The Gist
- In September 2022, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had pre-planned engagements in the U.K. and Germany, having no idea that while they were in Europe, Queen Elizabeth would fall ill and pass away at 96 years old on September 8, 2022.
- The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stayed through the monarch’s funeral on September 19, unexpectedly keeping them away from kids Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet back home in California for nearly three weeks.
- “I was not well,” Meghan said of the separation on season two of her Netflix series With Love, Meghan.
Nearly three years ago exactly, in September 2022, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle traveled to Europe for a slate of philanthropic engagements, having no idea that while they were in the U.K., Queen Elizabeth would die at 96 years old while at Balmoral in Scotland.
The Queen died on September 8, 2022, and her funeral wasn’t until September 19; that meant that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex—who were planning on being away from kids Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet for a short time that September—ended up being away from their son and daughter unexpectedly for nearly three weeks. Archie and Lilibet, then 3 and 15 months old, respectively, stayed behind in California, where the Sussex family of four make their home.
In total, Harry and Meghan were away for 17 days, and Meghan told Tan France in season two of her Netflix series With Love, Meghan that “I was not well” during that time period. Harry has also opened up in the pages of his 2023 memoir Spare about their unplanned time away, writing that the stretch was “longer than we’d planned.”
Motherhood, Meghan said, is “better than I ever expected,” she told France. Archie is now 6 and Lilibet is 4, and France spoke of his own kids in the third episode of the show when he said, “You know what’s funny? When parents are like, ‘Oh, I just can’t wait for them to go to college and be out.’ I’m like, ‘I never want my children to leave.’ They’re not allowed to get married. Not allowed to leave my house.”
To this, Meghan responded, “I’ll miss them so much. You want to be the parent who’s like, ‘Yes, go do it. Go do your thing. Go live that life.’ But I’m going to miss you so much.”
“I might die without my kids,” France added. “I need my boys. If I don’t see them for a couple of days, I feel like my heart is broken.” To this, Meghan replied, “Oh, I know. The longest I went without being around our kids was almost three weeks. I was not well.”
In Spare, Harry wrote of the month of September 2022 that “Our quick trip would now be an odyssey. Another 10 days, at least. Difficult days at that. More, we’d have to be away from the children for longer than we’d planned, longer than we’d ever been.” Harry wrote that he and Meghan left the U.K. the day after the funeral, and once they returned home to their kids, the couple kept them close and “for days and days we couldn’t stop hugging the children, couldn’t let them out of our sight.”
Elsewhere in season two of With Love, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex shared that Archie and Lilibet still have some U.K. in them—particularly in the way they say one specific word. While cooking with Clare Smyth, Meghan said, “They both say zeb-rah, though, instead of zebra.” As to why they don’t have British accents in terms regarding the kitchen, Meghan said cheekily that “Papa’s not cooking as much.”
Meghan, for her part, likes to make breakfast for her family, she said on the show: “It’s not as complicated as people think it is,” she said. “It feels like a big undertaking, but you’re just slicing bread, you’re dunking it in some eggs, and calling it a day.”
Meghan said she makes “fried eggs and pancakes, but I like to do surprise pancakes for the kids, so I always put some ground flax seeds, pour some chia seeds in. And Lili will ask me, ‘Can I have chia seeds? I want it to have freckles.’”
“The ritual of breakfast is a sacred time as a family,” the As Ever founder said. “You just take a minute of calm before the day.”