The trio in a video shared on Miss Appiah’s Instagram page were spotted in hearty conversations as they beamed with smiles.

The actress revealed that, she met the couple over the weekend, and it was an honour for her.

Jackie met the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Delborough Hotel in Lagos, Nigeria.

 

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A post shared by Jackie Appiah (@jackieappiah)

The couple landed in Nigeria on Friday for a three-day private visit to the West African nation, during which they met with wounded soldiers and visited local charities.

The visit follows Nigeria’s membership in the Invictus community.

The Prince launched the Invictus Games, a sport event for military personnel wounded in action, in 2014.

Last year, Nigeria debuted at Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, winning gold and bronze medals and becoming the first African country to participate in the event.

Following the event in Dusseldorf, Germany, Nigeria’s Defence Minister, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar expressed interest in hosting the games.

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“The visit is to consolidate Nigeria’s stronghold at the [Invictus] game and the possibility of hosting the event [in] later years,” defence spokesperson Tukur Gusau said in a statement on Sunday.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a strong relationship with the West African country.

Last year, Nigeria debuted at Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, winning gold and bronze medals and becoming the first African country to participate in the event.

The prince launched the Invictus Games, a sport event for military personnel wounded in action, in 2014.

When Nigeria participated in the event in Dusseldorf, Germany, last year, Nigeria’s defence minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar expressed interest in hosting the games, Brig Gen Gusau said.

The exact date for Harry and Meghan’s visit is yet to be announced, but they will engage in various activities during the trip, including meeting military members and experiencing local cultural activities.

News of the visit has excited many in Nigeria, where Meghan has ancestral roots.

In 2022, the Duchess of Sussex said that genealogy tests had revealed she is 43% Nigerian.

“Nigeria welcomes our daughter!” one Nigerian said on X, formerly Twitter.

Harry and wife are yet to comment on the invitation.

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The streaming giant confirmed to CNN on Thursday that the couple’s Archewell Productions has two new nonfiction series in production at Netflix as part of a multi-year overall deal signed in 2020.

The first series will be curated by Meghan and “will celebrate the joys of cooking & gardening, entertaining, and friendship” according to Netflix.

It comes on the heels of the announcement of another new business venture of hers, an apparent lifestyle brand named the American Riviera Orchard.

The second new series is, according to Netflix, “shot primarily at the US Open Polo Championship in Wellington, Florida, will provide viewers unprecedented access to the world of professional polo.”

Both shows are in early stages of production and their titles and release dates will be released at a later date.

Netflix has already worked with the couple on three other nonfiction series, including “Harry & Meghan” which peeled back the curtain on their relationship with the royal family and their move to the US after they stepped down from their royal duties.

The company also produced for the streaming giant “Live To Lead,” an interview series featuring world leaders, and the “Heart of Invictus,” a documentary series about the event and organization whose founding patron is Prince Harry.

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Recall the Duchess of Sussex was excited to meet a Nigerian Invictus Games athlete in Germany as she helped promote the event on Wednesday night, September 12.

Prince Harry revealed at the opening ceremony that his wife would be lending the athletes her personal support after finding through a genealogy test that she is 43% Nigerian.

Meghan was also pictured hugging a competitor and describing her as ‘my Nigerian sister’, before being introduced to other members of the team and the defence chief, who gave her the nickname Amira Ngozi Lolo, a name she could use if she ever visits the country.

Derek Cobbinah, who helped co-ordinate Nigeria’s debut in this year’s competition, told Hello! that the Duchess was ‘deeply touched’ by the nickname and that she is hoping to organise a family trip to the country.

‘She said she couldn’t wait to visit Nigeria with her mum and the kids,’ he revealed.

‘She’s always welcome to visit Nigeria and other African countries.’

The revelation of Meghan’s Nigerian heritage came on an episode of her Archetypes podcast after she did a genealogy test ‘a couple years ago’.

She vowed to ‘start to dig deeper into all this’ during her discussion with comedians Issa Rae and Ziwe Fumudoh.

It came as Meghan was given a rock star welcome at the Games in Dusseldorf yesterday as she made her first appearance at a sports event with Harry.

Crowds leapt to their feet to cheer and applaud her, who seemed taken aback by the rapturous welcome and took her seat in the Merkur Spiel-Arena. 

