{"id":494798,"date":"2026-05-20T21:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/494798\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T21:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:57:13","slug":"meghan-markles-secret-stop-in-the-uk-revealed-as-duchess-of-sussex-made-rare-trip-to-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/494798\/","title":{"rendered":"Meghan Markle&#8217;s secret stop in the UK revealed as Duchess of Sussex made rare trip to London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Meghan Markle made a secret appearance on British soil this Monday, travelling through London as part of her journey home from Switzerland to California.<\/p>\n<p>The Duchess of Sussex, 44, had attended the World Health Organisation&#8217;s 79th World Health Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva&#8217;s Place des Nations on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The stopover in the capital marked her first known time in the UK since reportedly passing through Heathrow in July 2024 during a trip to Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>Her last official visit to Britain was in September 2022 for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"90057\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"2aff77053113a8bb51dc632e889b131b\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%202000%202593'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779314231_853_meghan-markle.jpg\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2593\" alt=\"Meghan Markle\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Meghan Markle made a secret appearance on British soil this Monday, travelling through London as part of her journey home from Switzerland to California.<\/p>\n<p> | <\/p>\n<p>GETTY<\/p>\n<p>The brief London connection came just two days ahead of her eighth wedding anniversary with Prince Harry.<\/p>\n<p>Cabin crew aboard her British Airways flight marked the occasion by surprising the Duchess with a heartfelt card and presents for the couple.<\/p>\n<p>The handwritten note read: &#8220;Dearest Harry and Meghan, Wishing you a wonderful wedding anniversary, With love, The whole British Airways family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A source close to Meghan told People magazine: &#8220;They all came to say happy anniversary and shared their memories of where they were on the day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey wrote Harry and Meghan a card and gave them a bottle of champagne and British candies for Harry and the kids.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"ecdb6\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"c7528e368431e070305fc70a9c208d12\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%202000%201333'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779314232_853_meghan-markle.jpg\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Meghan Markle\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Duchess of Sussex, 44, had attended the World Health Organisation&#8217;s 79th World Health Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva&#8217;s Place des Nations on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p> | <\/p>\n<p>GETTY<\/p>\n<p>The Duchess of Sussex posted the gesture to her Instagram Stories, writing: &#8220;Thanks to this amazing flight crew for all the love yesterday! Appreciate all your memories and kind words.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The flight, designated BA 269, departed from London at 15:31 on Monday, running 26 minutes behind schedule, before touching down in Los Angeles at 19:25 local time.<\/p>\n<p>This routing meant the mother-of-two spent a period in the British capital during her homeward journey from Geneva.<\/p>\n<p>The duration of her time at Heathrow remains unknown, as does whether she ventured anywhere else in London.<\/p>\n<p>The choice of a London connection also raises questions, given that alternative routes through Frankfurt, Paris or Barcelona would have been available for the transatlantic leg of her trip.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"8accf\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"849455a8e9dfc2cae1205460b6909032\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20900%201500'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/meghan-markle.png\" width=\"900\" height=\"1500\" alt=\"Meghan Markle\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The card from crew members was dated May 18 and marked with the flight number.<\/p>\n<p> | <\/p>\n<p>INSTAGRAM<\/p>\n<p>The card from crew members was dated May 18 and marked with the flight number.<\/p>\n<p>The source close to the Duchess of Sussex added that the gesture was &#8220;very special and so appreciated by Meghan, who wanted to publicly thank them. She was truly so touched.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Prince Harry has previously stated that bringing his family to Britain poses safety risks without full-time armed police protection.<\/p>\n<p>The Duke and Duchess lost their publicly funded security detail, which is provided to all senior members of the Royal Family, after they chose to relinquish their official royal roles.<\/p>\n<p>This security arrangement has remained a point of contention, with Harry maintaining that adequate protection is essential before his wife and children can safely visit the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meghan Markle made a secret appearance on British soil this Monday, travelling through London as part of her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,19,17,5091,21827],"class_list":["post-494798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-meghan-markle","tag-royal"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116609145064111025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}