Meghan Markle has a penchant for losing her shoes—for greater wellbeing reasons.
Markle opened up about her domestic habits at home in Montecito in a taped conversation with her friend Courtney Adamo, as the pair discussed Adamo’s new book The Family Home: Inspiring Ideas for a Home Filled with Joy, at Godmothers bookstore on October 23. She shared that she loves to answer the door barefoot, with an apron on.
“It demystifies,” she explained. “People walk in and go, ‘Oh, she’s in this with me.’ And what are they drawn to? Your kitchen. They come right in, and suddenly everyone s a little bit softened.” It creates, she believes, a more calm and centered environment, and promotes greater wellbeing within the home she shares with Prince Harry and their two children: Archie, six, and Lilibet, four.
The Duchess of Sussex also discussed her regular barefoot-and-jeans look and her more casual, warm way of greeting guests in her 2022 Netflix series, Harry Meghan. “Even when Will and Kate came over, and I had met her for the first time, they came over for dinner. I remember I was in ripped jeans, and I was barefoot,” she recalled. “Like, I was a hugger, I’ve always been a hugger. I didn’t realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.”
Photos from Meghan Markle’s Instagram and scenes from her Netflix series With Love, Meghan also highlight her frequent barefootedness. One sweet image from IG shows her hand-in-hand in the soil with daughter Lilibet, both barefoot, while she often cooks and gardens barefoot on the show.
Markle’s commitment to bare feet comes with bigger health benefits. “Grounding” is a well-known practice for managing anxiety that employs all of your senses—be it putting your bare feet on grass, or smelling the air to distract you from wider feelings of stress and make you more present again. This grounding technique is meant to relieve anxiety, stress, depression, and PTSD.
Sabrina Carpenter has also shared her practice with mindfulness techniques like grounding on the advice of her mother, often going outside barefoot to touch the grass when she feels overwhelmed.
While there is little scientific evidence or research into the deeper effect of grounding on physical or mental wellbeing, there have been small studies that actually highlight some potential effects of grounding or “earthing” on chronic inflammation. Research by the Human Physiology Department at the University of Oregon and the Developmental and Cell Biology Department, University of California at Irvine, found that regular physical contact to the earth and that living matrix appears to help our primary antioxidant defence system. Still, there is still more solid, wider research to be done on the electrically conductive contact of the human body with the surface of the Earth.
Markle also shared more on her day-to-day rituals and morning routine in her conversation with Adamo. “First thing I do when I wake up in the morning is turn on the music in the house,” she said, adding that she also takes a portable charger when the family is traveling to keep up the routine. She will also, always, travel with a candle, because she is “so conscious and sensitive to fragrance and [she] associates that with home.”
Creating a comfortable, positive environment is just one way to bring friends and family into your wellness practice, as Meghan Markle has come to show. Leave your Balenciaga pumps at the door.