Dressed casually in J Crew sweater and shorts and Chanel flat pumps, the 42-year-old mother-of-two beamed with delight and waved to the crowd and punched her hands in the air, hugging supporters of the Australian team seated in her row.

Harry, who has been happily posing for dozens of selfies with fans, took a back seat as most people in the crowd wanted to be photographed with Meghan.

Following her impromptu speech at a party for 1,600 people where she apologised for her late arrival at the competition on Tuesday, a buzz of excitement had spread around the event yesterday that she would be making her debut appearance.

Meghan bonded with Australian competitor Laura Reynell, 28, from New South Wales, who sat next to her as they talked about her beanie hat.

She said: ‘Meghan thought it was funny I was wearing the beanie and asked if I was cold. I told her I’m from Oz and always cold.’

Meghan dons white Ralph Lauren sweater vest alongside Harry

Sat next to husband Harry, she was otherwise surrounded by American fans and was frequently on her feet applauding.

Ms Reynell added that, Meghan spoke about her two young children in California.

She said: ‘She was so nice and was talking about her kids. She said the kids are excited about Invictus but they are a bit too young to understand.’

Reynell has been competing in the power lifting, archery and rowing. Harry was in animated conversation with Tavis Watt, 49, a psychologist for the Australian team.

After watching the match, Harry and Meghan joined in with a children’s relay race.

It was Sussex v Sussex as they chose opposing teams for the race around the basketball court.

Harry encouraged his team to win the sprint race, urging on the young competitors who are attending the games to cheer on family and friends.

Meghan clapped her hands enthusiastically as her group of youngsters raced.

The couple presented medals to all those taking part as Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ blasted out in the arena. 

Ahead of the second half of the series, the trailer shows the couple saying why they stepped down from royal duties.

“I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves,” says Meghan.

Prince Harry blamed “institutional gaslighting”.

Buckingham Palace has not commented on the Netflix series and so far has not responded to these latest clips.

“I said, ‘We need to get out of here,’” says Prince Harry in the trailer for the final three episodes being released on Thursday.

However, this brief teaser does not yet say who is being accused of lying or undermining the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, or who was manipulating how they were seen by the public.

But the tone suggests some more hard-hitting claims, after the first half of the documentary series had fewer bombshells or specific revelations than expected.

The most potentially controversial moment is the reference to Prince William – with the trailer showing the two royal brothers together.

The commentary from Prince Harry claims: “They were happy to lie to protect my brother”, but without saying who “they” were or the context in which Prince William was being protected.

“I wonder what would have happened to us had we not got out when we did?” says Prince Harry, who now lives with Meghan in California.

Meghan speaks of security worries – and a clip shows Prince Harry saying they were on a “freedom flight”, suggesting that this was their departure away from the pressure they felt around them in the UK.

Also appearing in the trailer was Christopher Bouzy, who set up a tech company that researches abuse and misinformation on social media.

He says: “They were actively recruiting people to disseminate disinformation.”

There are clips of the couple enjoying their new life in the sunshine, but Prince Harry adds: “To move to the next chapter, you’ve got to finish the first chapter.”

After so much hype, the first three episodes drew mixed reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, with questions about how much of the information was new.

Audience figures in the UK on the launch day of the first part of the series showed 2.4 million viewers watched the first instalment, episode two had 1.5 million viewers on the first day, and the third part attracted 800,000.

These were higher audience figures than for The Crown, but below the 3.5 million who watched that evening’s episode of the soap opera Coronation Street.

In the latest episode of her Spotify original podcast, Archetypes, Meghan told Nigerian-American talk show host Ziwe Fumudoh that she “had my genealogy done a couple of years ago”.

When Fumudoh asked “what are you?”, Meghan replied that she was “43% Nigerian”.

“I’m going to start to dig deeper into all this because anybody that I’ve told, especially Nigerian women, are like ‘What!’” she added.

Thomas Markle Snr had been due to the fly to the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee next week.

However, on Monday night, he began experiencing pains at his home in Rosarito, Mexico.

Paramedics were called and he was taken by ambulance in Tijuana with an oxygen mask strapped to his face and transported him around 9.30pm to a hospital across the border in Chula Vista, California.

