RICHARD EDEN: What Kate and Meghan’s plans for 2025 say about their VERY different priorities

There have been many significant years in the lives of the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Sussex, not least the ones when they married into the Royal Family or gave birth to their children.

The next 12 months may, however, be defining in very different ways for Catherine, who turns 43 next week, and Meghan, who celebrated her 43rd birthday in August.

If anyone was in any doubt of the significance Meghan attaches to the coming year, she made a long-awaited return to Instagram yesterday, with a video in which Harry filmed her on a beach while barefoot and writing ‘2025’ in the sand with a stick.

But it’s a vital year for Catherine, too. She completed her treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer last September, with a Kensington Palace spokesman explaining at the time that her focus was now on ‘doing what she can to stay cancer-free’.

This year will see her return to public life with a programme of royal engagements, albeit one that will probably be a slimmed-down version of the schedule she had before her health problems began.

‘Hopefully, Catherine will be doing a bit more next year,’ her husband said last November during an interview in South Africa. Some of those engagements would be overseas, the Prince of Wales suggested: ‘We’ll have some more trips maybe lined up.’

I’m told that the princess’s enforced break has given her an even stronger desire to make a difference to the causes she feels most strongly about.

‘Catherine wants every day to count,’ a friend of the family tells me. ‘She has always been passionate about helping others. Now, she has an even greater sense of urgency.’

The 27-second clip was filmed on the shore not far from the home Meghan shares in Montecito, California, with Harry and their children Archie, five, and Lilibet, three

The 43-year-old Duchess also updated the profile picture on her @meghan account to a black-and-white photograph of her laughing and wearing a white dress

That was seen back in May when a ‘landmark’ new report was published by the Early Years business taskforce, which the princess founded in 2023. Early childhood is one of the fields on which Catherine wants to concentrate.

Although palace officials were keen to stress at the time that the princess was not in a position to return to work, there was no doubt of the keen interest she had taken in every aspect of the report.

Meanwhile, 2025 will be the year in which we discover if the Duchess of Sussex can fulfil one of her greatest ambitions: to become a screen star.

Meghan has been desperate to be famous ever since she first trod the boards in high school productions. 

‘She wants to be the star of the stage and the star in life,’ her father, Thomas Markle, told biographer Tom Bower.

It is claimed that, as a child, Meghan asked her father to pay a professional photographer to take a ‘headshot’ of her to be sent out to film studios. He dutifully did so but the resulting mail-shot failed to generate any interest.

Not that this setback put her off the idea of a movie career. ‘I want to be an actress,’ she kept saying, according to Bower’s book.

The Princess of Wales, who turns 43 next week, in December. After completing her cancer treatment four months ago, 2025 will see her returning to public life and royal engagements

This year will also reveal if the Duchess of Sussex can fulfil one of her greatest ambitions: to become a screen star as she launches her Netflix cookery and lifestyle show

Mr Markle even took her to the Emmy awards ceremony when he was nominated for best lighting director for his work on US soap opera General Hospital. 

After they walked down the red carpet, Meghan, then aged 14, said: ‘Daddy, I want to be famous just like you one day.’

Of course, she went on to achieve a degree of celebrity as a member of the cast of American legal drama Suits, shown on cable TV, and bit parts in films such as Horrible Bosses.

But the release of a Netflix cookery and lifestyle show this year gives her the chance to become a bona fide star in her own right. 

Meghan has already recorded the unnnamed series, which is due to be released to coincide with the opening for business of her lifestyle company, American Riviera Orchard.

That was launched with a glitzy video on Instagram a full ten months ago – intriguingly just one day after I contacted her office for comment on her plans.

Meghan and Prince Harry’s Netflix deal expires this year and, if it is to be renewed, the duchess may have to prove that she can be a success without riding on Harry’s coat-tails.

Her television ambitions may highlight the difference between her priorities and those of the Princess of Wales. 

For Meghan, it seems 2025 is about making money and boosting her own profile; for Catherine, it’s about making a difference to good causes.

Yes, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will also undertake work for charity this year but, since they quit royal duties back in 2020 to lead ‘a more independent life’, as the late Queen Elizabeth diplomatically put it, Meghan has also had her eyes set on global superstardom.

This ambition suffered an early reversal when her solo podcast series, Archetypes, was ditched by audio giant Spotify after one season.

This year, we will discover if Meghan can truly achieve the status appears to crave.

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