Meghan Markle Surprises Fans During NYC Screening of Netflix Show - E! Online
Meghan Markle celebrated the premiere of her Netflix series With Love, Meghan by dropping in on a screening with a surprise for her fans.
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A few lucky fans experienced the Markle sparkle in real time.
Meghan Markle kicked off the premiere of her Netflix series With Love, Meghan with a host of her biggest fans and supporters. The Duchess of Sussex stunned viewers at a screening in New York City March 3 when she popped in after they watched the series.
âOkay we have a big surprise in store for girls who have been following The Tig and everything else for so long,â the 43-year-old said in a clip shared on her Instagram Story March 3. âThey donât know Iâm coming.â
Meghanâwho shares children Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3, with Prince Harryâentered the screening room, as the attendees reacted, asking them, âWhat did you guys think?â
Meghan went on to share more from the surprise visit, including clips of her hugging some of the attendees, accepting gifts for her children and she even shared a picture of two loyal supporters who have the words âAs Ever,â which is also the name of her new lifestyle brand, tattooed on their arms.
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Capping off the evening, the Duchess of Sussex shared a selfie with the group who she revealed have âsupported me for nearly a decade.â
The premiere of Meghanâs Netflix series comes 10 years after the launch of her lifestyle blog, The Tig, that began while she was filming Suits, which highlighted her favorite food, travel, and personal experiences. However, as she began her public relationship with Harry, she shut the website down and deleted her personal social media account.
Meghan Markle/Instagram
It was a decision that was tough but was worth it for her love as she stepped into royal life following their wedding in 2018.
âWell, I loved The Tig, but I certainly love my husband more,â Meghanâwho stepped back from royal duties alongside Harry in 2020âsaid in an interview with People published March 3. âSo that was a choice I made at the time, and I wouldnât change that for a second.â
As she begins her latest chapter, Meghan said that Harry, 40, has been fully supportive as he watches her make her way back into the space that she was passionate about.
âMy husband met me when I had The Tig,â she said. âAnd I see this spark in his eye when he sees me doing the thing that I was doing when he first met me.â
And for Meghan, her family serves as the purpose as she begins to build her new brand with the hopes that it will inspire her children, especially her daughter, to do what they love.
âBeing able to have my own little girl, as Iâve spent so much of my life championing the rights of girls and women, and to be able to see this as a multigenerational storyâArchie is of course included in thatâmy husband is of course included in that,â she told People. âBut I love the heritage feeling of it and knowing this is something that I can create in front of my daughter and teach her what itâs like to be a working mom. This is something that hopefully can be part of her legacy too.âÂ
Keep reading to see more of Meghan and Harryâs life with their childrenâŚ
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Uncle Harry
"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."
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Planning 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 seasonâwhich, at the time, felt like such a milestoneâI 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."
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Waiting for That Special Someone
Fatherhood is a subject thatâalong with marriageâhas 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.Â
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Looking Towards the Future
In 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.
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Joys of Motherhood
"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."
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Proud 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."
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Changed for Good
Harry 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 thatâfor that personâyou 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."
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Doting 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."
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Archie's Firsts
Harry 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."
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Awaiting Her Baby Girl's Arrival
In 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."
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Raising the Future
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."
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Party 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."
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Book Worms
On 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."
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Reflecting 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)."
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Screen 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."
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Raising Kids in the Digital Age
Meghan admitted she was concerned for herâand everybody else'sâkids in the age of social media.
"Being a mom is the most important thing in my entire lifeâoutside, 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."
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My Mother, My Mirror
"Our daughter, Lili, she's much, much tinier than you guys," Meghan told a class of kindergarteners during a May 2024 visit to Lightway Academy in Abuja, Nigeria. "She's about to turn 3. 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," Meghan added. "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.'"Â
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