Meghan Markle Tells an Anecdote About Her Daughter Lili in Nigeria
On Friday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle touched down in Nigeria for a trip that continues Harry’s recent focus on the Invictus Games. At the invitation of Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Badaru, the country’s minister of defense, the couple will spend three days in the country meeting with service members and and attending related events.
Soon after debarking a British Airways flight, Meghan and Harry traveled to Lightway Academy, a school in capital city Abuja, for the kickoff of a mental health summit hosted by Geanco International, a charity that supports medical care and education in Nigeria. In 2023, Meghan and Harry’s foundation, Archewell, worked with Geanco to provide school supplies and menstrual products to more than 2,500 girls.
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Though the couple are touring Nigeria without their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, the duchess mentioned both children during the events at the school “Our son Archie’s five. He turned five last week,” Meghan said, according to Town & Country, referring to Archie’s May 6 birthday.
In her onstage remarks, meanwhile, Meghan told a story about Lili. “Our daughter, Lili—she’s much, much tinier than you guys. She’s about to turn three,” Meghan said. “A few weeks ago she looked at me, and she would just see the reflection in my eyes. And she [said,] ‘Mama, I see me in you.’ Oh, now she was talking really, literally. But I hung onto those words in a very different way. And I thought, yes, I do see me and you, and you see me and you, but as I look around this room, I see myself in all of you as well.”
People reports that the agenda for the rest of Meghan and Harry’s time in Nigeria includes a meeting with the minister of defense’s staff, a trip to a military hospital to meet recently injured soldiers, and a training session with Nigeria: Unconquered, the local organization which works with the Invictus Foundation. On Saturday, Meghan will also co-host a Women in Leadership event with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the World Trade Organization’s director general.
The invitation for the trip was extended after Badaru met Harry and Meghan at the 2023 Invictus Games held in Düsseldorf, where Nigeria sent its first team of competitors. In a statement announcing the trip, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense said that Badaru also expressed interest in hosting a future iteration of the Games in his country.