-related investment schemes.


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: Meghan became a princess of the United Kingdom upon her marriage to Prince Harry, entitled to the style of Royal Highness. After her marriage, she was styled "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex". She also holds the titles of Countess of Dumbarton and Baroness Kilkeel. She is the first person to hold the title "Duchess of Sussex".


title: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

text: Following the Duke and Duchess's decision to step back from royal duties in 2020, the couple agreed not to use the style of "Royal Highness" in practice, but they still legally retain the style.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus gaining considerable influence in late Imperial Russia.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Rasputin was born to a peasant family in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye in the Tyumensky Uyezd of Tobolsk Governorate (now Yarkovsky District of Tyumen Oblast). He had a religious conversion experience after taking a pilgrimage to a monastery in 1897. He has been described as a monk or as a (wanderer or pilgrim), though he held no official position in the Russian Orthodox Church. He traveled to St. Petersburg in 1903 or the winter of 1904–1905, where he captivated some church and social leaders. He became a society figure and met Emperor Nicholas and Empress Alexandra in November 1905.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: In late 1906, Rasputin began acting as a healer for the imperial couple's only son, Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia. He was a divisive figure at court, seen by some Russians as a mystic, visionary, and prophet, and by others as a religious charlatan. The high point of Rasputin's power was in 1915 when Nicholas II left St. Petersburg to oversee Russian armies fighting World War I, increasing both Alexandra and Rasputin's influence. Russian defeats mounted during the war, however, and both Rasputin and Alexandra became increasingly unpopular. In the early morning of , Rasputin was assassinated by a group of conservative noblemen who opposed his influence over Alexandra and Nicholas.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Historians often suggest that Rasputin's scandalous and sinister reputation helped discredit the Tsarist government and thus helped precipitate the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty a few months after he was assassinated. Accounts of his life and influence were often based on hearsay and rumor. He remains a mysterious and captivating figure in popular culture.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Rasputin was born a peasant in the small village of Pokrovskoye, along the Tura River in the Tobolsk Governorate (now Tyumen Oblast) in the Russian Empire. According to official records, he was born on and christened the following day. He was named for St. Gregory of Nyssa, whose feast was celebrated on 10 January.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: There are few records of Rasputin's parents. His father, Yefim, was a peasant farmer and church elder who had been born in Pokrovskoye in 1842 and married Rasputin's mother, Anna Parshukova, in 1863. Yefim also worked as a government courier, ferrying people and goods between Tobolsk and Tyumen. The couple had seven other children, all of whom died in infancy and early childhood; there may have been a ninth child, Feodosiya. According to historian Joseph T. Fuhrmann, Rasputin was certainly close to Feodosiya and was godfather to her children, but "the records that have survived do not permit us to say more than that".


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: According to historian Douglas Smith, Rasputin's youth and early adulthood are "a black hole about which we know almost nothing", though the lack of reliable sources and information did not stop others from fabricating stories about his parents and his youth after Rasputin's rise to fame. Historians agree, however, that like most Siberian peasants, including his mother and father, Rasputin was not formally educated and remained illiterate well into his early adulthood. Local archival records suggest that he had a somewhat unruly youth—possibly involving drinking, small thefts, and disrespect for local authorities—but contain no evidence of his being charged with stealing horses, blasphemy, or bearing false witness, all major crimes later imputed to him as a young man.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: In 1886, Rasputin traveled to Abalak, Russia, some 250 km east-northeast of Tyumen and 2,800 km east of Moscow, where he met a peasant girl named Praskovya Dubrovina. After a courtship of several months, they married in February 1887. Praskovya remained in Pokrovskoye throughout Rasputin's later travels and rise to prominence and remained devoted to him until his death. The couple had seven children, though only three survived to adulthood: Dmitry (b. 1895), Maria (b. 1898), and Varvara (b. 1900).


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: In 1897, Rasputin developed a renewed interest in religion and left Pokrovskoye to go on a pilgrimage. His reasons are unclear; according to some sources, Rasputin left the village to escape punishment for his role in horse theft. Other sources suggest he had a vision of the Virgin Mary or of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye, while still others suggest that Rasputin's pilgrimage was inspired by a young theological student, Melity Zaborovsky. Whatever his reasons, Rasputin cast off his old life: he was twenty-eight, married ten years, with an infant son and another child on the way. According to Douglas Smith, his decision "could only have been occasioned by some sort of emotional or spiritual crisis".


