These mother-daughter pairs are so inspiring
Mother-daughter relationships can be joyous, suffocating, energising, depleting, instructive… often all at the same time. Which is why seeing daughters follow in their mother’s career footsteps or mothers and daughters launching businesses together is so inspiring.
Here are some of our favourite mother-daughter duos in the public eye.
Julie Deane and mum Freda Thomas, The Cambridge Satchel Company
The Cambridge Satchel Company started a decade ago, inspired by a conversation at the kitchen table between Julie Dean and Freda Thomas. The initial goal was to make enough money to send Deane’s children to private school (one of her kids was being bullied at her current school). The startup’s budget was just £600 — and now it’s a £50m handbag empire. The bags have been featured in every magazine, are available to buy around the world, have earned Deane an OBE and even Lady Gaga is a fan.
Of the working relationship with her mum, Deane told The Guardian in 2016: “They’ve seen you at your best and your worst. So if you haven’t had much sleep and you’re really cranky, it’s nothing she hasn’t seen before, she can’t dump me. She’s in here every day. It’s really important to me to have my mum involved, it keeps us grounded, keeps the company culture, and stops it becoming too corporate. We can talk about the very early days, all that we’ve been through, and that makes me a bit braver with trying new things.”
Zoë Kravitz and Lisa Bonet
Lisa Bonet and Zoë Kravitz might be two of the most striking and stylish women in Hollywood, but that’s not why we love them (and yes, we’re also trying to figure out how they manage to look like twins despite being 21 years apart). They are also courageous trailblazers in their field, whether they’re pushing boundaries with a challenging role or just refusing to engage in outdated gender stereotypes (see Lisa Bonet’s eye roll at the 2019 Oscars when hubby Jason Momoa was asked to do the haka). Of course, Kravitz gets inspired by her mum all the time — she’s even channeled her mum’s energy for roles, like warrior woman Toast in Mad Max: Fury Road. “I’ve been raised by the most badass woman in the world. My mom has an amazing group of friends, and growing up they kind of adopted me,” Kravitz told Essence.
Meghan Markle and Doria Ragland
Our favourite new royal has such a tight bond with her mother that she reportedly wanted her mum to walk her down the aisle when she wed Prince Harry in May 2018. While the public quickly fell for Meghan — her grace, her charisma, her intelligence — all it took was a glimpse of Doria Ragland sitting regally, by herself, at her daughter’s wedding to the Prince to see who Meghan got that mix of strength, style and rebellious spirit from (did you catch the diamond nose ring?).
In her now-defunct blog, The Tig, Meghan wrote: “She will swivel her hips into the sweetest little dance you’ve ever seen, swaying her head and snapping her fingers to the beat like she’s been dancing since the womb. And you will smile. You won’t be able to help it. You will look at her and you will feel joy. I’m talking about my mom.”
The rumour mill has gone into overdrive with speculation that Ragland will be relocating to England to be more involved in her new grandchild’s life — watch this space.
