Meghan’s rare visit to the UK: Duchess reveals she stopped off at Heathrow airport on way back to LA from Geneva
Meghan Markle announced she was making a rare visit to the UK on her return trip from Geneva to Los Angeles on Monday.
The Duchess of Sussex, 44, last officially visited England in 2022, with the late Queen Elizabeth II. He visited Elizabeth on the date of her death. According to reports at the time, while visiting Nigeria in July 2024, he also traveled via Heathrow and spent several hours at the prestigious Windsor Suite.
Meghan was in Switzerland on Sunday to give a speech on children’s online safety at the World Health Organization’s 79th World Health Assembly.
Her visit comes two days before her eighth wedding anniversary to Prince Harry, which she celebrated extensively with a series of unseen photos from their Windsor wedding on Instagram yesterday.
Alongside the Union Jack emoji, she also shared a picture of a handwritten card she received from BA staff, writing: ‘Thanks to these amazing flight crew for the love yesterday! Thank you for all your memories and kind words.’
The card read: ‘Dear Harry and Meghan, We wish you a wonderful wedding anniversary, With love, The whole British Airways family.’
Meghan’s flight BA269 from London took off at 15:31, 26 minutes later than expected, and arrived in Los Angeles at 19:25.
It is unclear how long he spent at Heathrow after flying out of Geneva on Monday morning.
There are no direct flights from Geneva to Los Angeles, but one could also choose to travel via Frankfurt, Paris or Barcelona.
The Duchess of Sussex (pictured), 44, was in Switzerland on Sunday for the 79th World Health Assembly, held at the World Health Organization’s headquarters in the United Nations’ Place des Nations.
Her visit came just two days before her eighth wedding anniversary to Prince Harry, and to mark the occasion, the flight crew presented her with a sweet card (pictured) and gifts on her return trip to the States on Monday.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex celebrate their wedding anniversary this week
Prince Harry has previously said it is not safe to bring his family to the UK unless he is provided with full-time armed police protection.
Official police protection, funded from the public purse, for all senior royals has been stripped of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after they decided to step down from royal duties.
As a result, their children Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 4, have not seen their grandfather the King since February 2022, when they visited the UK as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
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Last year Harry lost a legal bid to have his protection reviewed, accusing the Royal Household of thinly veiled comments that he was the victim of ‘good old-fashioned establishment stitching’.
Since Harry and Meghan’s departure from the UK in 2020, when the Metropolitan Police stopped providing security for the couple, they have been responsible for their own security, including 24-hour security at their property in Montecito, California, and security for their overseas visits.
Meanwhile, a source close to the Duchess said: PEOPLE magazine: ‘Meghan’s flight crew was so sweet on their flight back from Geneva.
‘They all came to celebrate the anniversary and share their memories of where they were that day. They wrote a card to Harry and Meghan and gave them a bottle of champagne and English candies for Harry and the children.
‘This was very special and much appreciated by Meghan, who wanted to thank them publicly. He was really impressed.”
Meghan celebrated her eighth wedding anniversary by sharing a collection of never-before-seen photos from her big day on Instagram.
“Eight years ago today…” he captioned two posts; one of them included a look at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s first dance at their evening reception at Frogmore House, where they shared a passionate kiss in some photos.
The second post revealed images from Meghan and Harry’s wedding at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, watched by an estimated 1.9 billion people and attended by stars including Oprah Winfrey, Sir David Beckham and George Clooney.
But the photos included Sir Elton John, who performed on their special day, and Isabel May, a British PR executive and Meghan’s close longtime confidant.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the rift between the Sussexes and the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Royal Family was nowhere to be seen in the wedding photos – apart from a glimpse of King Charles’ back as his bride walked down the aisle.
Meghan celebrated her eighth wedding anniversary with Harry on Tuesday and shared a collection of never-before-seen photos from their big day on Instagram.
Celebrating eight years since the big day, the Duke of Sussex offered his wife a wedding cake
Celebrating their eighth wedding anniversary, Meghan later shared a sweet video of Harry handing out a cake and gifting her a penguin statue.
Meghan showed off a selfie from her engagement party where they wore penguin onesies
Instead, Isabel was the only guest in the photo with Harry embracing, while Meghan could be seen chatting with her mother Doria Ragland, who was partially out of frame.
In addition to the newlyweds sharing a sweet moment together after their wedding, behind-the-scenes photos of the couple’s official wedding portraits were also taken from the ceremony.
There was also footage of the duchess wearing a bespoke dress by Givenchy’s Clare Waight Keller and looking on proudly as Harry toasted.
Further celebrating their eighth wedding anniversary, Meghan later shared a sweet video of Harry handing out a cake and gifting her a penguin statue.
A story on Instagram showed the Duchess singing “happy birthday” to her husband in the kitchen and serving him a lemon elderflower dessert with four candles on top, inspired by wedding cakes.
The couple’s children, Archie and Lilibet, could be heard singing excitedly in the background. The Duke, wearing gray tracksuit bottoms and a blue polo shirt, helped extinguish the candles before Meghan told him ‘I love you’.
Meghan also revealed that Harry gifted her a statue depicting two penguins arm in arm to celebrate their special day. The gift is a nod to the time they wore penguin costumes at their engagement party.
The former actress could be heard screaming as she unwrapped the unique gift, while Harry laughed in the background. ‘Oh my God,’ Meghan said, before reading the card written by the Duke and addressed to ‘the one’.
Meghan and Harry celebrated their wedding anniversary by celebrating eight years since they were married at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle (pictured)
The card said: ‘When Mum and Dad got engaged we threw a party with all our friends and said everyone had to wear animal onesies and we were penguins.’
Reacting to the note, Meghan enthused: ‘We are penguins because we are together for life.’
She also posted a photo online of the couple kissing in the kitchen as they picked up the cake, before showing off a selfie from their engagement party in which they wore penguin onesies.
