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meghan markle archie fire© Photo: Getty Images

Meghan Markle reveals terrifying moment baby Archie's nursery caught fire

The Duchess of Sussex made the confession on her new podcast

Nichola Murphy
Deputy Lifestyle Editor
August 23, 2022
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Meghan Markle's first episode of her new Spotify podcast, Archetypes, has been released, and it sees the Duchess of Sussex open up about a terrifying fire involving her baby son Archie.

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During a chat with her close friend Serena Williams, Meghan was praising Serena's ability to balance her role as a mother and daughter with her tennis career when she opened up about her own scary experience with Archie Harrison. Her little boy with Prince Harry was just "four and a half months old" when they travelled to South Africa for their royal tour. "We dropped him off at this housing unit that we were staying at and he was getting ready to go down for his nap," she began, adding that they immediately left for their first official engagement.

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Following her speech, the couple got into their car and were told the news: "There's been a fire at the residence. There's been a fire in the baby's room."

She continued: "Our amazing nanny Lauren…was in floods of tears. She was supposed to put Archie down for his nap and she just said, you know what, let me go and get a snack from downstairs." 

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harry archie and meghan in africa© Photo: Getty Images

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were on their South Africa tour when the incident happened

Lauren took Archie with her, meaning he luckily was not in the room when the fire started. "In that amount of time that she went downstairs, the heater in the nursery caught on fire. There was no smoke detector, someone just happened to smell smoke down the hallway so they went in and the fire was extinguished. He was meant to be sleeping in there.

"Everyone's in tears, everyone's shaken. And what did we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement. And I said, 'This doesn't make any sense, can you just tell people what happened?"

meghan markle archetype

Meghan opened up about her scary experience with baby Archie on her new podcast, Archetypes

Serena added: "I couldn't have done that." The royals ultimately moved to different accommodations, but Meghan was understandably shaken following the ordeal. 

The first episode of her podcast was titled The Misconception of Ambition with Serena Williams and the description reads: "Meghan talks to the one and only Serena Williams about the double standard women face when they are labeled 'ambitious' and the ripple effects this has on other aspects of their lives. This groundbreaking premiere episode also features Dr. Laura Kray, a leading expert on gender in the workplace."

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