Inside Meghan Markle's Emotional Private Goodbye to Royal Life
The 1844 Room in Buckingham Palace has been the backdrop of many key moments in the royal family’s history, including meetings with overseas heads of state and the Queen’s Christmas broadcast. Earlier this week it was the setting for another milestone—the Duchess of Sussex’s final private solo engagement as a working royal.
Meghan spoke with 22 scholars from across the Commonwealth in a 30-minute meeting on Monday around lunchtime before shedding tears as she said goodbye to some of her staff and heading to Westminster Abbey for the Commonwealth Day Service.
Entering through a door in the corner of the opulent state room at 1:30 p.m. in a navy blue dress and clutching a matching purse, the Duchess circulated among students from 11 Commonwealth countries currently studying in the UK. They had been convened by the Association of Commonwealth Universities, of which Meghan became patron in January 2019, a role she took over from the Queen.
Despite stepping back as a working royal, the Duchess is keeping the patronage and her work with the ACU will continue. Yet, as with so many of the events that Harry and Meghan attended during their whirlwind “farewell tour,” the intimate gathering felt like part of a final chapter.
The significance of the moment was not lost on me when, following a last-minute phone call and a surprise invitation, I found myself in the room alongside just two other journalists.
Before Meghan’s entrance, Chief Executive and Secretary General of the ACU Joanna Newman told the assembled group that the Duchess was “really interested” and “incredibly supportive.” She reminded them that Meghan understood the importance of scholarships, having been a recipient herself. The scholars were also divided into four groups based on their areas of interest; climate and the environment, innovation and technology, health, and sustainable cities.
Speaking with University of Leicester research fellow Timothy Biswick, who is from Malawi, about micro-plastic pollution, Meghan mentioned micro-plastics being in the fish we eat. “She knows what she’s talking about in terms of climate change. She was talking about things in quite some detail,” Timothy shared afterwards.
To another group, the Duchess spoke talked about sustainable travel, pointing out that she and Harry have seen "the link between tourism and how much money is going outside of the country instead of communities. "There has to be a symbiotic relationship," she added.
Meghan also recounted how when she and Harry travel to Botswana, a country they have visited since the earliest stages of their romance, they grab a "backpack" and stay in a tent.
Halima Ali, a lawyer from Kenya who is researching energy and natural resources at Queen Mary University of London, said that Meghan’s presence “means a lot to us.”
“For Commonwealth and African countries, to see her, her interest, her participation means a lot,” she said.
This sentiment was also shared by the ACU’s Joanna Newman, who noted that a “really powerful” outcome of Meghan’s “so obviously real” engagement with the charity is that it has enabled them to promote “the issues that really matter” such as gender equality and access to education.
Monday’s intimate reception did not have the Hollywood glamour of that now iconic picture of Harry and Meghan in the rain, nor the obvious emotion of Harry’s final engagement as Captain General of the Royal Marines, and there was no rousing speech like the one the Duchess gave at a school in Dagenham a few days earlier. But, Meghan's appearance, especially on Commonwealth Day, served as another reminder of the young and global audience that the Sussexes appeal to with such ease.
Many have interpreted the few days that Harry and Meghan spent in the UK before she departed for Canada on Monday night as a triumphant swan song—an opportunity to revel in their upcoming freedom and show us all what the royal family will be missing come April 1. But it has also been a reminder of what the Sussexes are walking away from. Make no mistake, this is a "bittersweet" farewell.
You could be forgiven for wondering just quite how we ended up here. William and Harry, once so close, now exchanging seemingly strained hellos at the Commonwealth Day Service. Many of us may recognize from our own lives the family dispute that starts with a disagreement and somehow unravels until a huge chasm has opened up. We love to peer into their gilded cage, but members of the royal family are, after all, human.
There can be no doubt that Harry and Meghan still feel a great deal of frustration at how things have turned out. They didn’t get the outcome that they wanted, and their desire for a half-in and half-out model is still laid bare on their website. There is obvious ongoing anger towards sections of the media for coverage they feel left them no option but to pull out of public life. And particularly painful is the fact that Harry had to give up his honorary military associations. But, the Sussexes have secured the one thing that was most valuable to them—freedom to shape a new life with 10-month-old son Archie.
The magnitude of their decision was spelled out as Meghan was about to depart on Monday. Turning to some of her loyal, outgoing staff, there was an emotional realization that she didn’t know when she would see them again. Then, with a hug for almost everyone in the room, she was gone.
Many unanswered questions remain about what exactly the future looks like for Harry and Meghan, from where they will live to what kind of work they will do. When asked how Meghan may work with their network of 500 universities in 50 countries moving forward, Newman answered: “I think it will continue more or less in the way it has been developing so far—it’s a dynamic relationship, it’s a long-term relationship. It will be based around online and in-person engagements over the next year or so.”
With the Sussexes fending for themselves outside the infrastructure and caché of the royal household, a lot is riding on the choices they now make. There is currently little sign of their star power fading, but who they work with and what they do next could significantly rewrite their place in the history books.
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