Meghan Markle opens up on dash back home during US tour

Meghan Markle spoke at a summit in Washington DC (Image: Getty)

Meghan Markle said that she flew back home to Montecito, California, from Europe just for just one day before heading to New York and Washington D.C, because she needed to see her "babies". The Duchess of Sussex has had a busy couple of weeks, first making a surprise solo appearance in France to attend Balenciaga's show, before making a string of appearances last week with her husband, Prince Harry, in New York.

On Tuesday, Meghan travelled to Washington, D.C to speak at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit. There, she revealed that she made a 6,000-mile dash home for a brief reunion with Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, the week before, instead of heading straight to the Big Apple.

Alyson Shontell, Editor-in-Chief of Fortune, said to the Duchess: "You've been to Europe. You were just in New York, which, congratulations, you just won a humanitarian award for your work with online safety for parents and children, and you made it home for one day to see your kids."

Meghan Markle was in France earlier this month (Image: Getty)

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Meghan laughed and replied: "Because I had to. We were talking about that because everyone said 'Oh you must have gone from Paris straight to New York'.

"I said 'No, I need to see my babies'. So I went back to California for a day and then continued on."

Meghan also described how she and Harry had "no plan" when they first moved to California after Megxit five years ago, except "nesting and healing".

"I think five years ago was a very different situation for all of us," she said. "And you know, Archie was so little, and I had just got pregnant with Lili around that same time, so we were nesting - nesting and healing.

"And also, I don't know I had the bandwidth at that time to think about what the big picture dream was. There was no plan.

"It was just, let's get through these next couple of years, create community, which was always so important to both of us in our new environment."

She described how she would spend time "in Birkenstocks and sweats" and make a lot of jam.

Speaking about the founding of her As Ever business, Meghan said people assumed she would venture into fashion or beauty, and added: "But those five years at home, I wasn't running around wearing beautiful outfits.

"I was probably in Birkenstocks and sweats like the rest of us, especially during Covid, or just barefoot at home, but I was making a lot of jam, so it ended up becoming the thing that really was my passion project."