Aurora Starchild
Meghan Markle has a terrifying story about her son’s nursery catching fire. On her first Archetypes podcast episode, the actress and royal opened up about the experience. Call it bad luck or good luck, either way her infant happened to be strapped to his nanny’s back at the time. Evidently, that is what saved his life.
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Markle was speaking to her friend and legendary tennis player Serena Williams. On the topic of motherhood, the Duchess of Sussex revealed how the close call occurred. She, Prince Harry, and their then 4 ½ month-old son, Archie, were visiting South Africa in 2019.
The royal couple had a diplomatic obligation to be somewhere at the time, leaving their baby with his nanny.
Baby Archie Was Supposed To Be Sleeping In The Room That Caught Fire
“He was going to get ready to go down for his nap,” Markle said. “We immediately went to an official engagement in this township called Nyanga, and there was this moment where I’m standing on a tree stump and I’m giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say, ‘There’s been a fire at the residence.’ What? ‘There’s been a fire in the baby’s room.’ What?”
Luckily, Archie’s nanny, Lauren, was from Zimbabwe. Hence, she had the cultural know-how and practice of strapping Archie onto her back with a cloth.
Markle continued, “She was supposed to put Archie down for his nap, and she just said, ‘You know what? Let me just go get a snack downstairs.’ And she was from Zimbabwe, and we loved that she would always tie him on her, her back with a mud cloth, and her instinct was like, ‘Let me just bring him with me before I put him down.’ In that amount of time that she went downstairs, the heater in the nursery caught on fire. There was no smoke detector. Someone happened to just smell smoke down the hallway went in, fire extinguished.”
When the royals received the news of the fire, the Duchess had just given a speech and gotten in a car with Harry. They were told that there was a fire. But as it happened, be it luck, grace, or something else, he was safe.
Meghan Markle’s New Podcast Reclaims Women’s Identities
Archetypes is Meghan Markle’s new podcast and it’s available on Spotify. It’s all about debunking and demystifying womanhood, misogyny, and the reclaiming of women’s identities. Considering all of the bad publicity Markle’s been receiving from her latest biography, it’s come at the perfect time.
Listen to the first episode by clicking here.