His two eldest children, who Meghan also no longer speaks to, are by his side.

His son, Thomas Markle Jnr, 55, is now living close to his father, while eldest daughter Samantha, 57, is flying in from her home in Florida to be with her father.

A source said: “Tom was unable to speak to paramedics, he was so out of breath.He had to write down his symptoms on a piece of paper.”

Thomas hasn’t seen his royal daughter in years ( Image: Thomas Markle: My Story/Channel 5)

Warning signs of the retired lighting director’s failing health emerged last week in a court document.

Mr Markle, 77, is currently pursuing litigation against the paparazzi company he famously faked pictures with ahead of his daughter’s wedding in May 2018.

Last week staff at the Superior Court of California, where the case has been filed, were due to hold a hearing involving the two parties.

But according to a court document filed on May 19 it was placed on hold.

The papers, obtained by the Mirror, read: “The court staff receives a phone a call from the plaintiff’s son prior to the hearing stating plaintiff has suffered a medical emergency.”

It is unclear what the issue was, but sources say Mr Markle suffered his attack on Monday night after suffering from extreme tension.

Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born on Friday morning in a hospital in Santa Barbara, California.

Both mother and child are healthy and well, the couple said in a statement.

Buckingham Palace said: “The Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been informed and are delighted with the news.”

Prince Harry and Meghan said they named their second child Lilibet after the Royal Family’s nickname for the Queen, the baby’s great-grandmother.

Her middle name, Diana, was chosen to honour her “beloved late grandmother”, the Princess of Wales, the statement said.

Lilibet was born at 11:40am local time, weighed 7 lbs 11oz and is now “settling in at home”.

She is the Queen’s 11th great-grandchild and is eighth in line to the throne. It means Prince Andrew, who was born as second in line in 1960, moves down to ninth place.

In a message of thanks on the couple’s Archewell website, they said: “On June 4, we were blessed with the arrival of our daughter, Lili.

“She is more than we could have ever imagined, and we remain grateful for the love and prayers we’ve felt from across the globe.

“Thank you for your continued kindness and support during this very special time for our family.”

The message adds that anyone wishing to send gifts is asked to “support or learn more about” organisations working for women and girls.

They have not released any photos of their daughter.

The Prince of Wales, Prince Harry’s father, and the Duchess of Cornwall tweeted: “Congratulations to Harry, Meghan and Archie on the arrival of baby Lilibet Diana. Wishing them all well at this special time.”

And the Duke of Duchess and Cambridge said: “We are all delighted by the happy news of the arrival of baby Lili.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent his “many congratulations” to the couple and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the “wonderful news”.

Prince Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, met on a blind date and married in May 2018 in a ceremony at Windsor Castle. They welcomed their first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, a year later.

Meghan’s friend, Misan Harriman, who took black-and-white photographs of the couple for their pregnancy announcement, tweeted his congratulations: “Lilibet has arrived! Congratulations to my brave friend and her lovely family!”

Prince Harry has publicly reflected on his approach to parenthood recently, saying he wanted to “break the cycle” of the “pain and suffering” of his upbringing with his own children.

He and Meghan quit their roles as senior working royals in March 2020. Speaking last month, the duke said moving to the US had not been part of the plan, but he felt he had to put his family and mental health first.

As a result of the move, Lilibet is the most senior royal in the current line of succession to be born overseas and she would be eligible to become president of the United States.

But like her older brother Archie, who was not entitled to a royal title when he was born, Lilibet would not be allowed to be a princess nor an HRH until the Queen dies and Prince Charles becomes king, under rules set down more than 100 years ago.

Why Lilibet?

Lilibet – the Queen’s family nickname – was coined when then-Princess Elizabeth was just a toddler and couldn’t pronounce her name properly.

Her grandfather, King George V, would affectionately call her Lilibet, imitating her own attempts to say her name. It soon stuck and she became Lilibet to her family from then on.

The Queen’s late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, also called her by the nickname, and wrote to his mother-in-law after their wedding: “Lilibet is the only ‘thing’ in the world which is absolutely real to me.”

Baby Lili’s middle name, Diana, is in tribute to Prince Harry’s later mother Diana, who died in a car crash in 1997 when he was 12 years old.