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Rasputin had undertaken earlier, shorter pilgrimages to the Holy Znamensky Monastery at Abalak and to Tobolsk's cathedral, but his visit to the St. Nicholas Monastery at Verkhoturye in 1897 transformed him. There, he met and was "profoundly humbled" by a "starets" (elder) known as Makary. Rasputin may have spent several months at Verkhoturye, and it was perhaps here that he learned to read and write, but he later complained about the monastery, claiming that some of the monks engaged in homosexuality and criticizing monastic life as too coercive. He returned to Pokrovskoye a changed man, looking disheveled and behaving differently. He became a vegetarian, swore off alcohol, and prayed and sang much more fervently than he had in the past.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Rasputin spent the years that followed as a "strannik" (a holy wanderer or pilgrim), leaving Pokrovskoye for months or even years at a time to wander the country and visit a variety of holy sites. It is possible he wandered as far as Mount Athos—the center of Eastern Orthodox monastic life—in 1900.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: By the early 1900s, Rasputin had developed a small circle of followers, primarily family members, and other local peasants, who prayed with him on Sundays and other holy days when he was in Pokrovskoye. Building a makeshift chapel in Efim's root cellar—Rasputin was still living within his father's household at the time—the group held secret prayer meetings there. These meetings were the subject of some suspicion and hostility from the village priest and other villagers. It was rumored that female followers were ceremonially washing him before each meeting, that the group sang strange songs, and even that Rasputin had joined the Khlysty, a religious sect whose ecstatic rituals were rumored to include self-flagellation and sexual orgies. According to historian Joseph Fuhrmann, however, "repeated investigations failed to establish that Rasputin was ever a member of the sect", and rumors that he was a Khlyst appear to have been unfounded.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Word of Rasputin's activity and charisma began to spread in Siberia during the early 1900s. At some point during 1904 or 1905, he traveled to the city of Kazan, where he acquired a reputation as a wise "starets," or holy man, who could help people resolve their spiritual crises and anxieties. Despite rumors that Rasputin was having sex with female followers, he made a favorable impression on the father superior of the Seven Lakes Monastery outside Kazan, as well as local church officials Archimandrite Andrei and Bishop Chrysthanos, who gave him a letter of recommendation to Bishop Sergei, the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and arranged for him to travel to St. Petersburg.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Upon meeting Sergei at the Nevsky Monastery, Rasputin was introduced to church leaders, including Archimandrite Theofan, inspector of the theological seminary, who was well-connected in St. Petersburg society and later served as confessor to the tsar and his wife. Theofan was so impressed with Rasputin that he invited him to stay in his home. Theofan became one of Rasputin's most important and influential friends in St. Petersburg, and gained him entry to many of the influential "salons" where the aristocracy gathered for religious discussions. It was through these meetings that Rasputin attracted some of his early and influential followers - many of whom would later turn against him.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Alternative religious movements such as spiritualism and theosophy had become popular among the city's aristocracy before Rasputin's arrival in St. Petersburg, and many of the aristocracy were intensely curious about the occult and the supernatural. Rasputin's ideas and "strange manners" made him the subject of intense curiosity among St. Petersburg's elite, who according to historian Joseph Fuhrmann were "bored, cynical, and seeking new experiences" during this period. His appeal may have been enhanced by the fact that he was also a native Russian, unlike other self-described "holy men" such as Nizier Anthelme Philippe and Gérard Encausse, who had previously been popular in St. Petersburg.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: According to Joseph T. Fuhrmann, Rasputin stayed in St. Petersburg for only a few months on his first visit and returned to Pokrovskoye in the fall of 1903. Historian Douglas Smith, however, argues that it is impossible to know whether Rasputin stayed in St. Petersburg or returned to Pokrovskoye at some point between his first arrival and 1905. Regardless, by 1905 Rasputin had formed friendships with several members of the aristocracy, including the "Black Princesses", Militsa and Anastasia of Montenegro, who had married the tsar's cousins (Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich and Prince George Maximilianovich Romanowsky), and were instrumental in introducing Rasputin to the tsar and his family.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Rasputin first met the tsar on 1 November 1905, at the Peterhof Palace. The tsar recorded the event in his diary, writing that he and Alexandra had "made the acquaintance of a man of God – Grigory, from Tobolsk province". Rasputin returned to Pokrovskoye shortly after their first meeting and did not return to St. Petersburg until July 1906. On his return, Rasputin sent Nicholas a telegram asking to present the tsar with an icon of Simeon of Verkhoturye. He met with Nicholas and Alexandra on 18 July and again in October, when he first met their children. At some point, the royal family became convinced that Rasputin possessed the miraculous power to heal Alexei, but historians disagree over when: according to Orlando Figes, Rasputin was first introduced to the tsar and tsarina as a healer who could help their son in November 1905, while Joseph Fuhrmann has speculated that it was in October 1906 that Rasputin was first asked to pray for the health of Alexei.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Much of Rasputin's influence with the royal family stemmed from the belief by Alexandra and others that he had on several occasions eased the pain and stopped the bleeding of tsarevich Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia. According to historian Marc Ferro, the tsarina had a "passionate attachment" to Rasputin, believing he could heal her son's affliction. Harold Shukman wrote that Rasputin became "an indispensable member of the royal entourage". It is unclear when Rasputin first learned of Alexei's hemophilia, or when he first acted as a healer. He may have been aware of Alexei's condition as early as October 1906, and was summoned by Alexandra to pray for Alexei when he had an internal hemorrhage in the spring of 1907. Alexei recovered the next morning. Rasputin had been rumored to be capable of faith-healing since his arrival in St. Petersburg, and the tsarina's friend Anna Vyrubova became convinced that Rasputin had miraculous powers shortly thereafter. Vyrubova would become one of Rasputin's most influential advocates.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: In November 1906 Rasputin suddenly paid a visit to the Baratynsky family in Kazan and told them he could read people's minds. Olga Ilyin's description of Rasputin and his behavior in "Visits to the Imperial Court" is a small but no doubt valuable contribution to history.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: During the summer of 1912, Alexei developed a hemorrhage in his thigh and groin after a jolting carriage ride near the royal hunting grounds at Spala, which caused a large hematoma. In severe pain and delirious with fever, the Tsarevich appeared close to death. In desperation, Alexandra asked Vyrubova to send Rasputin (who was in Siberia) a telegram, asking him to pray for Alexei. Rasputin wrote back quickly, telling Alexandra that "God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not grieve. The Little One will not die. Do not allow the doctors to bother him too much." The next morning, Alexei's condition was unchanged, but Alexandra was encouraged by the message and regained some hope that Alexei would survive. Alexei's bleeding stopped the following day. Dr. S. P. Fedorov, one of the physicians who attended Alexei, admitted that "the recovery was wholly inexplicable from a medical point of view." Later, Dr. Fedorov admitted that Alexandra couldn't be blamed for seeing Rasputin as a miracle man: "Rasputin would come in, walk up to the patient, look at him, and spit. The bleeding would stop in no time... How could the empress not trust Rasputin after that?"


