Meghan Markle cruelly heckled at New York Gala with Prince Harry

Meghan Markle put on a brave face after she was heckled as she arrived at a gala in New York on Tuesday night.

The Duchess of Sussex has kept a low profile for months amid backlash to Prince Harry’s memoir Spare and the couple’s Netflix docu-series.

However she stepped out with her husband and mother Doria Ragland to attend the annual Ms. Foundation’s Women of Vision Awards in Manhattan, her first public engagement since her notable absence from King Charles’ coronation on May 6.

But as she stepped out of a blacked-out SUV after arriving at the Ziegfeld Ballroom a heckler shouted: “Meghan, how do you feel being part of two broken families?”

The Duchess didn’t react as she walked into the lobby in a stunning gold Johanna Ortiz cocktail dress.

Meghan’s parents divorced when she was six-years-old.

She is estranged from her father Thomas Markle who posed for paparazzi in the run-up to her wedding then failed to attend the ceremony.

The cruel remark did not seem to faze Meghan, who was presented with the Women In Vision award in honour of “her global advocacy to empower and advocate on behalf of women and girls”.

In her speech she told those present: “You can be the visionary of your own life.”

“You can charter a path in which what you repeat in your daily acts of service, in kindness, in advocacy, in grace and in fairness, that those become the very things that are recognised by the next wave of women, both young and old, who will also choose this moment to join the movement and make our vision for an equitable world reality,” she said.

Guests told The Sun that Meghan “became emotional” during the presentation of her award, and branded her speech “authentic”.

“Meghan was very gracious and beyond articulate. She was quite wonderful,” fellow attendee Paul Didonato said.

“She did become emotional.”

Another guest told the publication that Harry and Doria looked “unbelievably proud” during Meghan’s big moment.

The duchess is the 35th “inspirational” female leader to receive the accolade, joining the ranks of previous winners including US congresswoman Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen.

Meghan’s appearance at the gala comes just days after she was pictured on a rare night out with Harry and their new celebrity friends.

The couple was seen heading into the Michelin star Sushi Bar Montecito in Santa Barbara on Friday night, along with Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband, TV producer Brad Falchuk, along with Cameron Diaz and her Good Charlotte rocker husband Benji Madden.

The A-list group also included CEO and founder of Bumble, Whitney Wolf Herd, and her husband, Texas oil heir Michael Herd.

Forbes has estimated the net worth of Wolfe Herd – who is the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire – at approximately $US1.5 billion.

The outing came just a week after Harry’s fly-in-fly-out visit to the UK for his father’s coronation.

He arrived in London on Friday afternoon and left just over 24 hours later, well before the celebrations had even finished, while his wife stayed home with their two young children, Archie, 4, and Lilibet, 1.