Simone Ashley Is The Harper’s Bazaar Arabia May 2026 Issue Cover Star

From Bridgerton’s breakout viscountess to Miranda Priestly’s newest recruit, Simone Ashley is stepping into fashion’s most iconic universe but choosing not to rush what comes next

I challenge you to find someone who’s having a better time of it than Simone Ashley right now. Dialling in from her glossy New York apartment, the Surrey-born star is riding a very real, very well-deserved wave – and her face shows it. Beaming broadly, she tells me (more than once, actually), “I’ve had the time of my life.” And in fairness, the blessings are stacking up. She’s just celebrated her 31st birthday, wrapped filming her upcoming A24 project Peaked, released her debut EP, and is in the throes of a press tour for what is already the film of the year, The Devil Wears Prada 2. In it, she stars opposite Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci – the quartet she jokingly dubs the “Holy Quad” – as Miranda Priestly’s new assistant, Amari. A million girls, surely, would kill for that call sheet.

And yet, the woman on my screen feels worlds away from the glacial, haughty ecosystem that Prada made mythic 20 years ago. If Miranda and, by extension, Amari, exist in a universe defined by intimidation, pressure and the hierarchies of fashion, Simone is something else entirely. Warm, open, confident – yet still faintly incredulous at her own trajectory – she makes a compelling case for being the kind of friend you’d always want in your corner – the one who hypes you up, tells you it straight, and then orders another round. Her friends, as it happens, are the IRL supporting cast to which Simone credits so much of her equilibrium.

“You’re a reflection of the people around you, and I believe I’ve become a better person because of my friends,” she tells me. “With the lifestyle I have, it’s so important to have that wolf pack.” She talks about days in New York spent with them – including fellow Bridgerton alum Phoebe Dynevor – drifting between Pilates, park hangs and impromptu shopping detours; of building a new circle in the city last summer (“I had Oasis tickets and was like, ‘let’s just all go’”), and of going home after filming Prada 2 to debrief over takeout. “I’d be like, ‘Guys, I had to do this thing with Meryl today…’ and we’d just laugh about it,” she says.

What matters most, though, is the space they create within the chaos. “It means so much to me to have these pockets of time,” she continues. “Where I can switch off my phone and just make it about my friends. That brings me more joy than anything else. Because it has to get to a point where it’s not about the art anymore. It’s about my life and my community. If I don’t have that, I can’t show up in the studio or on set and be a whole person.”

This level of groundedness is rare. But even after the epic cultural – and personal – whirlwind that was Bridgerton (she still has fans that adoringly refer to her online as Viscountess), this latest chapter still carries a certain vertigo. As if on cue, her doorbell rings mid-sentence and she disappears briefly off-screen. It’s a few days after her music dropped, and I joke that her doorman must be wondering why so many bouquets keep arriving. “It’s funny you say that,” she laughs when she returns. “I went downstairs the other day and he was like, ‘I think I saw you in the newspaper…’”

Not flowers, as it turns out, but outfits this time – a steady stream of looks for the Prada 2 press tour, which has since unfolded in a blur of high-octane fashion, ne’er a cerulean jumper or hideous skirt in sight. Searing lime-green custom Prada (what else?) in New York, electric fuchsia Mugler in London… Simone’s dear friend and stylist, Rebecca Corbin-Murray has been matching the bar set by Amari herself. That sculptural, vintage Jean Paul Gaultier Couture LBD, UFO-print Monse mini dress and delicious (and substantial) Cartier wrist-stack have been living rent-free in our heads since the trailer dropped. Incidentally, the most watched in 20th Century Studio’s history. However, if the optics suggest a woman in her fashion era, fully immersed in the spectacle, the reality is far richer.

For all the momentum, Simone is resistant to the industry’s favourite illusion: immediacy. The idea that success arrives either fully formed or overnight. That certainly wasn’t the story for her acting, having moved herself to LA at the tender age of 16 – partly to pursue her career, but also to “just find the world, I guess. I always thought of life as my education.” The result of self-professed stubbornness, she explains, “I just really believed in myself, and I never wanted to look back and be like, ‘I wish I did that.’ I was never going to do something that I wasn’t passionate about.”

So aside from a healthy sprinkling of rebellion, it was old-fashioned tenacity that earned Simone her place in Tinseltown. A slow burn, if you will. Something she’s keen to reference when it comes to her music.

“We worked together for two-and-a half years,” she says of the process to get to Songs I Wrote In New York, the EP she created with the help of Grammy-winning producer Fraser T Smith of Adele and Stormzy fame. Simone started singing at the age of seven, classically training in opera and piano, so she’s no newbie. But it was only after a conversation during the Cannes Film Festival that the seed was planted to branch into it professionally. “I was sat with my agent Donovan, and he was like, ‘You’re really good at manifesting things…’” she shares. “So [the team and I] were developing, writing… writing really crap songs, and then getting to really good ones that I felt proud of.”

