Michelle Obama had a secret meeting with Meghan Markle

Michelle Obama has recently been holding talks in London to promote her new memoir, Becoming, and on one such occasion, there was a special guest in the audience: her friend Meghan Markle.

The pair were reunited at the Royal Festival Hall, and Michelle discussed the encounter with Ryan Seacrest, who was keen to know if she'd known about the surprise appearance.

'Yeah, we're used to keeping secrets,' she divulged, though she kept tight-lipped about what the two chatted about.

Kensington Palace confirmed to HELLO! that the Duchess had attended in a private capacity and that the pair had a conversation after the event.

The two women certainly seem to have a close relationship, with the former FLOTUS relating to Meghan's life an interview with Good Housekeeping.

'Like me, Meghan probably never dreamt that she'd have a life like this, and the pressure you feel – from yourself and from others - can sometimes feel like a lot. So my biggest pieces of advice would be to take some time and don't be in a hurry to do anything,' she said.

'I spent the first few months in the White House mainly worrying about my daughters, making sure they were off to a good start at school and making new friends before I launched into any more ambitious work,' she added.

We can imagine Meghan found this advice really useful as she embarked on her royal duties.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.