The daughter of Emmy-winning actress Candice Bergen, best known for her role as Murphy Brown—and notably as the fictional editor-in-chief of Vogue in HBO’s Sex and the City—Malle now holds a remarkably similar role in real life. As of September 2025, she has been named the head of editorial content at Vogue, a few months after Anna Wintour announced her intention to step down as editor-in-chief after serving in the role for 37 years. Wintour remains chief content officer and global editorial director, and continues to directly oversee Malle.
“Fashion and media are both evolving at breakneck speed, and I am so thrilled– and awed– to be part of that. I also feel incredibly fortunate to still have Anna just down the hall as my mentor,” Malle said in the official announcement.
The topic of nepotism is not lost on Malle– or the internet. But the 39-year-old has long confronted the spotlight on her own terms.
Malle described herself as a “proud nepo baby” in a recent interview with The New York Times. “There is no question that I have 100 percent benefited from the privilege I grew up in. It’s delusional to say otherwise. I will say, though, that it has always made me work much harder. It has been a goal for a lot of my life to prove that I’m more than Candice Bergen’s daughter, or someone who grew up in Beverly Hills.”
Before Vogue, Malle wrote for The New York Times, Marie Claire, The Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, and Vogue itself– according to her now-private personal website. A self-proclaimed lifelong reader and graduate of Brown University, she initially considered a career in public health before a serendipitous interview at the New York Observer led to an internship and eventually a full-time role in journalism.
Her career took a turn in 2011 when she joined Vogue as a social media editor, a move she claims was not in her original plans.
“I was hesitant when I was interviewing, because fashion is not one of my main interests in life, and I wanted to be a writer more than an editor,” Malle told People. “But I was so seduced by the Vogue machine that I couldn’t resist.”
She remained at Vogue for five years before transitioning into a contributing editor role in 2016. In October 2023, she began leading Vogue.com, and two years later, she stepped fully into a leadership role at the publication.
As the fashion media world reshapes itself in the face of a new digital age and the rise of artificial intelligence in design spaces, Malle’s appointment may seem like a passing of the torch. Whether she’ll follow in Wintour’s steps or carve a different path remains to be seen.
Popline News 