It’s been a busy few weeks of play at Wimbledon, and the women’s matches continued wrapping up on Saturday with the singles final. Ultimately, Serena Williams lost the match to Simona Halep of Romania 6-2, 6-2. There to support Williams through the tough rounds of play? None other than the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, one of her very good friends (reportedly, Williams helped organized her baby shower in New York).
Markle wasn’t watching alone, either: Both Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, and Kate Middleton’s sister Pippa Middleton were there—the first time the three have been seen hanging out together at Wimbledon. (And looking chic doing it, of course.) Time flies, but it’s been a year since Wimbledon marked the first time Kate Middleton and Markle had hung out in public together.
After the match, Williams opened up about what having Markle in the stands meant to her as she was sweating it out on the court below. During a post-match press conference, she said that having the duchess’s support was “great.” “She’s such a great friend and a great person as well. And always positive, no matter what,” Williams said, according to People.
“It’s so good to have people like that, just to know,” Williams continued, and added that Markle is “such a fan of the sport.”
Williams and Halep both got a shoutout from the royals after the match, too:
“Well done to Serena Williams and Simona Halep on a fantastic match, and congratulations Simona on your first Wimbledon title!” Kensington Palace captioned an Instagram post featuring a gallery of the royals at the match. (Kate Middleton had taken some time to meet some junior players earlier in the day.)
It’s sweet that the two make time to be there for each other’s biggest moments—and have each other’s backs, win or lose. Watch the whole interview here:
On March 8—International Women’s Day, no less—28 members of the world champion United States women’s soccer team filed a gender discrimination suit against U.S. Soccer. “Each of us is extremely proud to wear the United States jersey, and we also take seriously the responsibility that comes with that,” team member Alex Morgan told the Associated Press. “We believe that fighting for gender equality in sports is a part of that responsibility. As players, we deserved to be paid equally for our work, regardless of our gender.”
The U.S. women’s soccer team first began their fight for equal compensation in 2016, when five players filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) asking to be paid as much as the players on the men’s team. But the EEOC has still not issued a decision in their case. Then in 2017, they negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement—which increased their salaries and practice conditions—with U.S. Soccer that will run through 2021. And so the new gender discrimination suit is a further step—one that former soccer player, coach, and two-time Olympic gold medalist Abby Wambach cheers.
Since she retired from the sport in 2015, Wambach has dedicated herself to ending sex discrimination. At Barnard College’s graduation in 2018, Wambach turned her commencement address into a call to action. She told the graduating class, “Like all little girls, I was taught to be grateful. I was taught to keep my head down, stay on the path, and get my job done. I was freaking Little Red Riding Hood. The message is clear: Don’t be curious, don’t make trouble, don’t say too much, or bad things will happen. I stayed on the path out of fear—not of being eaten by a wolf—but of being cut, being benched, losing my paycheck. If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would be this: ‘Abby, you were never Little Red Riding Hood, you were always the wolf.’” The speech has been viewed over 180,000 times and inspired her upcoming book, WOLFPACK, a guide for women to unlock their own power.
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Watch Wambach deliver her viral address at Barnard College’s 2018 commencement
As the highest all-time goal scorer for the national team—and the world record holder for international goals for both female and male soccer players with a whopping 184 goals—Wambach is one of the most recognizable face in women’s soccer. But for much of her career, Wambach explains she felt so fortunate to be able to compete in the game she loved that she never fought to be appropriately compensated for shattering those records. It’s a choice she now deeply regrets. Wambach could see just how badly the women’s team had been treated—and decided her decades of silence and servitude to the sport were over.
Wambach now travels the country as a crusader for equal pay across all industries, telling women that feeling “grateful” for their work should never stop them from demanding what they’re entitled to. Here, she opens up to Glamour about the U.S. women’s soccer team’s revolutionary discrimination suit—and how she champions the team from the sidelines.
Glamour: In your viral Barnard speech, you describe this moment when you appeared at the ESPY Awards, side by side with Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant—and it dawned on you that they had so much more financial security going into retirement than you. What was it like to have that realization, then go back to your hotel room?
Abby Wambach: I played professional sports, so I lived a very privileged life where I was traveling the world representing my country. At the time, I thought this was better than most women’s experience, because I was really successful. But then I got back to the hotel and I started to understand what had really gone on here, and it was this anger-provoking moment that made me realize that even though I felt that I was one of the women who got a seat at the table, next to Kobe and Peyton, I was walking into a very different retirement. For me, that was the minute I figured out what I was going to do for the rest of my life: I was going to focus that energy and that rage, which turned into my Barnard speech, and now this book. It’s a sobering moment for women when we’re made very aware of where we stand in the order of things. But I don’t like to just sit into despair, I’m about action—so this is my attempt to help change the realities of women everywhere.
Jennifer Lopez isn’t going to be attending the Golden Globes—and for a very good reason. She’s on the ground in Puerto Rico, working on relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria (she’s already donated $1 million to relief efforts as well). There’s plenty of work ahead for the recovering nation, as more than three months after the storm, just over half the island had power as of December 30. J.Lo landed on the island Sunday afternoon with A-Rod to do what she could for the situation, and in a speech during a press conference, also spoke up about Time’s Up, tying its desire for equality to a critique of the U.S. government for not doing enough to help Puerto Rico recover.
“We are humbled and proud to be a part of this effort,” she says in a clip posted to her Instagram. Both she and A-Rod are wearing black. “You know, today is the Golden Globes in Los Angeles, and a lot of the women, with #TimesUp, are standing up for equality, to be treated equally, and for sexual harassment. I stand here in black doing the same from far away. It’s the same with here in Puerto Rico, we want to be treated equally.”
The audience claps as she finishes her statement, clearly emotional.
At the Golden Globes tonight, the Time’s Up movement—launched on January 1 with more than 300 powerful women in Hollywood backing it—is set to reshape, if even for one night, how the red carpet looks and is reported on. Women and men allied with the movement are dressing in all back, and red carpet reporting is (supposed to) be focusing less on what designers women are wearing and more on the need for Time’s Up. Additionally, eight actresses with ties to Time’s Up are bringing some truly incredible activists with them for the evening. Here’s to hoping that this marks the beginning of a shift not just on the red carpet, but in Hollywood culture.
J.Lo and A-Rod’s relief trip to Puerto Rico will certainly bring about some good. Props to her for speaking out about the situation and continuing to shed light on the humanitarian crisis.
