Duchess Meghan Recalls Attending Queen Elizabeth's Funeral Without Archie and Lili

Ever since the release of the explosive docuseries Harry & Meghan, Duchess Meghan tends to stay mum about her time as a senior member of the British royal family. But in Season 2 of With Love, Meghan, she opens up about a tough moment she had when leaving her kids to reunite with the royals at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022—two years after she and Prince Harry stepped away from their roles.

The emotional memory comes up on episode three, when Meghan invites Queer Eye star Tan France to cook and spend the day with her.

Speaking of motherhood, Meghan—who shares Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, with Harry—says, “It’s better than I ever expected.” France is also a parent, sharing sons Ismail, 4, and Isaac, 2, with his husband, Rob France.

France speaks to Meghan about wanting to keep his children little, as they are now, and with him forever. “You know what’s funny? When parents are like, ‘Oh, I just can’t wait for them to go to college and be out,’ I’m like, I never want my children to leave,” he says. “They’re not allowed to get married. Not allowed to leave my house.”

Meghan agrees, saying, “I’ll miss them so much. You want to be the parent who’s like, Yes, go do it. Go do your thing. Go live that life. But I’m going to miss you so much.”

France continues, “I might die without my kids. I need my boys. If I don’t see them for a couple of days, I feel like my heart is broken.”

with love, meghan. (l to r) tan france, meghan, duchess of sussex in episode 203 of with love, meghan. cr. jake rosenberg/netflix © 2025

Meghan then recalls a time—when she and Harry flew to London for his grandmother’s funeral—when she had to be apart from her little ones. She says: “Oh I know. The longest I went without being around our kids was almost three weeks. I was...not well.”

At that time, Archie was just 3 and Lili was 15 months old.

The Duke & Duchess Of Sussex Pose With Their Newborn Son

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had already been in Europe without their children, visiting Manchester and Germany for charity events, when the queen suddenly fell ill and the Sussexes took a detour to the U.K. In total, they were away from their children for 17 days.

Harry spoke of the moment in his 2023 tell-all memoir, Spare. “Our quick trip would now be an odyssey. Another ten days, at least. Difficult days at that,” he wrote. “More, we’d have to be away from the children for longer than we’d planned, longer than we’d ever been.”

Prince William, Princess Catherine, Prince Harry, and Duchess Meghan at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on September 14, 2022.