Meghan Markle reveals how fire broke out in Archie's bedroom during royal tour

24 August 2022, 11:16 | Updated: 24 August 2022, 15:56

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were out on a royal engagement when they heard about the fire. Picture: Getty

By Alice Dear

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex continued with the tour of South Africa despite the traumatic event.

Meghan Markle, 41, has revealed the terrifying moment she and Prince Harry found out there had been a fire in Archie's bedroom during their royal tour of South Africa back in 2019.

The Duchess of Sussex opened up on the incident in the first episode of her new podcast, Archetypes, titled The Misconception of Ambition with Serena Williams.

During the conversation with the tennis star, Meghan spoke about how on the first day of the highly-publicised tour, a fire broke out in Archie's bedroom.

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Meghan and Harry were at an engagement at the time the incident happened, and were expected to continue with the royal tour following the day of the fire, she claims.

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were on a tour of South Africa when the incident happened. Picture: Getty

She explained on the Spotify podcast: “There was this moment where I’m standing on a tree stump and I’m giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say: 'There’s been a fire at the residence'.

Meghan said that their nanny was meant to be putting Archie down for a nap at the time the fire happened, but she decided to keep him with her as she went downstairs to get a snack.

She explained: “She [the nanny] was supposed to put Archie down for his nap and she just said, ‘You know what? Let me just go and get a snack downstairs'.

“She was from Zimbabwe and we loved that she would always tie him on her back with a mud cloth. Her instinct was like, ‘Let me just bring him with me before I put him down.’”

Archie was with the nanny when the fire broke out, although he was suppose to be napping in the room . Picture: Getty

It was while they were downstairs that someone smelt the smoke down the hallway and the fire was extinguished.

She added: "He was supposed to be sleeping in there."

Meghan told Serena on the podcast: “Of course, as a mother, you go, ‘Oh, my God, what?’ Everyone’s in tears, everyone’s shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement.”

The Duchess added that she had said at the time that "it doesn't make sense" and questioned why they couldn't "just tell people what happened".

"So much, I think, optically, the focus ends up being on how it looks instead of how it feels,” she added.

Meghan said that even though they were moved to another place to stay, they still had to leave their baby and do another royal engagement, to which Serena said: “I couldn’t have done that.”