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Historian Robert K. Massie has called Alexei's recovery "one of the most mysterious episodes of the whole Rasputin legend". The cause of his recovery is unclear: Massie speculated that Rasputin's suggestion not to let doctors disturb Alexei had aided his recovery by allowing him to rest and heal, or that his message may have aided Alexei's recovery by calming Alexandra and reducing the emotional stress on Alexei. Alexandra believed that Rasputin had performed a miracle, and concluded that he was essential to Alexei's survival. Some writers and historians, such as Ferro, claim that Rasputin stopped Alexei's bleeding on other occasions through hypnosis. Some historians, including memoirist Pierre Gilliard, Alexei's French-language tutor, have speculated that Rasputin controlled Alexei's bleeding by disallowing the administration of aspirin, then widely used to relieve pain, but unknown as an anti-clotting agent until the 1950s.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Alexei and his siblings were also taught to view Rasputin as "Our Friend" and to share confidences with him. In the autumn of 1907, their aunt Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was escorted to the nursery by the Tsar to meet Rasputin. Maria, her sisters and brother Alexei were all wearing their long white nightgowns. "All the children seemed to like him," Olga Alexandrovna recalled. "They were completely at ease with him."


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Rasputin's friendship with the imperial children was evident in the messages he sent to them. "My Dear Pearl M!" Rasputin wrote the nine-year-old Maria in one telegram in 1908. "Tell me how you talked with the sea, with nature! I miss your simple soul. We will see each other soon! A big kiss." In a second telegram, Rasputin told the child, "My Dear M! My Little Friend! May the Lord help you to carry your cross with wisdom and joy in Christ. This world is like the day, look it's already evening. So it is with the cares of the world." In February 1909, Rasputin sent all of the imperial children a telegram, advising them to "Love the whole of God's nature, the whole of His creation in particular this earth. The Mother of God was always occupied with flowers and needlework."


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: One of the girls' governesses, Sofia Ivanovna Tyutcheva, was horrified in 1910 because Rasputin was permitted access to the nursery when the four girls were in their nightgowns. Tyutcheva wanted Rasputin barred from the nurseries. In response to Tyutcheva's complaints, Nicholas did ask Rasputin to end his nursery visits. "I am so afr(aid) that S.I. can speak ... about our friend something bad," Maria's twelve-year-old sister Tatiana wrote to her mother on 8 March 1910, after begging Alexandra to forgive her for doing something she did not like. "I hope our nurse will be nice to our friend now." Alexandra eventually had Tyutcheva fired.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Tyutcheva took her story to other members of the family, who were scandalized by the reports, though Rasputin's contacts with the children were by all accounts completely innocent. Nicholas's sister Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia was horrified by Tyutcheva's story. She wrote on 15 March 1910 that she could not understand "...the attitude of Alix and the children to that sinister Grigory (whom they consider to be almost a saint, when in fact he's only a "khlyst"!) He's always there, goes into the nursery, visits Olga and Tatiana while they are getting ready for bed, sits there talking to them and "caressing" them. They are careful to hide him from Sofia Ivanovna, and the children don't dare talk to her about him. It's all quite unbelievable and beyond understanding."


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Another of the nursery governesses claimed in the spring of 1910 that she was raped by Rasputin. Maria Ivanovna Vishnyakova had at first been a devotee of Rasputin, but later was disillusioned by him. The empress refused to believe Vishnyakova "and said that everything Rasputin does is holy". Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was told that Vishnyakova's claim had been immediately investigated, but "they caught the young woman in bed with a Cossack of the Imperial Guard." Vishnyakova was dismissed from her post in 1913.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: It was whispered in society that Rasputin had seduced not only the Tsarina but also the four grand duchesses. Rasputin had released ardent letters written to him by the Tsarina and the four grand duchesses. The letters circulated throughout society, fueling the rumors. Pornographic cartoons also circulated that depicted Rasputin having sexual relations with the empress, with her four daughters and Anna Vyrubova nude in the background. Nicholas ordered Rasputin to leave St. Petersburg for a time, much to Alexandra's displeasure, and Rasputin went on a pilgrimage to Palestine. Despite the scandal, the imperial family's association with Rasputin continued until Rasputin was murdered on 17 December 1916. "Our Friend is so contented with our girlies, says they have gone through heavy 'courses' for their age and their souls have much developed," Alexandra wrote to Nicholas on 6 December 1916. In his memoirs, A. A. Mordvinov reported that the four grand duchesses appeared "cold and visibly terribly upset" by Rasputin's death and sat "huddled up closely together" on a sofa in one of their bedrooms on the night they received the news. Mordvinov reported that the young women were in a gloomy mood and seemed to sense the political upheaval that was about to be unleashed. Rasputin was buried with an icon signed on its reverse side by the grand duchesses and their mother.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: The Imperial Family's belief in Rasputin's healing powers brought him considerable status and power at court. The tsar appointed Rasputin his "lampadnik" (lamplighter), charged with keeping the lamps lit before religious icons in the palace, and this gained him regular access to the palace and royal family. By December 1906, Rasputin had become close enough to ask a special favor of the tsar: that he be permitted to change his surname to Rasputin-Noviy (Rasputin-New). Nicholas granted the request and the name change was speedily processed, suggesting that he already had the tsar's favor at that early date. Rasputin used his position to full effect, accepting bribes and sexual favors from admirers and working diligently to expand his influence.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Rasputin soon became a controversial figure; he was accused by his enemies of religious heresy and rape, was suspected of exerting undue political influence over the tsar, and was even rumored to be having an affair with the tsarina. Opposition to Rasputin's influence grew within the church. In 1907, the local clergy in Pokrovskoye denounced Rasputin as a heretic, and the Bishop of Tobolsk launched an inquest into his activities, accusing him of "spreading false, "Khlyst-like" doctrines". In St. Petersburg, Rasputin faced opposition from even more prominent critics, including prime minister Peter Stolypin and the "Okhrana", the Tsar's secret police. Having ordered an investigation into Rasputin's activities, Stolypin confronted the Tsar about him but did not succeed in reining in Rasputin's influence or exiling him from St. Petersburg. In 1909 Kehioniya Berlatskaya, who had been one of Rasputin's early supporters in St. Petersburg, accused him of rape. She went to Theofan for aid, and the incident helped to convince Theofan that Rasputin was a danger to the monarchy. Rumors multiplied that Rasputin had assaulted female followers and behaved inappropriately on visits to the Imperial Family – and particularly with the Tsar's teenage daughters Olga and Tatyana, rumors reported widely in the press after March 1910.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: World War I, the dissolution of feudalism, and a meddling government bureaucracy all contributed to Russia's rapid economic decline. Many laid the blame on Alexandria and Rasputin. One outspoken member of the Duma, far-right politician Vladimir Purishkevich, stated in November 1916 that he held the tsar's ministers had "been turned into marionettes, marionettes whose threads have been taken firmly in hand by Rasputin and the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna – the evil genius of Russia and the Tsarina… who has remained a German on the Russian throne and alien to the country and its people". (The tsarina had been born a German princess.)


