Hello! I’m back with my final 2019 year in review post discussing The Duchess of Sussex‘s engagement numbers. For a full list of Meghan’s engagements from 2019, see my Appearance Totals 2019 page. As always for engagement numbers posts, a disclaimer: counting engagement numbers is not a science and different people count engagement numbers differently; different people also categorize engagements differently. Having said that, let’s take a look at Meghan’s 2019 engagements breakdown.
I always like starting with Tim O’Donovan’s numbers he reports to The Times every year, because his are the most widely used numbers across the royal watching community, and his numbers are the most consistent when comparing different years and different royals (I know I don’t count each royal’s engagements and I haven’t counted all years). I have a list of the British Royal Family’s engagements for the last decade over on KMR, and I also have a full breakdown for Kate’s engagements there as well.
For Meghan, O’Donovan counted a total of 83 engagements for 2019, which is down from her 2018 total of 96. Meghan’s 83 engagements accounts for 2.5% of the total engagements done by the BRF, which was 3,567. Given Meghan’s maternity leave and the six week absence at the end of the year, the dip in numbers is expected.
For years over on KMR I’ve differed from O’Donovan on the total number of engagements for Kate, and Meghan is no different. I had Meghan at 69 engagements for 2019, down from 114 in 2018 (from after the wedding when she officially appeared in the CC). For both of these years I’ve been counting directly from the Court Circular in The Times; I’ve been over the lists twice and I don’t know where the difference is coming from. To be fair, I don’t count baptisms as engagements even though they appear in the CC, but I had Meghan at 27 overseas engagements where O’Donovan had her at 44.
| Engagement Period | 2018 | 2019 | |
| My Numbers | 26 | 114 | 69 |
| O’Donovan’s Numbers | N/A | 96 | 83 |
My numbers do not count appearances that weren’t listed in the CC, such as behind-the-scenes meetings with Vogue UK, Smart Works, several engagements in South Africa, etc. For the Engagement Period, I went on a “pictures or it didn’t happen” basis and only counted engagements where there is photographic evidence of Meghan attending.
Other interesting metrics: Meghan did 18 solo engagements, which is 26% of her total engagements; she had engagements on 43 different days; and she gave 4 speeches.
Meghan’s busiest months were: February with 15 engagements; September with 14 engagements; and tied for third were January and October with 12 engagements each. Meghan undertook two overseas tours – Morocco in February, and South Africa in September and October.
Meghan’s preferred working days were: Monday and Wednesday, with 16 engagements each; and Tuesday, with 11 engagements.
Meghan did a total of 18 engagements for her various patronages throughout 2019. For a full list of each engagement by patronage, visit the patronages’ page (linked in the table below).
** Note on Royal Foundation: Name edited for space. Patronage ended in mid-2019 when Sussexes split to form their own foundation.
Meghan became Joint Patron of The Royal Foundation in 2018 after her marriage, and gained five new patronages in 2019. Her most visited, in terms of pure engagement numbers, were The Royal Foundation and The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, both with 4 engagements. Meghan, of course, worked with Smart Works the most in 2019 given the work she did for the Smart Set collection, and she featured Smart Works in her Vogue UK issue, too. In terms of engagement numbers, though, this is a pretty even mix between all her patronages, which is nice to see.
I will touch on Prince Harry briefly here – I didn’t count his engagements so I only have O’Donovan’s numbers. In 2019, Harry did 201 official engagements, which is up from 2018 when he did 193. This is the second year Harry has surpassed 200 engagements; the first being 2017 when he did 209 engagements. Harry’s 201 engagements accounts for 5.6% of the BRF total.
| Year | Number of Engagements |
| 2019 | 201 |
| 2018 | 193 |
| 2017 | 209 |
| 2016 | 152 |
| 2015 | 108 |
| 2014 | 94 |
| 2013 | 52 |
| 2012 | 61 |
| 2011 | 16 |
| 2010 | 53 |
I hate to bring up Sussexit here, because this review is not about that, but going over these figures makes Sussexit all the sadder to me. Meghan had a great start in terms of engagement numbers, patronage visits, speeches, and projects in her first two years of marriage; and Harry only starting nearing 200 engagements a year in the last three years. As a royal watcher for, what, seven years now, seeing Harry finally put up some solid numbers several years in a row is great, and Meghan fit in seamlessly and got off to a great start. So, yeah, Sussexit it is a bummer.
But… Year in Review 2019 is finally complete – yay! Previous year in review posts are Meghan’s fashion hits and misses and Meghan’s highlights. I’ll see you on Thursday for the Endeavour Fund Awards.