Lili’s cousin, Princess Charlotte, the daughter of Prince William and Catherine, also has Diana as one of her middle names, as well as Elizabeth.

Duncan Larcombe, former royal editor at the Sun, said he thought the name was “the most royal name you could give”.

“There’s no doubt that the choice of name for Harry and Meghan’s first daughter is the first significant – possibly the only – olive branch that the Sussexes as a couple have offered to the British Royal Family since… they walked away from the family,” he told the BBC.

In November, Meghan revealed she had a miscarriage several months earlier, writing about her “almost unbearable grief” in a deeply personal article for the New York Times.

In the piece, she said “despite the staggering commonality of [miscarriages], the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame” and went on to commend those who “bravely shared their stories”, saying: “When one person speaks truth, it gives license for all of us to do the same.”

And even when we are exposed to racism, we often have an inbuilt deflecting and reinforcement mechanism called ‘home.’ We innately know that we don’t belong there. And we have this other place where everyone we meet in the street looks like us, and that when we return ‘home’ as often as we may, we would be treated from Kotoka to Kotoka as ‘abrokyire people’,’ first class human beings.

That psychological reinforcement is something other Blacks may not have. They have no other home but where they face racism all the time.

And so that mechanism may do wonders to our psyche but also, sometimes and sadly, makes us pathetically insensitive to the plight of other Blacks.

I confess that there was a time when I wasn’t ‘woke’ on this racism issue.

When I arrived in school in North America in 1993, I didn’t get this whole racism thing. I remember telling someone who invited me to attend a meeting that I wasn’t going to join any of the African societies on campus because they perpetuate a stereotype. [PS. I joined. Learned Gumboot.]

Then it began to happen. Slowly. But surely. Drunken [maybe] students would make monkey noises as you passed by their homes, especially on Friday nights. Why? I didn’t know I was THAT ugly. The security guard in the nearby pharmacy would ALWAYS follow you as you walked through the aisles. Maybe I needed to steal toothpaste! A police car quietly followed me home to 24 Elm Street, K7L 3N6, from downtown… no questions asked, but it was apparent that any tall black dude was a suspect.

As I start to notice and complain, my flat mate was very sympathetic. He goes ‘Ace, I don’t really see you as black.’ How cute. I nodded, being green in more ways than one. Another time he goes ‘I was locked my car when I got there because everyone around me was black.’ I wondered if he locked his bedroom door. Nah. I wasn’t black; I was green. But the same guy kindly offered me a ticket home for Christmas because I was lonely. I didn’t take it. We played guitar. I taught him highlife and he taught me classical and rock. I still remember what he taught me. I hope he remembers mine. Small points. Anecdotal even.

There were two big ones. First, someone at church asked whether my presence with the music team meant that we would be playing reggae in church. Black. Reggae. I get it. By the way I had Agbadza music in mind. 6/8 time signature, pentatonic scale. Nice. Then after playing a couple of times, the Music Director said it wouldn’t be necessary for me to join the choir after all. No reasons given. WHAT?? It struck me: I had no music skill. Coin drop moment: every other face on the stage was white. I would require brighter stagelights. Now, we don’t want higher electricity bills for the church, do we? I quit the church, joined a mostly black church, revamped the choir and we had a jam!

Second: Friday, 17 June 1994. Black OJ Simpson had engaged in that slow car chase with the police who wanted to arrest him for killing his white wife and another. 3 of us (Black boys) were going to Buffet Uncle Tong downtown to eat Chinese. Wow! The stares. The cat calls. 3 OJ Simpsons teleported from LA to downtown Kingston, ON. The next week I was at the Montreal Amtrak station waiting for a train to New York. Only black face. An old lady walks all the way to me and asks ‘so what is happening in the OT Simmons case?’ OT Simmons! I smiled, said nothing to her but sang in my head with Ben Brako ‘mɔkɔ mo krom!’

You could read this and say ‘maaba? Oofee tsɔñ.’ I get it. You must walk a mile in a man’s moccasins… It didn’t take one incident. It was several incidents that brought the realisation. Imagine if this was my life, my whole life.

Now you just might understand why Meghan finds the discussion of her baby’s potential skin tone offensive.