Carson Daly welcomes Meghan Markle onstage during a summit on mental health.Photo:Bryan Bedder/Getty
Bryan Bedder/Getty
While attending events in New York City with husbandPrince Harryfor World Mental Health Day,Meghan Marklewas all about the hugs.
According toCarson Daly, theTodayco-host who moderated a discussion with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during their Archewell Foundation summit about navigating mental health challenges online on Tuesday, Meghan, 42, preferred the warm greeting over any sort of formal protocol.
“One of the main events was a special conversation that I shared with the Duke and Duchess, Harry and Meghan, about how to build a safer space online for our kids and teenagers,” Daly toldToday’s Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker and Craig Melvin Wednesday morning,while recapping the previous day’s events.
Carson Daly and Meghan Markle in discussion during a summit on mental health.Bryan Bedder/Getty
The day prior, Daly sat down with the royals and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as theyengaged in an emotional discussionabout parenting in today’s digital age. During the summit, Meghan and Harry, 39, highlighted their roles as parents to son Prince Archie, 4, and Princess Lilibet, 2.
At one point, Harry spoke about being a father and finding ways to support each other. “I think for us, for myself and my wife, with kids growing up in a digital age, the priority here is to again turn pain into purpose and provide as much support as well as a spotlight and a platform for these parents to come together, to heal, to grieve and to also collectively focus on solutions so that no other family anywhere has to go through what they’ve been through,” he said.
The panel ended with Daly asking Meghan, “As a mom of two young kids, after the stories that we heard today from these families that you’ve gotten to know over the past year and the work that Archewell is doing in this space, where is this on the priority list, not as a kick-ass woman, but as a mom? Excuse my French!”
“Being a mom is the most important thing in my entire life — outside, of course, being a wife to this one,” Meghan responded, while gesturing to Harry. She added: “But I will say I feel fortunate that our children are at an age, again quite young, so this isn’t in our immediate future, but I also feel frightened at how it’s continuing to change and this will be in front of us.”
Meghan and Harry received a standing ovation following the panel. The two then shared hugs with Daly and Murthy as they made their way offstage.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry onstage at a summit for mental health.Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
In addition to the summit — titled The Archewell Foundation Parents’ Summit: Mental Wellness in a Digital Age — Meghan and Harrymade a surprise visitto The Marcy Lab School in Brooklyn. There, the Duchess of Sussex wasphotographed sharing hugswith students during their tour of the school and roundtable with alumni.
Before heading out, Megan posed for photos with some of the young women and was then heard telling a staff member, “It takes a village and you’re raising an incredible village here.”
“They were so cool and down to earth,” Reuben Ogbonna, a teacher at the school, told PEOPLE following the event, while current student, Ashley Tucker, added, “Both Harry and Meghan came into our classroom and were really engaging with us and interested in what we had to say about the program.”
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Uplifting communities, building a better online world and restoring trust in information are the key pillars of the Archewell Foundation, which Prince Harry and Meghan launched in 2020. The non-profit organization operates with the core belief that mental health and collective well-being is paramount and approaches all philanthropic work through this lens.
In addition to their summit in N.Y.C. on Tuesday, Harry and Meghan have supported World Mental Health Day in many ways over the past few years. In 2020, the couple joined the Teenager Therapy podcast and spoke to five senior students at an Anaheim, California, high school about prioritizing mental health. The appearance came after the couple relocated to Meghan’s home state, following their step back from their royal duties in the U.K.
source: people.com