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: On a 33-year-old peasant woman named Chionya Guseva attempted to assassinate Rasputin by stabbing him in the stomach outside his home in Pokrovskoye. Rasputin was seriously wounded, and for a time it was not clear if he would survive. After surgery and some time in a hospital in Tyumen, he recovered.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Guseva was a follower of Iliodor, a former priest who had supported Rasputin before denouncing his sexual escapades and self-aggrandizement in December 1911. A radical conservative and anti-semite, Iliodor had been part of a group of establishment figures who had attempted to drive a wedge between the royal family and Rasputin in 1911. When this effort failed, Iliodor was banished from Saint Petersburg and was ultimately defrocked. Guseva claimed to have acted alone, having read about Rasputin in the newspapers and believing him to be a "false prophet and even an Antichrist". Both the police and Rasputin, however, believed that Iliodor had instigated the attempt on Rasputin's life. Iliodor fled the country before he could be questioned, and Guseva was found to be not responsible for her actions by reason of insanity.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: A group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, and right-wing politician Vladimir Purishkevich decided that Rasputin's influence over the tsarina threatened the empire, and they concocted a plan in December 1916 to kill him, apparently by luring him to the Yusupovs' Moika Palace.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Rasputin was murdered during the early morning on at the home of Felix Yusupov. He died of three gunshot wounds, one of which was a close-range shot to his forehead. Little is certain about his death beyond this, and the circumstances of his death have been the subject of considerable speculation. According to historian Douglas Smith, "what really happened at the Yusupov home on 17 December will never be known". The story that Yusupov recounted in his memoirs, however, has become the most frequently told version of events.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Yusupov said he invited Rasputin to his home shortly after midnight and ushered him into the basement. Yusupov offered Rasputin tea and cakes which had been laced with cyanide. Rasputin initially refused the cakes but then began to eat them and, to Yusupov's surprise, appeared unaffected by the poison. Rasputin then asked for some Madeira wine (which had also been poisoned) and drank three glasses, but still showed no sign of distress. At around 2:30 am, Yusupov excused himself to go upstairs, where his fellow conspirators were waiting. He took a revolver from Dmitry Pavlovich, then returned to the basement and told Rasputin that he'd "better look at the crucifix and say a prayer", referring to a crucifix in the room, then shot him once in the chest. The conspirators then drove to Rasputin's apartment, with Sukhotin wearing Rasputin's coat and hat in an attempt to make it look as though Rasputin had returned home that night. Upon returning to the Moika Palace, Yusupov went back to the basement to ensure that Rasputin was dead. Suddenly, Rasputin leaped up and attacked Yusupov, who freed himself with some effort and fled upstairs. Rasputin followed Yusupov into the palace's courtyard, where he was shot by Purishkevich. He collapsed into a snowbank. The conspirators then wrapped his body in cloth, drove it to the Petrovsky Bridge, and dropped it into the Malaya Nevka River.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Allegedly, Grand Duchess Tatiana - who had been earlier alleged to have been raped by Rasputin - was present at the site of Rasputin's murder, "disguised as a lieutenant of the Chevaliers-Gardes, so that she could revenge herself on Rasputin who had tried to violate her". Maurice Paléologue, the French ambassador to Russia, wrote that Tatiana had witnessed Rasputin's castration, but he doubted the credibility of the rumor.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: News of Rasputin's murder spread quickly, even before his body was found. According to Douglas Smith, Purishkevich spoke openly about Rasputin's murder to two soldiers and to a policeman who was investigating reports of shots shortly after the event, but he urged them not to tell anyone else. An investigation was launched the next morning. The "Stock Exchange Gazette" ran a report of Rasputin's death "after a party in one of the most aristocratic homes in the center of the city" on the afternoon of .


