Allison P. Davis — the interviewer handpicked by Meghan Markle

An interview with Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, is making international headlines today.

In it, the 41-year-old speaks candidly about her and Harry’s rift from the Royal family, their new life in California with their two children, rediscovering how to use her ‘voice’, upcoming projects and her stance on forgiveness.

She spoke about how the pair were keen to keep a connection with the Royals but that this was not a possibility. “Just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy,” she said. “So we go, ‘Okay, fine, let’s get out of here. Happy to,” — referencing that they had offered to move to a Commonwealth country and still work for the Queen. “That, for whatever reason, is not something that we were allowed to do, even though several other members of the family do that exact thing,” she said.

While the interview has shone a spotlight on the mother-of-two, her handpicked interviewer is also getting attention.

The journalist chosen by Meghan to write the piece is The Cut features writer Allison P. Davis. She spent the day interviewing the duchess at her mansion in Montecito, in which time she encountered a barefoot Harry and waited while Meghan went to pick up her children from school. The writer also uncovered interesting details about Harry and Meghan’s romance including the fact that one thing that drew them to the $14.65 million house were two trees in the garden connected by the roots. “One of the first things my husband saw when we walked around the house was those two palm trees. See how they’re connected at the bottom? He goes, ‘My love, it’s us.’ And now every day when Archie goes by us, he says, ‘Hi, Momma. Hi, Papa.’ “

There are also fascinating insights into Meghan’s personality. “Though she has been media trained and then royal-media trained and sometimes converses like she has a tiny Bachelor producer in her brain directing what she says (at one point in our conversation, instead of answering a question, she will suggest how I might transcribe the noises she’s making: ‘She’s making these guttural sounds, and I can’t quite articulate what it is she’s feeling in that moment because she has no word for it; she’s just moaning’), at this stage, post-royal, there’s no need for her to hold back,” writes Davis.

Davis is known for her writing on lifestyle, culture and celebrity profiles having interviewed famous faces such as Jada Pinkett Smith and Gwyneth Paltrow. She often writes about sex and relationships and is currently writing a book called Horny which is about what it’s like ‘trying to have sex during a time when it’s weird to have sex’.

In August she wrote a first person piece about a decade spent using the dating app Tinder in which she revealed: “The longest-term relationship I’ve had from Tinder is with Tinder itself’ and said she’d had: ‘’bad sex, meh sex, do-it-for-the-story sex, occasionally good sex, and sometimes sex that’s made me need to take a break from sex.” She said she has used all the dating apps and has sex “again and again.”

In 2020 she wrote about dating during lockdown and before the pandemic she penned a piece on her experience of going to a male strip club. Her interview with Goop’s Gwyneth raised eyebrows for its discussion of the best vibrators, sexual awakening and how to have better orgasms.

As well as The Cut she also writes for NY Magazine and her writing has earnt her 35.7 thousand followers on Twitter. Her writing style is known for being rich in detail and not overly pandering to her interviewees - as one critic puts it ‘fair but not fawning’.

Some may see Davis as a brave choice by Meghan as it appears the writer wasn’t heavily restricted in what she could write — being free to add observational details and ask difficult questions.

Meghan too didn’t hold back in her answers. When discussing how she wasn’t allowed to share photos of her baby with her close family until they’d been approved by The Firm, Meghan said: “Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child? You tell me how that makes sense and then I’ll play that game.”

As any journalist would be, Davis was clearly pleased with her big-name interview and took to Twitter to promote it, albeit in a nonchalant manner. She wrote: “i went to montecitio and asked meghan if she’d ever seen the prince & me….well, you’ll just have to read to find out.” She has a blue tick, tweets nearly every day and writes almost exclusively in lower case.

In her interview with Meghan, which is over 6,000 words, Davis asked the duchess if there was scope for forgiveness between her and her in-laws. She responded: “I think forgiveness is really important. It takes a lot more energy to not forgive. But it takes a lot of effort to forgive. I’ve really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything.”

The Duchess also revealed she was considering returning to Instagram.

A part of the reason she did the interview was to promote her newly-launched Spotify podcast, Archetypes, which will focus on celebrity interviews.

Among the guests are singer Mariah Carey and tennis star Serena Williams. Meghan says the show will ‘investigate, dissect and subvert the labels that try to hold women back’.