Meghan Markle has insisted she and her husband Prince Harry are ‘really happy’ and ‘doing great’ while ‘watching our family grow up and evolve’.
The Duchess of Sussex spoke about her joy during the couple’s three-day trip to Nigeria last week as they raise children Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, two.
Meghan, 42, told People magazine: ‘We’re just doing great. And happy to be watching our family grow up and evolve. Of course, I’m happy. We’re really happy.’
She also described the tour as ‘really meaningful’, saying such trips were ‘about us being able to go out and go and focus on the things that mean so much to us’.
And Harry added: ‘You know what Africa means to me over the years. It is a very, very special place, and to be able to include Nigeria now, I’m very happy.’
Sources close to the Sussexes also insisted the tour between last Friday and Sunday was not intended to highlight any perceived gaps in the Royal Family’s workload.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the Lagos State Governor’s House in Nigeria last Sunday
Meghan smiles as she receives flowers during a sitting volleyball match in Abuja last Saturday
Prince Harry and Meghan during their tour of Nigeria as they visited Abuja last Saturday
Royal tours abroad have become rarer in recent months given that Harry’s father King Charles and sister-in-law Kate are both undergoing treatment for cancer, which has also led to his brother Prince William scaling back his number of engagements.
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Meghan’s positive outlook is in stark contrast to how she has previously described struggling before stepping down with Harry as a working royal in 2020.
The Duchess told Oprah Winfrey in 2021 that her life as a British royal was so isolating and lonely that at one point she ‘didn’t want to be alive anymore’.
She also claimed during the bombshell interview that the Royal Family did not get her the help she required at the time, and spoke about claims of racism.
The late Queen Elizabeth II then issued a famous statement which declared that ‘some recollections may vary’ but that the Sussexes ‘will always be much-loved family members’.
Harry and Meghan spoke to People during their tour of Nigeria which saw them visit Lagos and Abuja during a three-day trip at the military’s invitation.
The tour was intended to promote mental health for soldiers and empower young people – and the couple attended events related to Harry’s Invictus Games, which Nigeria is seeking to host in future.
Meghan helps take a selfie as Harry watches at the Wuse Lightway Academy in Abuja last week
Meghan Markle attends a lunch with military officials in Abuja during last week’s Nigeria tour
Prince Harry and Meghan at the Dream Big Basketball Clinic in Lagos, Nigeria, last Sunday
The Sussexes were also welcomed at the Lagos State Government House and met military officials at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja.
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Meanwhile the couple’s Archewell Foundation is now no longer listed as ‘delinquent’ by California’s Registry of Charities and Fundraisers.
On Monday the charity was listed as ‘delinquent’ and a delinquency notice letter was sent to the foundation on May 3 for ‘failing to submit required annual report(s) and/or renewal fees’, but on Tuesday the status of Archewell Foundation had been changed to ‘current’.
The letter had warned that an organisation listed as delinquent is banned from ‘soliciting or disbursing charitable funds’ and ‘its registration may be suspended or revoked by the registry’.
But last night, a statement from California’s Department of Justice said the Archewell Foundation is ‘current and in good standing’.
The issue is understood to have arisen from a payment which was thought to have been sent but was said to have not been received. However, new records show the required payment was sent last year and was delivered on schedule.
The Archewell Foundation said after investigating that it found payments were made ‘promptly’ and all paperwork was filed ‘without error or wrongdoing’.