Meghan: Spending nearly three weeks away from Lili and Archie left me 'not well'

The Duchess of Sussex has revealed how spending nearly three weeks away from her children left her “not well”.

Meghan, in the second season of her Netflix show With Love, Meghan, did not elaborate on dates, but there will be speculation she was referring to when the Sussexes unexpectedly remained in the UK due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.

In the new eight-episode series of her lifestyle and cooking show, which was released on Tuesday, Meghan opens up about what she misses most about the UK, confesses she dislikes baking, and tells how she produced a “truly terrible” roast chicken on the night Harry asked her to marry him.

The Telegraph gave it a two-star rating, the same as season one, and described the duke as “conspicuously absent”, asking: “Has she got Harry locked in the pantry?”

It said the series was “marginally less mad than the first” but with Meghan “more needy” and the output offering “more tone-deafness from the Montecito Marie Antoinette”.

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The former Suits star sympathises with Queer Eye star Tan France, who explains he gets heartbroken if away from his two young children for more than a couple of days, as she discusses her own separation from Archie and Lili.

A serious-looking Meghan replies, nodding and looking up at the ceiling: “Oh I know. The longest I went without being around our kids was almost three weeks.”

“I was,” she says before pausing “…not well.”

The duke wrote in his memoir Spare of the “difficult days” after the Queen’s death, how he and Meghan were separated from Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet for “longer than we’d ever been”, and when they reunited in California “for days and days we couldn’t stop hugging the children, couldn’t let them out of our sight”.

The King and the royal family were mourning the loss of Elizabeth II, the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, in September 2022, against the backdrop of a troubled relationship with Harry and Meghan.

Harry said later in an ITV interview that there was a “really horrible reaction from my family members” when the Queen died, with “the briefings and the leakings and the planting”.

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He flew solo to Balmoral, in a last-minute dash to try to see his grandmother before she died, after his brother the now-Prince of Wales ignored his texts, but Meghan remained in Windsor after the now-King asked Harry not to bring his wife to Scotland, he claimed in his autobiography.

The Sussexes had left Archie, then three, and one-year-old Lili, being cared for by Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland in LA, after travelling to Manchester for a One World Summit on September 5 2022, before heading to Dusseldorf for an Invictus event and then returning to London.

They ended up having to extend their stay when Harry’s grandmother died on September 8, remaining to make various public appearances including greeting mourners with William and the Princess of Wales at Windsor despite the brothers’ rift, and attending the September 19 funeral.

The duchess, who moved her family to the US five years ago after stepping down from the working monarchy, also tells France it is the easy listening radio station, Magic FM, that she pines for most from the UK.

“Honestly one of the things I miss the most about the UK is the radio station called Magic,” says Meghan, who originally planned to apply for British citizenship after marrying Harry.

France quips: “Magic FM. Wow! Now sorry to say this to you publicly, but that’s such a grandma station.”

A laughing Meghan replies: “I’ll be that grandma”. Magic FM declined to comment.

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With Love, Meghan follows the same format as its critically-savaged first series, with the duchess cooking and crafting with friends including US model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen, podcaster Jay Shetty and his cookbook author wife Radhi Devlukia, and chefs Samin Nosrat, Clare Smyth, Christina Tosi, Jose Andres and David Chang.

Meghan, who is listed as an executive producer of the show, makes homemade versions of McDonald’s hot apple pies, the American cheese crackers Cheez-Its and salt and vinegar crisps, and serves up a beverages such as a “lavender grey latte” made from earl grey tea, lavender, and frothy honey and vanilla milk.

She says she would treat herself to a drive-through apple pie from McDonald’s if an acting audition went well, and that cooking and food is “so sentimental and meaningful”.

There are also insights into her family life, but no in-person appearances from Harry, Archie or Lili – unlike the last series when the duke was filmed celebrating with Meghan at a party in the final episode.

Harry is shown only in photographs – including dancing with Meghan at their wedding reception and meeting chef Smyth, who catered the couple’s Frogmore House evening celebration, off screen.

The duchess reveals her children “really want a cat”, although her expression suggests she is yet to be convinced, that her daughter is a fan of pink – “there’s a lot of pink in my house” – and likes chia seeds on her pancakes, while Archie is “the most tender, sweet, adorable child of all time”.

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It was Harry who first told that he loved her and she fell in love with him on their third date while camping in Botswana, Meghan says, while also revealing the duke dislikes both lobster and cinnamon.

Asked by France who said I love you first, Meghan says: “He told me,” before blushing and flicking her ponytail with her hand and saying: “She’s still got it.”

Of the chicken she cooked during night he proposed in 2017, the duchess admits: “I will say when I made a roast chicken for my now-husband I was still having a lot of challenges with the conversion of Celsius and Fahrenheit. I made a horrible chicken that night. I mean truly terrible.”

Sharing her “by-heart” recipe, Meghan’s top tip is lifting the skin off the bird and putting butter underneath to get it extra crispy and she cooks her large chicken at 22OC for an hour.

Craft demonstrations include creating resin flower necklaces for her children, with the blooms picked to celebrate their birth months – hawthorn and lily of the valley for Archie who was born in May and roses for Lili who has a June birthday.

Meghan even makes one for her now-late dog Guy, who is shown wearing a forget-me-not pendant on his ribboned collar.

The necklace activity causes some difficulties for American TV star Teigen, who reveals she does not know her four children’s birthdays and has a tattoo on her arm to remind her, which she has trouble reading, and calls to husband, singer John Legend, who is behind the scenes, to help.

Meghan, looking a little surprised, chuckles and remarks: “It’s a little bit blurry. It’s all right. You’ve got a husband and a tattoo to help you stay on top of all the things.”

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After collecting flowers for the project, the duchess is heard laughing as Teigen declares: “See – I just buy these on Amazon.”

In episode three, stylist and presenter France tells the duchess that her flower sprinkles, sold through As Ever and used liberally throughout the show, are “the gayest shit I’ve seen in a long time”, with the word shit bleeped out, and the remark making Meghan burst out laughing.

Meanwhile, the duchess uses the phrase “moving meditation” twice to refer to methods of creating calm, and also tells another guest: “I’m thinking about putting each of us in our comfort zone and out of comfort zone. So I thought we’d begin with flower arranging.”

She also admits to chef Christina Tosi as they make graham crackers (digestives) for S’mores: “Usually, I don’t like baking because it’s so measured.”

Meghan’s As Ever range, launched in March, however, includes ready-made shortbread cookies and crepe mixes with pre-measured amounts.

Later, Meghan says: “I love the idea of being able to rethink baking to be just a little more spontaneous”.

The duchess also joins friend and pilates instructor Heather Dorak for a pottery class, getting her hands covered in clay while still wearing Diana, Princess of Wales’s famous Cartier watch.

And she visits a bookstore to collect “a very nice assortment” of children’s books, which includes a copy of her own illustrated 2021 work The Bench, as a present for France’s youngsters.

The second series has premiered two weeks after Harry and Meghan announced a watered-down deal with the streaming giant Netflix.

They have signed a “multi-year, first-look deal for film and television projects”, in contrast to their reported $100m (£74m) contract five years ago.

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