Meghan Markle said she was devastated when she had to spend the best part of a month in Britain when Queen Elizabeth died – and she wasn’t best pleased
14:43, 26 Aug 2025Updated 14:43, 26 Aug 2025
Meghan had to spend a few weeks in the UK(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Meghan Markle has revealed how being in Britain to pay tribute to the Queen when she died left her unwell. The Duchess said she was devastated when she had to spend the best part of a month in Blighty when the beloved Queen Elizabeth passed away.
Meghan, in the second season of her Netflix show With Love, Meghan, did not elaborate on dates but said there was a period of time where she was away from the kids for too long, leaving her “not well”.
There is speculation she was referring to when the Sussexes unexpectedly remained in the UK due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.
Meghan has opened up on her toughest times
On one episode, the former Suits star was sympathising with Queer Eye star Tan France who explained he gets heartbroken if away from his two young children for more than a couple of days.
She replied: “Oh I know. The longest I went without being around our kids was almost three weeks. I was…” she said before dramatically pausing: “…not well.”
It is not the first time that the very private couple have spoken publicly about that prolonged period of time in the UK as being “difficult days” for them both.
Harry wrote in his controversial memoir Spare about how hard it was staying in Britain after the Queen’s death. He wrote how he and Meghan were separated from Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet for “longer than we’d ever been”, and how when they reunited in California “for days and days we couldn’t stop hugging the children, couldn’t let them out of our sight”.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Queen Elizabeth II attend a ceremony in June 2018(Image: Getty Images)
The King and the royal family were mourning the loss of Elizabeth II, the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, in September 2022, against the backdrop of a troubled relationship with Harry and Meghan.
Harry said later in an ITV interview that there was a “really horrible reaction from my family members” when the Queen died, with “the briefings and the leakings and the planting”.
He flew solo to Balmoral, in a last-minute dash to try to see his grandmother before she died, after his brother the now-Prince of Wales ignored his texts, but Meghan remained in Windsor after the now-King asked Harry not to bring his wife to Scotland, he claimed in his autobiography.
The Sussexes had left Archie, then three, and one-year-old Lili, being cared for by Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland in LA, after travelling to Manchester for a One World Summit on September 5 2022, before heading to Dusseldorf for an Invictus event and then returning to London.
They ended up having to extend their stay when Harry’s grandmother died on September 8, remaining to make various public appearances including greeting mourners with William and the Princess of Wales at Windsor despite the brothers’ rift, and attending her funeral.