It’s a refreshingly unvarnished admission, and one that speaks to a broader philosophy. “In no way was this me all guns blazing trying to make a massive hit record,” she says earnestly. “I have to be honest with where I’m at in my career and music, and the way that I’m releasing it is a reflection of that. I just want the work to be of a quality that I’m really proud of,” she continues. “And then greatness can come, if that comes.”

At a moment when most would be capitalising on visibility – or expecting things to detonate – Simone is opting instead for an admirable level of patience. Maybe it’s the Brit in her, but she really does seem to have her feet on the ground – albeit in Dior shoes. (“There were one black and white pair that were props in my size…” she tells me of the item she most wanted to steal from the Prada 2 set.)

“At the moment, the world and my fans are like, ‘Oh, she’s making music, question mark’ and ‘Oh, I didn’t realise she could sing, exclamation mark.’ ‘Oh, it’s actually better than I thought it was going to be,’ or whatever,” she laughs. Other fans, we can imagine, are welcoming the chance to get to know her on a different level altogether. One that’s more real, perhaps. Because, unlike acting, music offers nowhere to hide.

“With acting, I’ve always been very protected by the studio,” she says. “Once I’m done, it’s handed over, and it’s in their control whatever happens.” Music, by contrast, is far more direct. “It’s all coming from me and my heart,” she explains. “From writing lyrics in my diary, bringing them into the studio, developing them… it’s 100 per cent more exposing.”

Maybe that exposure is part of the appeal. While she stops short of revealing specifics, there’s a sense that she’s drawn from a period of serious upheaval – both good and bad – previously describing the lyrics as “confessional.” Love, it seems, sits at the centre of it. “I’ve only been in love a handful of times in my life,” she says. “And when I’m in love with someone I give it my all, to the point where I write songs about it…” It’s that intensity – and that dreaminess – that finds its way into the music.

When I ask if the process felt cathartic, she nods. “I want my songs to be honest,” she says. “Even if they come from a place of sadness… I want there to be something beautiful that comes out of it. Something that does good in the world.” She pauses, “If it feels honest to me, then I have no baggage with it. The music and the feelings I have [in order] to write the songs are bigger than me, so I just make it about that, you know? I’m just the witness in the room.”

So what did she learn? If there’s a through-line, it’s instinct. “Not to overthink. It works with acting as well. My body has better ideas than my head,” she says, smiling. It’s a deceptively simple line, but it reveals a great deal – a willingness to trust her gut, and to allow things to unfold rather than forcing them into shape. It seems to be working for her so far. So much so, that her approach to filming Prada 2 was a brilliant antidote to over-preparation.

“It wasn’t ‘OK, I’m going to bed at 9pm and I’m getting up and doing yoga and drinking green juice…’” she explains. “It was Devil Wears Prada, in New York City. I’m going out, I’m gonna meet new people, I’m gonna have martinis and I’m gonna bring all that energy and confidence to set, so I’m out of my head and I’m a New York girl.” Safe to say this immersion doesn’t sound like a hardship posting. Was there still a little snippet of intimidation, though? “I remember saying, ‘I’m with the big dogs today, I’m really nervous,’” she recalls. “And my friend said, ‘Simone, you are a big dog – just in a small dog’s body.’”

She laughs at the memory, but the sentiment lands. Because if Prada is a story about power – who holds it, who gets to access it – then Simone being in the sequel is definitely a case of life imitating art – and vice versa. Now, she’s a very big dog indeed. But despite the scale of her success – the paps, the FROWS, the A-list pals, the big new life in Manhattan – what feels most impressive is the way she’s choosing to move through it. The future, in her mind at least, looks as grounded as she is. “I just want to be happy,” she says, when I ask what the next five years might hold. There’s a pause, then a smile. “I’d love to have found my husband by then. To be in something really fulfilling. I’d love to have a home… a nest. Somewhere I can bring people into. But I don’t think the fun needs to stop…”

Her priorities feel strikingly clear. Her work matters, without a doubt. But not at the expense of the life that allows her to do it. In an industry like hers, perhaps that really is groundbreaking.

Lead Image Credits: Clash de Cartier Necklace in Yellow Gold, POA, Cartier Jewellery. Top, Dhs12,200; Skirt, POA; Shoes, Dhs9,400, All Saint Laurent

Photography: Juankr. Creative Direction: Kevin Breen. Fashion Editor: Charlotte Marsh-Williams. Stylist: Rebecca Corbin-Murray at A-Frame Agency. Hair: Jean-Luc Amarin. Make-Up: Georgina Graham at The Wall Group. Nail Artist: Emily Rose Lansley at The Wall Group. Executive Producer: Steff Hawker. Fashion Assistant: Nicola Goodwin. Lighting Assistant: Daniel Bayley. Photographer’s Assistant: Natalie Siamou.

Special thanks to Raffles London at The OWO

From the Harper’s Bazaar Arabia May 2026 issue