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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are happy after they have left the British royal family. “Harry loves” living in California: “We moved here during the lockdown, so we were able to spend a lot of time at home, creating a home. The lifestyle and the weather are good. We are just happy.” That’s what Markle told Ellen DeGeneres in an interview that aired on Thursday.
DeGeneres and Markle met about a decade ago at an animal shelter, where the host convinced her to adopt her first dog. The two told this on the seats of the iconic talk show, which is in its last season after controversy surrounding a toxic work atmosphere under DeGeneres.
The host and her wife Portia de Rossi have been friends with Markle and Prince Harry for several years. They are neighbors in Montecito, California, and recently celebrated Halloween together. “We wanted to do something fun for the kids, but they didn’t feel like it at all,” said Markle. They dressed up two-year-old Archie as a dinosaur, but it “took less than five minutes.” According to DeGeneres, Harry was eventually able to convince him to put on the dinosaur head. Lilibet was dressed as a skunk, “like Flower of Bambi”.
Her five-month-old daughter is teething, Markle said, to which DeGeneres suggested they use tequila to ease the pain. “That’s Aunt Ellen for you,” her neighbor responded.
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According to Markle, Archie loves being a big brother to Lilibet, and dancing just like his mother. Markle also said she loves to cook, and planned to make a feast for Thanksgiving. “We’re going to be home and relax. It’s our second Thanksgiving home in California, so it’s going to be fun.” To which DeGeneres invited himself.
Markle shared how she kept her relationship with Harry a secret at first, revealing that they used a Halloween party in 2016 to go out incognito for the last time before the whole world would know they were a couple. Harry was visiting Toronto, Canada, with his cousin Princess Eugenie and her partner Jack Brooksbank. “The four of us in Halloween costumes slipped into town. It was a post-apocalyptic theme. So we all wore really weird costumes and were able to have one last fun night out.”
Hair like Krusty the Clown
Harry and Meghan have been married for over three years now. According to Markle, she wrote her recently released children’s book The Bench originally as a poem for her husband for Father’s Day. “It was about my observation of him and him as a father, which was the most beautiful thing to see.”
But once it was shared with some close friends, they said it appealed to them too, because it was inclusive and had representation in it. “It’s just a sweet love story of a family.” Thus the idea was born to publish it as a children’s book. “I assured that all aspects, especially the softer side of masculinity and fatherhood, were there, and that everyone felt like they can see themselves in these pages. Because as a little girl I remember you didn’t always see someone who looked like you.”
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DeGeneres also showed a page of the booklet Markle once wrote as a school assignment, for which she drew herself with a luscious curly head. “I was ten or eleven years old and I really looked like this. I was obsessed with Andie MacDowell in Four weddings and a funeral and all I wanted was that perfect little curly haircut. And the first day it was fantastic and I looked like Andie MacDowell in Four weddings and a funeral, but it was like everyone forgot to tell me I had ethnic hair and wouldn’t look like her. So I ended up going to school and they said I looked like Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons. It was a real downer.”
Markle also shared that in elementary school, when she was about nine years old, she made and sold scrunchies. Now she felt herself in the pouch for a project around her. During the show, she donated $20,000 to a hairdresser who started a local non-profit organization to help girls, including braiding the hair of schoolgirls who can’t afford it for free.
Markle also once again championed paid parental leave in the US. According to her, it is crucial, in the first weeks and months, that a family can be together. “I will do everything I can to ensure this is implemented.”
Embarrassing assignments
Her appearance on the talk show was anything but Markle’s first time on the Warner Brothers site. She told the studio that she used to come often, to audition as an actress. Everything was a lot less glamorous back then. For example, she drove a “very, very old” Ford Explorer Sport, whose key sometimes did not work on the driver’s side. “In auditions, I would park in the back of the parking lot and then I would open the trunk and climb in, pull the lid closed behind me and climb over all the seats. That’s how I went in and out.”
Meghan Markle was allowed to bring out her acting talent for Ellen DeGeneres. According to the talk show host, the first thing Markle said when discussing an appearance on the show was that she wanted to do one of her hidden camera pranks. “Oh yes, I love that!” So she got an earpiece and had to follow embarrassing instructions at a market. From nibbling on a chip like a squirrel or claiming she had healing powers, to “I’m a kitten, meow, meow, meow” or “feeling hot, hot hot” singing and drinking milk from a baby bottle.
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