American Vogue’s new editor, Chloe Malle, is showing interest in Meghan Markle, a shift from her predecessor Anna Wintour’s decision to reportedly ‘ban’ the Duchess of Sussex from the cover of British Vogue.

Anna Wintour, who guided the magazine for 37 years, stepped down on Tuesday, paving the way for 39-year-old Chloe. Chloe was appointed as the head of editorial content for the American edition of the fashion magazine, a role that maintains a direct report to the 75-year-old Wintour.

Chloe is the daughter of renowned French actress Candice Bergen and the late filmmaker Louis Malle. Before her current role, she was the head of Vogue.com, steadily climbing the ranks since she began at the magazine in 2011.

Shortly after her appointment was made public, it emerged that Chloe is following Meghan, 44, on Instagram in what may be seen as a sign that the Duchess’ allegedly frosty relationship with the publication is thawing. 

Apart from guest-editing a 2019 issue of British Vogue, Meghan has never appeared on the cover of any of the magazine’s editions and neither she nor Prince Harry have attended the Met Gala – despite relocating stateside in 2020.  

Earlier this year, the Daily Mail reported that Meghan was ‘banned’ by Anna from being on the cover of Vogue’s prized September issue in 2022 after becoming ‘frustrated with all the micromanaging’ from the Duchess’s team. 

This apparently resulted in Prince Harry’s wife and the former editor of British Vogue, Edward Enninful, ‘drifting apart’ amid rumours in fashion circles of a falling out between the two over the planned Vogue feature on the Duchess’s charitable work.

The magazine coverage was designed to tie in with Meghan’s keynote appearance at the One Young World Summit in Manchester in September 2022 – but Conde Nast insiders claimed it was abruptly pulled and scrapped completely.

An insider said that Meghan was being ‘difficult about making it a cover’ and her team were ‘insisting on particular straplines’. They added: ‘Anna heard about it, and just like banned her and said, “That’s it. We don’t want to do this”.

‘And so she didn’t get the cover, and I guess she didn’t even get the story. [Edward] probably agreed with Anna that you don’t get to call the shots on who’s on the cover. That’s absolutely an editor’s decision.

‘Anna was p***** off. Anna was like frustrated with all the micromanaging, and just was like, “All right. That’s it. She can’t have the cover and we’re not doing the story”.’

The source added that Meghan’s ‘level of desire for detail and control on the media is almost like Beyoncé level… but she’s not Beyoncé.’

However, the Duchess is said to have been relaxed with ‘no expectations’ but her team had ‘high expectations for the piece’ in Vogue. 

‘Enninful was not in a position to meet those expectations. He already had a magazine cover in the bag for that month,’ said Conde Nast insiders to the Mail On Sunday. 

According to insiders, the project about Meghan’s work needed a full production team including photographers, videographers, stylists and editors to shoot exclusive images and film an in-depth video feature with the Sussexes.

Shelving the project is said to have damaged Enninful and the Duchess’ friendship. ‘Edward was furious to have lost the project, as were the powers that be at Conde Nast,’ a source told the MoS.

Sources claim that Meghan’s team had hoped the couple could feature on a special digital cover Vogue, which is released alongside the print edition.

But again, it is understood that Edward declined. ‘He didn’t think it was appropriate to give her the cover,’ the source explained.

Tight timings meant the whole project was eventually shelved and relations between the pair moved to only irregular contact.

It was only three years prior that Meghan – who recently released the widely panned second instalment of her Netflix lifestyle show With Love, Meghan – guest-edited the September 2019 Forces for Change issue of British Vogue. 

Among the 15 ‘trailblazing change makers’ Meghan chose for the cover were climate activist Greta Thunberg, New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, ‘diversity advocate and lecturer’ Sinéad Burke, actors Gemma Chan and Jameela Jamil. 

At the time, the Duchess was called out for not including the Queen and supposedly being too political, ‘left wing’ and ‘divisive’ with her choices of cover stars.  

At the time, Edward defended Meghan against the ‘racist’ criticism in an interview with The Guardian when he said: ‘Was the criticism racist? Some of it, yeah.

‘Actually it was more than racism,’ he continued. ‘I thought it was personal – attacking someone you don’t know, attacking her’. 

Edward has since quit British Vogue and is currently building EE72, a ‘global media and entertainment platform, with the British-Ghanaian editor also overseeing the publication of its quarterly print magazine 72. 

Meanwhile, the changing of the guard at American Vogue means that the publication has a new head of editorial content after nearly four decades of Anna’s leadership. 

Chloe, who has referred to herself as a ‘proud nepo baby’ due to her industry connections, is a graduate of Brown University and has worked for the magazine since 2011. 

In 2023, she was named an editor at the magazine, and she also co-hosts The Run-Through with Vogue podcast.

Her editorial portfolio includes high-profile interviews with a range of public figures.

She spoke with Lauren Sanchez, 55, for the magazine’s cover story earlier this year, having previously interviewed her in 2023.

She has also profiled Fran Lebowitz, Jenna Lyons, Fran Drescher, and Margot Robbie, among others.

The pick comes just a few months after Anna announced in June that she would be stepping down from her role as head of editorial content at the famed fashion magazine. 

Anna, who started out as an editor at British Vogue, will continue to hold her position as Condé Nast’s global chief content officer and global editorial director at Vogue, and the new head of editorial content will report to her.

As chief content officer, Anna oversees every brand globally, including Wired, Vanity Fair, GQ, AD, Condé Nast Traveler, Glamour, Bon Appetit, Tatler, World of Interiors and Allure – among others.

She first became editor in chief of Vogue in 1988 and is credited with completely transforming the famed fashion magazine.

She is also behind making the Met Gala what it is today – a red carpet event attended by the fashion elite, as she handpicks the celebrities and makes sure to greet them personally.

However, Anna’s time at Conde Nast has not been without controversy.

Most recently, she left Vanity Fair staff ‘blindsided’ over her surprising decision to appoint her daughter’s friend to run the magazine.

She picked her daughter Bee Shaffer’s close pal Mark Guiducci, 36, to run Vanity Fair following a high-profile search for the publication’s next leader.