How to Watch Meghan Markle Talk Female Empowerment at Girl Up Summit

Meghan Markle will be the keynote speaker at a conference on empowering girls today—here's where to watch her speech.

The Duchess of Sussex will address the same 2020 Girl Up Leadership Summit where Michelle Obama yesterday told the audience how the coronavirus pandemic could exacerbate problems including violence at home and teen pregnancy.

Meghan will give a short speech—expected between 11 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. ET—which will be streamed online via the Girl Up website.

She is expected to talk by video link from the $18 million home of Hollywood producer Tyler Perry, where she has been staying with husband Prince Harry.

Also addressing the virtual audience today will be former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, actress Priyanka Chopra, a friend of Meghan's, and Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg.

Meghan and Harry have been personally calling chief executives of top companies urging them to stop advertising with Facebook after publicly backing the Stop Hate for Profit campaign.

The Girl Up 2020 Leadership Summit began yesterday when Michelle Obama delivered a special message about the impact of the pandemic. She described how during the Ebola crisis existing problems for young girls were exacerbated.

"We can't let these girls be forgotten during this crisis. The stakes are just too high," said Meghan. "When we give girls the chance to learn, we give them the opportunity to fulfil their potential, build healthier families, and contribute to their countries, economies, for generations to come."

Meghan has spoken about female empowerment before, including during an autumn tour of South Africa when she visited the Mbokodo Girls' Empowerment Program in Cape Town.

Then she quoted civil rights activist Maya Angelou, saying: "Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women."

The Independent reported how she added: "The rights of women and girls is something that's very close to my heart and a cause I've spent the majority of my life advocating for, because I know that when women are empowered, the entire community flourishes."

She was still a working royal at the time but told the young girls gathered to see her as a sister.

She said: "May I just say that while I am here with my husband as a member of the royal family, I want you to know that for me, I am here as a mother, as a wife, as a woman, as a woman of colour and as your sister."

Meghan caused headlines around the world when she backed Black Lives Matter in June during a graduation speech for former students of her school Immaculate Heart.

Then she also talked about her experiences as a girl growing up around the 1992 Los Angeles race riots, sparked after the acquittal of four police officers over the beating of Rodney King.

She said: "I was 11 or 12 years old when I was just about to start Immaculate Heart middle school in the fall and it was the L.A. riots, which was also triggered by a senseless act of racism.

"And I remember the curfew and I remember rushing back home and on that drive home seeing ash fall from the sky and smelling the smoke and seeing the smoke billow out of buildings. And seeing people run out of buildings carrying bags and looting.

"And I remember seeing men in the back of a van just holding guns and rifles and I remember pulling up to the house and seeing the tree that had always been there completely charred. And those memories don't go away."