'SPECIAL MOMENTS'
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry talk of baby Archie’s ‘first steps, first run, first fall’ in call with Malala
PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle today spoke of baby Archie's "first steps, first run and first fall" in a video call with Malala Yousafzai.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex spoke with the activist to mark International Day Of The Girl today.
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And the couple revealed how they have been "spending time with our little one" when asked what they have been doing while in lockdown.
Harry, 35, said: "We were both there for his first steps, his first run, his first fall, his first everything."
Meghan, 39, added: "It's just fantastic because I think in so many ways we were fortunate to be able to have this time to watch him grow and in the absence of Covid we would be travelling and working more externally and we would miss a lot of those moment.
"So I think it's been a lot of really good family time."
She also revealed the couple are raising 18-month-old Archie "in a way where everything about his nourishment is about educational substance and how you can learn and how you can grow".
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The pair laughed as they joked about spending their time on "Zoom calls" in the pandemic.
But Harry added: "Those are really special moments [with Archie] but at the same time as Meghan says, we've been working really, really hard because we completely understand and get how challenging this is for absolutely everyone and I think the longer it goes on for, the more it's going to be felt, obviously, especially from a mental health aspect.
"So this is a really unifying moment to bring everybody together and acknowledge what everyone has been through. This traumatic experience wherever you are in the world."
The royal couple discussed the importance of girls' education in the current coronavirus crisis with Malala.
Malala, now 23, was just 15 when shot in the head by a Taliban gunman after campaigning for girls to be educated in her native Pakistan.
Meghan, who says she was the most trolled person on the planet last year, thanked Malala for helping girls get an education.
Malala was flown to a UK hospital after the attack and has lived here since.
Research by the Malala Fund suggests 20million secondary-age girls may never return to class following the coronavirus pandemic.
This is on top of the 130million girls were not in school before the global crisis.
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Meghan spoke about her own education, saying: "In terms of education, not only did I have the ability to go to school at a young age but I also went to university."
The Duchess looked chic in a high-neck, black sleeveless top and white trousers with her hair tied back.
She also wore a dark lipstick as she was joined by Harry from the living room of their £14million home in LA.
Harry said: "We do take it for granted and it is a privilege but every single person, every single child, every single young person needs an education.
"To know there's over 130 million girls out of education right now, before the pandemic, and the numbers are only going to go up, it worries me and it probably worries all of us, the effect that is going to have not just on the individual, but on the family, and community, for the country and the world at large."
Harry confessed to the schools campaigner that he never felt grateful for his £14,000-a-term education at Eton College at the time.
He added: "I'm hugely grateful for the education I was lucky enough to have, at the time I certainly probably wasn't as grateful, but looking back at it now, I'm very, very blessed with having such amazing options."
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Malala joked it takes boys "slightly longer" to understand the importance of education and made the couple laugh when she told Meghan she had a "great companion".
Meghan is an advocate for women's rights and gender equality and spoke at the UN Women Conference in 2015.
She also told in July about the importance of "building each other up" in a passionate speech at the virtual Girl Up Leadership Summit.
Meghan touched on her childhood in the video chat today, saying: "Having the privilege of being able to go to school is something that I think oftentimes is taken for granted.
"It's very difficult for a lot of people to recognise that just the ability to have a school book is a luxury for so many people, to have grown up where books were plentiful and I could whet my appetite and continue to learn when I was within the grounds of the school or when I was back home."
The chat comes after Meghan claimed she was the "most trolled person in the world" last year in a mental health podcast with Harry aired yesterday.
The royal couple joined Californian high school students on their 'Teenager Therapy' podcast to mark Mental Health Day.
Meghan said: "“I'm told that in 2019 I was the most trolled person in the entire world, male or female.
“Eight months of that I wasn’t even visible - I was on maternity leave or with a baby.
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“But what was able to be manufactured and churned out, it’s almost unsurvivable.
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"I don’t care if you’re 15 or you’re 25 - if people are saying things about you that aren’t true, what that does to your mental and emotional health is so damaging."
Harry and Meghan have been living in Santa Barbara with son Archie after quitting the royal family for the US.
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry talk to Malala about the importance of girls' education
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