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Two workmen noticed blood on the railing of the Petrovsky Bridge and found a boot on the ice below, and police began searching the area. Rasputin's body was found under the river ice on 1 January (O.S. 19 December) approximately 200 meters downstream from the bridge. Dmitry Kosorotov, the city's senior autopsy surgeon, conducted an autopsy. Kosorotov's report was lost, but he later stated that Rasputin's body had shown signs of severe trauma, including three gunshot wounds (one at close range to the forehead), a slice wound to his left side, and many other injuries, many of which Kosorotov felt had been sustained post-mortem. Kosorotov found a single bullet in Rasputin's body but stated that it was too badly deformed and of a type too widely used to trace. He found no evidence that Rasputin had been poisoned. According to both Douglas Smith and Joseph Fuhrmann, Kosorotov found no water in Rasputin's lungs, and that reports Rasputin had been thrown into the water alive were incorrect. Some later accounts claimed that Rasputin's penis had been severed, but Kosorotov found his genitals intact.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Rasputin was buried on 2 January (O.S. 21 December) at a small church that Anna Vyrubova had been building at Tsarskoye Selo. The funeral was attended only by the imperial family and a few of their intimates. Rasputin's wife, mistress, and children were not invited, although his daughters met with the imperial family at Vyrubova's home later that day. The Imperial family planned to build a church over his grave site. However, his body was exhumed and burned by a detachment of soldiers shortly after the Tsar abdicated the throne in March 1917, so that his grave would not become a rallying point for supporters of the old regime.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Some writers have suggested that agents of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) were involved in Rasputin's assassination. According to this theory, British agents were concerned that Rasputin was urging the tsar to make a separate peace with Germany, which would allow Germany to concentrate its military efforts on the Western Front. There are several variants of this theory, but they generally suggest that British intelligence agents were directly involved in planning and carrying out the assassination under the command of Samuel Hoare and Oswald Rayner, who had attended Oxford University with Yusupov, or that Rayner personally shot Rasputin.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: However, historians do not consider this theory credible. According to Douglas Smith, "there is no convincing evidence that places any British agents at the murder scene". Historian Keith Jeffery states that if British intelligence agents had been involved, "I would have expected to find some trace of that" in the SIS archives, but no such evidence exists.


title: Grigori Rasputin

text: Rasputin's daughter, Maria Rasputin (born Matryona Rasputina; 1898–1977), emigrated to France after the October Revolution and then to the United States. There, she worked as a dancer and then a lion tamer in a circus.


title: Whitney Houston

text: Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston influenced many singers in popular music, and was known for her powerful, soulful vocals and vocal improvisation skills. She is the only artist to have had seven consecutive number-one singles on the "Billboard" Hot 100, from "Saving All My Love for You" in 1985 to "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" in 1988. Houston enhanced her popularity upon entering the movie industry. Her recordings and films generated both great success and controversy. She received numerous accolades throughout her career and posthumously, including two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 16 "Billboard" Music Awards, and 28 Guinness World Records, as well as induction into the Grammy, Rhythm and Blues Music, and Rock and Roll halls of fame.


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston began singing in church as a child and became a background vocalist while in high school. She was one of the first black women to appear on the cover of "Seventeen" after becoming a teen model in 1981. With the guidance of Arista Records chairman Clive Davis, Houston signed to the label at age 19. Her first two studio albums, "Whitney Houston" (1985) and "Whitney" (1987), both peaked at number one on the "Billboard" 200 and are among the best-selling albums of all time. Houston's third studio album, "I'm Your Baby Tonight" (1990), yielded two "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one singles: "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and "All the Man That I Need".


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston made her acting debut with the romantic thriller film "The Bodyguard" (1992), which became the tenth highest-grossing film to that date despite receiving poor reviews for its screenplay and lead performances. She recorded six songs for the film's soundtrack, including "I Will Always Love You" which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became the best-selling physical single by a woman in music history. The soundtrack for "The Bodyguard" won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and remains the bestselling soundtrack album of all time. Houston went on to star and record soundtracks for "Waiting to Exhale" (1995) and "The Preacher's Wife" (1996). Houston produced the latter's soundtrack, which became the bestselling gospel album of all time. As a film producer, she produced multicultural movies including "Cinderella" (1997) and series including "The Princess Diaries" and "The Cheetah Girls".


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston's first studio album in eight years, "My Love Is Your Love" (1998), sold millions and spawned several hit singles, including "Heartbreak Hotel", "It's Not Right but It's Okay" and "My Love Is Your Love". Following the success, she renewed her contract with Arista for $100 million, one of the biggest recording deals of all time. However, her personal problems began to overshadow her career. Her 2002 studio album, "Just Whitney", received mixed reviews. Her drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown received widespread media coverage. After a six-year break from recording, Houston returned to the top of the "Billboard" 200 chart with her final studio album, "I Look to You" (2009). On February 11, 2012, Houston accidentally drowned in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, with heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors. News of her death coincided with the 2012 Grammy Awards and was covered internationally.


title: Whitney Houston

text: Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born on August 9, 1963. Houston was initially raised in what was a middle-income neighborhood at Wainwright Street in Newark, New Jersey. Her mother, Emily "Cissy" Houston ("née" Drinkard), was a gospel singer who was part of The Drinkard Singers and who later joined the Gospelaires, a popular session vocal group whose name eventually changed to The Sweet Inspirations. Her father, John Russell Houston Jr., was an ex-Army serviceman, a Newark city administrator who worked for then-Newark mayor Kenneth A. Gibson and a manager of the Sweet Inspirations. Her elder brother, Michael, was a songwriter, and her elder half-brother is former basketball player and singer Gary Garland. Through her father, she had a second elder half-brother, John III. Both of Houston's parents were African-American. On her mother's side, it is alleged that Houston had Dutch and Native American ancestry. Through her mother, Houston was a first cousin of singers Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick as well as a distant cousin of opera singer Leontyne Price. Through her father, she is a great-great-granddaughter of Jeremiah Burke Sanderson, an American abolitionist and advocate for the civil and educational rights of black citizens in the United States. Her godmother was singer Darlene Love and family friend Aretha Franklin was considered an honorary aunt. Devastated by the events of the 1967 Newark riots, Whitney's family eventually relocated to a middle-class area in East Orange, New Jersey. Her parents later divorced. Houston was raised a Baptist but admitted to being exposed to the Pentecostal church as well. Houston began singing in the church choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark at age five, where she also learned to play the piano. By age eleven, she began performing as a soloist for the junior gospel choir, performing the hymn, "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah". Houston would be taught how to sing throughout her adolescence by her mother Cissy. After attending Franklin Elementary School (now the Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts), Houston was transferred to an all-girls Catholic school, Mount Saint Dominic Academy at nearby Caldwell, in her sixth grade year where she eventually graduated from in 1981 at 17.


