Meghan Markle recalled one of the scariest moments of her life as she spoke on her new Spotify podcast, “Archetypes.”
During the first episode of the podcast on Tuesday, Meghan revealed her son Archie’s nursery caught fire while they were on a royal tour of Africa in 2019.
“When we went on our tour to South Africa, we landed with Archie,” Meghan said via People. “Archie was what, four and a half months old. And the moment we landed, we had to drop him off at this housing unit that they had us staying in.”
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Meghan and Prince Harry went to an official engagement in the Nyanga township and left Archie at the housing unit in the care of a nanny.
“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.’ What? ‘There’s been a fire in the baby’s room.’ What?” she recalled.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex quickly returned to the residence and Meghan said their nanny Lauren was “in a floods of tears.”
“She was supposed to put Archie down for his nap, and she just said, ‘You know what? Let me just go get a snack downstairs.’ And she was from Zimbabwe, and we loved that she would always tie him on her, her back with a mud cloth, and her instinct was like, ‘Let me just bring him with me before I put him down.’ In that amount of time that she went downstairs, the heater in the nursery caught on fire. There was no smoke detector. Someone happened to just smell smoke down the hallway went in, fire extinguished,” Meghan said.
“He was supposed to be sleeping in there,” she added.
She's here ? Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex brings us a new podcast. Welcome to Archetypes https://t.co/6qNeebTGxQ pic.twitter.com/T9BvTkTAOS
— Spotify (@Spotify) August 23, 2022
Meghan shared the story while speaking with her good friend, tennis legend Serena Williams, for a conversation about ambition and their roles as mothers.
While she was shocked to learn about the fire, Meghan said she and Prince Harry had to quickly leave the location.
“And even though we were being moved to another place afterwards, we still had to leave him and go do another official engagement,” she said.
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Serena replied, “I couldn’t have done that. I would have said, ‘Uh-uh.’ ”
During their three-day African tour, the Sussexes took Archie to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town.
According to a press release from Spotify, “Archetypes” explores “labels that try to hold women back.” The 12-part podcast features interviews with celebrities and historians about stereotypes and the origins of negative words used to describe women such as “diva,” “slut,” “b-tch,” and “hysterical,” and addresses how to change the conversation.
Mariah Carey will be the next guest. “I can’t wait to chat with you again next week when we hear from the one and only… Mariah Carey!” Markle said at the end of the first episode.
According to published reports, future guests include actresses Mindy Kaling and Margaret Cho, comedian Amanda Seales and Nigerian-American comedian Ziwe Fumudoh.
The weekly podcast is part of an exclusive deal between Meghan and Harry’s Archewell Audio and Spotify.
Listen to the promo for the podcast below.
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