Meghan Markle is seeing another side of motherhood.
While spending time with students at the Lightway Academy during her and Prince Harry‘s three-day tour in Nigeria May 10, the Duchess of Sussex couldn’t help but recount an adorable exchange she recently had with their 2-year-old daughter Princess Lilibet.
“Our daughter, Lili, she’s much, much tinier than you guys,” Meghan told a class of kindergarteners, per People. “She’s about to turn three. And a few weeks ago, she looked at me and she would just see the reflection in my eyes. And she [goes], ‘Mama, I see me in you.'”
“Now she was talking really literally,” the 42-year-old admitted. “But I hung onto those words in a very different way. And I thought, ‘Yes, I do see me in you, and you see me in you.'”
Sitting in the classroom alongside Harry, she told the students, “As I look around this room, I see myself in all of you as well.”
During their visit, the couple—who are also parents to son Prince Archie, 5—played games with the kids and took part in their singing and dancing class. “That’s Lili’s favorite class,” Meghan noted, per the outlet. “Maybe it’s all the jumping around.”
While Meghan and Harry prefer to keep their private lives out of the spotlight, they often share small glimpses into their family of four.
Andrew Esiebo/Getty Images for The Archewell Foundation“The kids are doing great,” the Duke of Sussex shared told Good Morning America in February. “The kids are growing up like all kids do—very, very fast.”
“They both have got an incredible sense of humor and make us laugh and keep us grounded every single day like most kids do,” the 39-year-old continued. “I’m just very grateful to be a dad.”
As Meghan and Harry continue their tour around Nigeria, keep reading for more of their special parenthood moments.
Getty Images“I don’t think you can force these things. It will happen when it’s gonna happen,” he told Sky News back in 2015 when asked if the birth of his niece Princess Charlotte made him think about settling down. “Of course, I would love to have kids right now, but there’s a process that one has to go through.”
Alex Trautwig/MLB via Getty ImagesPlanning for Her Little One
Years ago, Meghan even made a purchase with her future daughter in mind. “I’ve always coveted the Cartier French Tank watch. When I found out Suits had been picked up for our third season—which, at the time, felt like such a milestone—I totally splurged and bought the two-tone version,” she recalled to Hello! in 2015. “I had it engraved on the back, ‘To M.M. From M.M.’ and I plan to give it to my daughter one day.”
Getty ImagesFatherhood is a subject that—along with marriage—has long trailed Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana‘s younger son. “There have been moments through life, especially when we do a tour abroad, when I think, ‘I’d love to have kids now’… And then there are other times when I bury my head in the sand going, ‘All right, don’t need kids!’ There’s no rush. I tell you what: There’s been times I’ve been put off having children,” he admitted to People back in May 2016, shortly before meeting his future wife.
REX/ShutterstockIn 2017, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed their engagement and sat for their first joint interview. Naturally, the topic of future kids came up. “Of course. You know, I think you know one step at a time, and hopefully, we’ll start a family in the near future,” Prince Harry said at the time with Meghan smiling beside him.
Facundo Arrizabalaga/AP/REX/Shutterstock“It’s magic,” Meghan said about becoming a mum following Archie’s birth. “It’s pretty amazing and, I mean, I have the two best guys in the world, so I’m really happy.”
Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesProud Pops
Following Archie’s birth in May 2019, Harry gushed, “It’s been the most amazing experience I can ever possibly imagine. How any woman does what they do is beyond comprehension but we’re both absolutely thrilled and so grateful for all the love and support from everybody out there. It’s been amazing so we just wanted to share this with everybody.”
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/REX/ShutterstockHarry reflected on the lessons he’s learned since becoming a parent during a speech at the National Youth Mentoring Summit in 2019. He shared, “I’m struck by a few things today, most of which is the power of the invisible role model. The person who may be sitting here today that doesn’t realize that someone looks up to them that—for that person—you inspire them to be kinder, better, greater, more successful, more impactful. Perhaps it’s the newfound clarity I have as a father knowing that my son will always be watching what I do, mimicking my behavior, one day maybe even following in my footsteps.”
