Meghan Markle's team pushed for her book reading to be portrayed as a charity event - new emails show

Emails that detail exchanges between Meghan's aides and the New York City Department of Education have been released following a Freedom of Information request.

The emails show negotiations regarding the language that would be used in the press release announcing the Duchess of Sussex's visit to the school.

Messages obtained by the Mail between Toya Holness, who worked as a PR for the Sussexes and Danielle Filson, the NYC schools press secretary, show some of the details that were being debated.

Holness wrote "Can we make the description sound more substantial than a read aloud?

"Something about community support [of] the arts? Please."

Holness also wrote: "I like all your edits, except the Bench section."

She added: "If you take out all the info about the book, I think it’s weird to only have her bio and not his." in what appears to be a reference to the Duke of Sussex

Filson replied: “Yes totally...Just wanted to make it a bit less promotion-ey.”

Holness said that the Archewell team wanted to film the Duchess of Sussex's appearance at the school for "archival content for future use, including potential digital/production projects".

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The staff and pupils involved were asked to sign a release form that prevented them from making negative statements about the event.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are understood to have been "thrilled" with how the engagement went.

The book reading was part of Meghan and Harry's three-day visit to New York in September 2021.