Meghan Markle has spoken about one of the most difficult periods of her life: the weeks she and Prince Harry spent away from their young children following Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022.

The couple happened to be in the UK at the time, having arrived on September 3 for a short trip involving charity events and speaking engagements. After appearing at the One World Summit in Manchester and attending an Invictus Games event in Germany, they were preparing to go to the WellChild Awards in London on September 8 when they received news that the Queen had died at Balmoral.

Staying in the UK While Archie and Lilibet Remained in California

Harry and Meghan stayed in Britain until the Queen’s state funeral on September 19. Meanwhile, their children—Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet—remained at the family’s home in Los Angeles. It was the longest the couple had ever been apart from them.

Meghan recently revisited that emotional time on her lifestyle program, With Love, Meghan, during a conversation with guest Tan France about the struggles of parenting.

Tan admitted, “I might d*e without my kids, I need my boys. If I don’t see them for a couple of days, I feel like my heart is broken.”
Meghan responded, “Oh, I know,” before revealing, “The longest I went without being around our kids was almost three weeks. I was… (pauses) not well.”

While she didn’t explicitly mention the Queen’s funeral, Harry wrote about it in his 2023 memoir Spare, describing the days after his grandmother’s death as “difficult” and confirming that he and Meghan were separated from their children for “longer than we’d ever been.” Archie was 3 at the time, and Lilibet just 15 months.