title: Whitney Houston

text: During Houston's early years, her mother as part of the Sweet Inspirations sung background for Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and a host of other rhythm and blues and rock singers and later toured with Franklin before recording their own material for Atlantic Records and later opening and singing background for Elvis Presley during his initial Las Vegas residencies in 1969. With the Sweet Inspirations, Cissy recorded five albums with the group and in the same year they toured with Elvis, won a Grammy nomination for the song, "Sweet Inspiration". After leaving the Sweet Inspirations, Cissy embarked on a solo career and was the first artist to record "Midnight Train to Georgia". By age fourteen, Whitney began singing in the background for her mother at the cabaret club circuit in New York City and sang background on most of the songs on her mother’s 1978 album, "Think It Over". That February, Whitney was encouraged by her mother to sing a few leads on songs, starting at a performance at Manhattan's Town Hall. As a result, Whitney attracted attention from producers such as Michael Zager and Paul Jabara. With Zager, Houston was featured prominently on Zager's disco song, "Life's a Party", released later in 1978. Alongside her mother and Aretha Franklin, Houston cited the music of Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Roberta Flack, as those who would have an influence on her as a singer and performer. By 1980, she had also contributed background vocals for Khan and Lou Rawls on their respective albums, "Naughty" and "Shades of Blue". In the same year, Houston met Robyn Crawford while both worked as counselors at a youth summer camp in East Orange. The two became fast friends and Houston later described Crawford as the "sister [she] never had". Along with being best friends, Crawford would become a roommate and executive assistant. Following Houston's rise to fame, rumors began speculating that Houston and Crawford were lovers, which the two denied to the press during a 1987 interview for "Time" magazine. In 2019, seven years after Houston's death, Crawford admitted that their early relationship included sexual activity but stopped before Houston signed a recording deal.


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston became a fashion model after she was discovered by a photographer who filmed her and her mother during a performance for the United Negro College Fund at Carnegie Hall. She became one of the first women of color to appear on the cover of a fashion magazine when she appeared on the cover of "Seventeen". She would also appear inside other magazines such as "Glamour", "Cosmopolitan" and "Young Miss" and a TV commercial for the Canada Dry soft drink. Her looks and girl-next-door charm made her one of the most sought-after teen models. Houston was offered record deals around this time, first by Michael Zager in 1979, Luther Vandross in 1980 and Bruce Lundvall in 1981. The offers, however, were turned down by her mother because Cissy wanted Houston to finish school. Around the same time, Houston recorded Paul Jabara's "Eternal Love", which was shelved for more than two years before it was placed on Jabara's 1983 album, "Paul Jabara & Friends", released that January. Houston recalled recording the song at just 16 years old. The quiet storm R&B ballad was later covered by fellow singer Stephanie Mills. In February 1982, Houston signed with Tara Productions and hired Gene Harvey as her manager with Daniel Gittleman and Seymour Flics as co-managers. With them, Houston furthered her recording career by working with producers Michael Beinhorn, Bill Laswell and Martin Bisi on an album they were spearheading called "One Down", which was credited to the group Material. For that project, she contributed the ballad "Memories", a cover of a song by Hugh Hopper of Soft Machine. Robert Christgau of "The Village Voice" called her contribution "one of the most gorgeous ballads you've ever heard".


title: Whitney Houston

text: In February 1983, Gerry Griffith, an A&R representative from Arista Records, saw Houston performing with her mother in a New York nightclub. He convinced Arista's head Clive Davis to make time to see her perform. Davis was impressed and immediately offered a worldwide record deal, which Houston eventually signed on April 10, 1983. Two weeks later, Houston made her national television debut alongside Davis on "The Merv Griffin Show", which later aired that June. She performed "Home", a song from the musical "The Wiz". Houston did not begin work on an album immediately. The label wanted to make sure no other label signed her away and Davis wanted to ensure he had the right material and producers for her debut album. Some producers passed on the project because of prior commitments. Houston first recorded a duet with Teddy Pendergrass, "Hold Me", which appeared on his gold album, "Love Language". The single was released in 1984 and gave Houston her first taste of success, becoming a Top 5 R&B hit. It would also appear on her debut album in 1985.


title: Whitney Houston

text: With production from Michael Masser, Kashif, Jermaine Jackson and Narada Michael Walden, Houston's debut album "Whitney Houston" was released on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1985. "Rolling Stone" magazine praised Houston, calling her "one of the most exciting new voices in years" while "The New York Times" called the album "an impressive, musically conservative showcase for an exceptional vocal talent". Arista Records promoted Houston's album with three different singles from the album in the United States, the United Kingdom and other European countries. In the UK, the dance-funk song "Someone for Me", which failed to chart, was the first single while "All at Once" was in such European countries as the Netherlands and Belgium, where the song reached the top five on the singles charts, respectively.


title: Whitney Houston

text: In the US, the soulful ballad "You Give Good Love" was chosen as the lead single from Houston's debut to establish her in the black marketplace. Outside the US, the song failed to get enough attention to become a hit, but in the US, it gave the album its first major hit as it peaked at number three on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and number one on the Hot Black Singles chart. As a result, the album began to sell strongly and Houston continued promotion by touring nightclubs in the US. She also began performing on late-night television talk shows, which were not usually accessible to non-established black acts. The jazzy ballad "Saving All My Love for You" was released next and it would become Houston's first number one single in both the US and the UK. By then, she was an opening act for singer Jeffrey Osborne on his nationwide tour. The funk-oriented "Thinking About You" was released as the promo single only to R&B-oriented radio stations and dance clubs all over the country, resulting in the song reaching number 10 on the Hot Black Singles chart and number 24 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart in December 1985.


