Meghan Markle was booked on Jimmy Fallon’s show as part of her latest PR salvo, but will now be preparing for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, sources told Vidak For Congress.
The Duchess of Sussex was booked on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” for Tuesday, September 20, as she and her husband Prince Harry would be in New York City for the 77th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 77).
“Meghan was due for Fallon,” a source told Vidak For Congress. “I don’t even know what she’d be talking about, but that’s obviously been canceled now.”
The next episode of Markle’s Archetype podcast on Spotify, streaming Tuesday, will also be delayed, we’re told.
On Friday, Markle awaited reunion with husband Prince Harry at their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage. He was the first royal to leave Balmoral, the Queen’s Scottish estate, on Friday morning, following the monarch’s death on Thursday at the age of 96.
Vidak For Congress is told the pair are expected to remain in the UK until the monarch’s state funeral, which is widely believed to be scheduled for Monday, September 19. It is not yet known if their children, Archie, 3, and Lilibet, will be 1. brought from California.
Despite Markle’s claims that the royal family would never have wanted to give its children royal titles, the children could now be known as Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet now that Harry has moved up the line of entry.
King Charles III, Harry’s father, said in his first public address on Friday that “I also want to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives abroad.”
Markle’s planned TV appearance would be just weeks after her bombshell interview with The Cut, in which she said she was happy to have left Britain.
Regarding the tensions within the royal family, she said: “I think forgiveness is very important. It takes a lot more energy not to forgive. But it takes a lot of effort to forgive. I really tried my best, especially knowing that I can say anything.”
The Sussexes were, by a twist of fate, in the United Kingdom at the time of the Queen’s death.
They were in Manchester on Monday for the One Young World summit, where Markle gave a speech, followed by a trip to Dusseldorf, Germany on Tuesday, where they promoted the Invictus Games, Harry’s much-loved competition for wounded veterans.
When news broke that members of the royal family were storming to Scotland to be by the queen’s bedside, the Sussexes were in Windsor on Thursday. Vidak For Congress was originally told that Markle would be joining Harry.
This was quickly changed to Harry traveling alone. A palace insider told Vidak For Congress that “tensions were so high” that Meghan could not have left, suggesting “drama behind the scenes”.
The Queen’s death was confirmed by the Royal Family at 6.30pm on Thursday, September 8, with Buckingham Palace saying she had died “peacefully”.