Toby Melville/Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImageDoting on Archie
“Our little man is our No. 1 priority but then our work after that is the second priority,” Prince Harry shared during a speaking engagement in 2020, “and we’re just doing everything we can to try and play our part in trying to make the world a better place.”
ShutterstockHarry and Meghan found a silver lining amid the coronavirus pandemic through baby Archie. “In so many ways we are fortunate to be able to have this time to watch him grow, and in the absence of COVID, we would be traveling and working more externally,” Meghan shared in October 2020. “We’d miss a lot of those moments. So I think it’s been a lot of really good family time.”
Harry added, “We were both there for Archie’s first steps, his first run, his first fall, everything.”
Chris Jackson – Pool/Getty ImagesIn May 2021, Meghan made a rare TV appearance during Global Citizen’s VAX Live: The Concert to Reunite the World special. The former actress opened up about her pregnancy and shared her excitement about raising a daughter. “My husband and I are thrilled to soon be welcoming a daughter. It’s a feeling of joy we share with millions of other families around the world,” she said at the time. “When we think of her, we think of all the young women and girls around the globe who must be given the ability and the support to lead us forward.”
She added, “Their future leadership depends on the decisions we make and the actions we take now to set them up, and set all of us up, for a successful, equitable and compassionate tomorrow.”
Apple TV+Meghan makes a brief cameo in her husband’s Apple TV+ series with Oprah, The Me You Can’t See. During her appearance, the California native seemingly pays tribute to her growing family with a shirt that reads, “Raising the Future.”
Chris Jackson-Pool/Getty ImagesParty of Four!
The couple welcomed their baby girl. In a statement shared on their Archewell Foundation page, they gushed, “On June 4th, we were blessed with the arrival of our daughter, Lili. She is more than we could have ever imagined, and we remain grateful for the love and prayers we’ve felt from across the globe. Thank you for your continued kindness and support during this very special time for our family.”
Toby Melville – Pool/Getty ImagesOn June 8, 2021, Meghan will release her first children’s book, The Bench, which is a celebration of fatherhood from a mother’s perspective. Of her new project, she said in a press release in May, “The Bench started as a poem I wrote for my husband on Father’s Day, the month after Archie was born. That poem became this story.”
Gotham/WireImageReflecting on Those Early Days
In an October 2021 letter to then-House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer explaining her support for mandatory paid parental leave in the U.S., Meghan wrote of being “overjoyed” but “overwhelmed” when her daughter was born when the pandemic was still preventing business as usual in hospitals, schools, etc.
“Like fewer parents, we weren’t confronted with the harsh reality of either spending those first few critical months with our baby or going back to work,” she wrote. “We knew we could take her home, and in that vital (and sacred) stage, devote any and everything to our kids and to our family. We knew that by doing so we wouldn’t have to make impossible choices about childcare, work, and medical care that so many have to make every single day.”
Meghan continued, “No family should be faced with these decisions. No family should have to choose between earning a living and having the freedom to take care of their child (or a loved one, or themselves, as we would see with a comprehensive paid leave plan).”
Handout/Getty Images EntertainmentScreen Star
On TODAY in April 2022, Harry shared that separating parenting from his work-at-home routine was pretty much a nonstarter.
“Archie spends more time interrupting our Zoom calls than anybody else,” he said. “He also gets them often as well, so that’s a nice thing.”
Harry noted that he could already see his own sly sense of humor in his son. “I always try and keep that,” he added. “I think that the cheekiness is something that keeps you alive.”
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Project Healthy MindsRaising Kids in the Digital Age
Meghan admitted she was concerned for her—and everybody else’s—kids in the age of social media.
“Being a mom is the most important thing in my entire life—outside, of course, being a wife to this one,” she said, gesturing to Harry, during an October 2023 talk at the Archewell Foundation Parents’ Summit: Mental Wellness in the Digital Age, part of Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day
“But I will say,” she added, “I feel fortunate that our children are at an age, again quite young, so this isn’t in our immediate future, but I also feel frightened at how it’s continuing to change and this will be in front of us.”
Noting that “the days are long but the years are short” as a parent, Meghan continued, “Everyone is affected by the online world and social media. We all just want to feel safe.”
