Meghan says ‘I needed to see my babies’ as she tells of Archie and Lili reunion

The Duchess of Sussex has said she flew home to California from Europe for just one day before heading to New York, because she needed to see her “babies”.

Meghan travelled solo to Paris for the Balenciaga show on October 4, ahead of a string of appearances last week with the Duke of Sussex in New York.

In Washington DC for Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, Meghan said she made a 6,000-mile dash home for a brief reunion with Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, instead of heading straight to the Big Apple.

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.”