Meghan Markle is getting candid about a difficult part of parenting: being away from her kids.
The Duchess of Sussex, 44, opened up about a time when she was separated from son Prince Archie, 6, and daughter Princess Lilibet, 4, for more than two weeks — seemingly referring to her 2022 trip to the U.K. with Prince Harry, which was extended for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral — in season 2 of her Netflix show With Love, Meghan.
While reflecting on the joys of motherhood, Meghan told Queer Eye star Tan France in episode 3, “It’s better than I ever expected.”
Tan, 42, who shares sons, Ismail, 4, and Isaac, 2, with husband Rob France, 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.”
Meghan Markle’s Honest Quotes About Motherhood
Meghan agreed, telling her guest, “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.’”
Tan admitted that he “might die 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 then revealed that she’s experienced that kind of pain herself.
“Oh, I know. The longest I went without being around our kids was almost three weeks,” she shared. “I was … not well.”
Meghan and Harry, 40, traveled from California, where they moved in 2020, to London in September 2022 for a series of charity events. They were in the U.K. when Elizabeth died at 96 years old on September 8, 2022.
The couple extended their trip, which had already included prior stops in Manchester and Germany, so they could attend the funeral, although that meant being away from Archie and Lilibet — then 3 and 15 months old, respectively — for longer than expected.
“Our quick trip would now be an odyssey. Another 10 days, at least. Difficult days at that,” Harry wrote in his 2023 memoir, Spare. “More, we’d have to be away from the children for longer than we’d planned, longer than we’d ever been.”
A source exclusively told Us Weekly at the time of the funeral that Harry and Meghan planned to leave the U.K. “almost immediately” afterward because they were eager to get home to their children.
“They’ve missed the kids like crazy and have been FaceTiming them every day but can’t wait to see and hold them again after a poignant few weeks,” the insider said.
The duke and duchess flew back home to Montecito the day after the queen’s state funeral, Harry revealed in his book. Once they arrived home, they kept Archie and Lilibet close and “couldn’t let them out of our sight.”
In With Love, Meghan season 2, which dropped on Netflix Tuesday, August 26, Meghan opened up about her longtime desire to become a mother.
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“I always wanted to be a mom,” she told Tan. “I would save my allowance and I’d go to Kmart and buy a real diaper bag.”
Meghan continued, “I was like, ‘I don’t want the kid version of it. I don’t want the pretend version of it. I want a real diaper bag that a mom would have to take care of my doll.’ I just always wanted to be a mom.”
She also got candid about her fears of them growing up.
“I have to prepare myself,” Meghan admitted. “The kids are only 3 and 5 and I’m already like, ‘No, no, don’t cry.’”