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston's success also translated to television where, in addition to performing on several late night talk shows such as "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" and "Late Night with David Letterman", Houston also became a video star thanks to early videos for "You Give Good Love" and "Saving All My Love for You" being heavily played on BET and VH1 stations. During this period, Houston and Arista struggled to get these videos submitted to MTV. At the time, MTV had received harsh criticism for not playing enough videos by black, Latino and other racial minorities while favoring white acts. In an interview with MTV years later, Houston explained the difficulties she and Arista faced on trying to bring "You Give Good Love" on the channel but was rebuffed because it was "too R&B" for their playlist. Eventually, Houston's video for "Saving All My Love" was featured in light rotation after the song had become a huge pop hit, with Houston stating that the channel "had no choice but to play [the video]...I love it when they have no choice". By the time Houston's third US single, "How Will I Know", was released, the colorful video clip, directed by Brian Grant, was immediately added to MTV's playlist, instantly gaining heavy rotation on the channel after just a couple weeks and introducing Houston to the MTV audience. The song itself became Houston's second consecutive number one pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for two weeks, also topping the Hot Black and Hot AC chart and peaking at number three on the dance charts. Following the successful airing of "How Will I Know" on MTV, Houston became a regular presence on the channel as it slowly began changing its programming from rock to a more pop-R&B-dance hybrid playlist, along with artists such as Madonna and Janet Jackson.


title: Whitney Houston

text: On the week of March 8, 1986, a year after its initial release, "Whitney Houston" topped the "Billboard" 200 albums chart and stayed there for 14 non-consecutive weeks. The final single, "Greatest Love of All" (a cover of "The Greatest Love of All", originally recorded by George Benson in 1977), became Houston's biggest hit yet; the single peaked at number one and remained there for three weeks, making Houston's debut the first album by a woman to yield three number-one hits. Houston ended 1986 as the top artist of the year while her debut album topped the Billboard Year-End chart, making her the first woman to earn that distinction. At the time, the album was the bestselling debut album by a solo artist. The album would later be certified diamond for sales of 13 million copies alone in the United States, while selling over 22 million copies worldwide. In July 1986, Houston launched her first world tour, "The Greatest Love World Tour", where she performed mainly in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan. The tour lasted into December, ending in Hawaii.


title: Whitney Houston

text: At the 1986 Grammy Awards, Houston was nominated for three awards, including Album of the Year. She was not eligible for the Best New Artist category because of her previous hit R&B duet recording with Teddy Pendergrass in 1984. She won her first Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Saving All My Love for You". Houston's performance of the song during the Grammy telecast later earned her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston won seven American Music Awards in total in 1986 and 1987 and an MTV Video Music Award. The album's popularity would also carry over to the 1987 Grammy Awards, when "Greatest Love of All" would receive a Record of the Year nomination. Houston's debut album is listed as one of "Rolling Stone"s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200 list. Houston's grand entrance into the music industry is considered one of the 25 musical milestones of the last 25 years, according to "USA Today". Following Houston's success, doors were opened for other African-American women such as Janet Jackson and Anita Baker.


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston's second album, "Whitney", was released in June 1987. The album again featured production from Masser, Kashif and Walden as well as Jellybean Benitez. Many critics complained that the material was too similar to her previous album. "Rolling Stone" said, "the narrow channel through which this talent has been directed is frustrating". Still, the album enjoyed commercial success. Houston became the first woman in music history to debut at number one on the "Billboard" 200 albums chart and the first artist to enter the albums chart at number one in both the US and UK, while also hitting number one or top ten in dozens of other countries around the world.


title: Whitney Houston

text: The album's first single, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", was also a massive hit worldwide, peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the singles chart in 17 countries, including Australia, Germany and the UK. Her next three singles, "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go", all peaked at number one on the US pop chart, giving Houston a record total of seven consecutive number one hits; the previous record of six consecutive number one hits had been shared by the Beatles and the Bee Gees. Houston became the first woman to generate four number-one singles from one album. "Whitney" has been certified Diamond in the US for shipments of over ten million copies and has sold a total of 20 million copies worldwide.


title: Whitney Houston

text: At the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988, Houston was nominated for three awards, including Album of the Year. She won her second Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)". Houston also won two American Music Awards in 1988 and 1989, respectively and a Soul Train Music Award. Following the release of the album, Houston embarked on the "Moment of Truth World Tour", which was one of the ten highest-grossing concert tours of 1987 and the highest-grossing tour by a female artist, topping tours by both Madonna and Tina Turner. The success of the tours during 1986–87 and her two studio albums ranked Houston No. 8 for the highest-earning entertainers list according to "Forbes". She was the highest-earning African-American woman overall, highest-earning musician and the third highest entertainer after Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy.


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston was a supporter of Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement. During her modeling days, she refused to work with agencies who did business with the then-apartheid South Africa. On June 11, 1988, during the European leg of her tour, Houston joined other musicians to perform a set at Wembley Stadium in London to celebrate a then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday. Over 72,000 people attended Wembley Stadium and over a billion people tuned in worldwide as the rock concert raised over $1 million for charities while bringing awareness to apartheid. Houston then flew back to the US for a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City in August. The show was a benefit concert that raised a quarter of a million dollars for the United Negro College Fund. In the same year, she recorded a song for NBC's coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics, "One Moment in Time", which became a Top 5 hit in the US, while reaching number one in the UK and Germany. With her world tour continuing overseas, Houston was still one of the top 20 highest-earning entertainers for 1987–88 according to "Forbes".


title: Whitney Houston

text: In 1989, Houston formed The Whitney Houston Foundation For Children, a nonprofit organization that has raised funds for the needs of children around the world. The organization cares for homelessness, children with cancer or AIDS and other issues of self-empowerment.


title: Whitney Houston

text: With the success of her first two albums, Houston became an international crossover superstar, appealing to all demographics. However, some black critics believed she was "selling out". They felt her singing on record lacked the soul that was present during her live concerts. At the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards, when Houston's name was called out for a nomination, a few in the audience jeered. Houston defended herself against the criticism, stating, "If you're gonna have a long career, there's a certain way to do it and I did it that way. I'm not ashamed of it."


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston took a more urban direction with her third studio album, "I'm Your Baby Tonight", released in November 1990. She produced and chose producers for this album and as a result, it featured production and collaborations with L.A. Reid and Babyface, Luther Vandross and Stevie Wonder. The album showed Houston's versatility on a new batch of tough rhythmic grooves, soulful ballads and up-tempo dance tracks. Reviews were mixed. "Rolling Stone" felt it was her "best and most integrated album". while "Entertainment Weekly", at the time thought Houston's shift towards an urban direction was "superficial".


title: Whitney Houston

text: "I'm Your Baby Tonight" contained several hits: the first two singles, "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and "All the Man That I Need" peaked at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart; "Miracle" peaked at number nine; "My Name Is Not Susan" peaked in the top twenty; "I Belong to You" reached the top ten of the US R&B chart and garnered Houston a Grammy nomination; and the sixth single, the Stevie Wonder duet "We Didn't Know", reached the R&B top twenty. A bonus track from the album's Japanese edition, "Higher Love", was remixed by Norwegian DJ and record producer Kygo and released posthumously in 2019 to commercial success. It topped the US Dance Club Songs chart and peaked at number two in the UK, becoming Houston's highest-charting single in the country since 1999. "I'm Your Baby Tonight" peaked at number three on the "Billboard" 200 and went on to be certified 4× platinum in the US while selling 10 million total worldwide.


title: Whitney Houston

text: During the Persian Gulf War, on January 27, 1991, Houston performed "The Star-Spangled Banner", the US national anthem, at Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium. Houston's vocals were pre-recorded, prompting criticism. Dan Klores, a spokesman for Houston, said: "This is not a Milli Vanilli thing. She sang live, but the microphone was turned off. It was a technical decision, partially based on the noise factor. This is standard procedure at these events." Nevertheless, a commercial single and video of the performance reached the Top 20 on the US Hot 100, giving Houston the biggest chart hit for a performance of the national anthem (José Feliciano's version reached No. 50 in November 1968).


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston donated her share of the proceeds to the American Red Cross Gulf Crisis Fund and was named to the Red Cross Board of Governors. Her rendition was critically acclaimed and is considered the benchmark for singers; VH1 listed the performance as one of the greatest moments that rocked TV. Following the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks, the single was rereleased, with all profits going towards the firefighters and victims of the attacks. It peaked at No. 6 in the Hot 100 and was certified platinum.


title: Whitney Houston

text: Later in 1991, Houston put together her "Welcome Home Heroes" concert with HBO for the soldiers fighting in the Persian Gulf War and their families. The free concert took place at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia in front of 3,500 servicemen and women. HBO descrambled the concert so that it was free for everyone to watch. The show gave HBO its highest ratings ever.


title: Whitney Houston

text: Throughout the 1980s, Houston was romantically linked to musician Jermaine Jackson, American football star Randall Cunningham and actor Eddie Murphy.


title: Whitney Houston

text: She then met R&B singer Bobby Brown at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. After a three-year courtship, the two were married on July 18, 1992. Brown would go on to have several run-ins with the law for drunken driving, drug possession and battery, including some jail time. On March 4, 1993, Houston gave birth to their daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown (March 4, 1993 – July 26, 2015), the couple's only child. Houston revealed in a 1993 interview with Barbara Walters that she had a miscarriage during the filming of "The Bodyguard".


title: Whitney Houston

text: With the massive commercial success of her music, film offers poured in, including offers to work with Robert De Niro, Quincy Jones and Spike Lee, but Houston never felt the time was right. Her first film role was in "The Bodyguard", released in 1992. Houston played a star who is stalked by a crazed fan and hires a bodyguard (played by Kevin Costner) to protect her. Houston's mainstream appeal allowed audiences to look past the interracial nature of her character's relationship with Costner's character. However, controversy arose as some felt Houston's face had been intentionally left out of the film's advertising to hide the film's interracial relationship. In a 1993 interview with "Rolling Stone", Houston remarked that "people know who Whitney Houston is – I'm black. You can't hide that fact."


title: Whitney Houston

text: Houston received a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress. "The Washington Post" remarked that Houston was "doing nothing more than playing [herself]", but added that she came out "largely unscathed if that is possible in so cockamamie an undertaking". "The New York Times" stated that she lacked chemistry with Costner. Despite the film's mixed reviews, it was hugely successful at the box office, grossing more than $121 million in the U.S. and $410 million worldwide, making it one of the top 100 grossing films in film history at its time of release, though it later fell out of the top 100 because of rising ticket prices since the time the film was released. It remains in the top forty of most successful rated-R films in box office history. Despite the Razzie, however, Houston was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in the film, losing the award to Angela Bassett for her role as Tina Turner in "What's Love Got to Do with It" and also received several MTV Movie Award nominations, winning Best Song from a Movie for "I Will Always Love You" and was nominated for Best Breakthrough Performance.