Meghan Markle was booked to go on Jimmy Fallon’s show as part of her latest PR salvo — but will now be preparing for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, sources told Page Six.
The Duchess of Sussex was booked on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” for Tuesday, Sept. 20, as she and husband Prince Harry were due to be in New York City for the 77th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 77).
“Meghan was due on Fallon,” a source told Page Six. “I don’t even know what she was going to talk about, but that’s obviously canceled now.”
The next episode of Markle’s “Archetypes” podcast on Spotify, due to stream Tuesday, is also set to be pushed back, we’re told.
On Friday, Markle was waiting to be reunited with Harry at their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage. He was the first royal to leave Balmoral, the Queen’s Scottish estate, on Friday morning, following the monarch’s death at age 96 on Thursday.
Page Six is told the couple is expected to remain in the UK until the monarch’s state funeral, widely believed to be scheduled for Monday, Sept. 19. It is not yet known if their children, Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1, will be brought over from California.
Despite Markle’s claims that the royal family had never wanted to give her children royal titles, the children, in fact, could be known as Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet now that Harry has moved up in the line of accession.
King Charles III, Harry’s father, expressed in his first public address on Friday that “I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas.”
Markle’s planned TV appearance would have come just weeks after her bombshell interview with The Cut, in which she said she was happy to have quit Britain.
As for the tensions within the royal family, she said, “I think forgiveness is really important. It takes a lot more energy to not forgive. But it takes a lot of effort to forgive. I’ve really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything.”
The Sussexes were, by a twist of fate, in the UK at the time of the Queen’s passing.
They were in Manchester on Monday for the One Young World summit, where Markle made a speech, followed by a trip Tuesday to Dusseldorf in Germany, where they promoted the Invictus Games, Harry’s beloved competition for wounded veterans.
When news broke on Thursday that members of the royal family were dashing up to Scotland to be by the Queen’s bedside, the Sussexes were in Windsor. Page Six was originally told Markle would be joining Harry.
This was quickly changed to Harry traveling solo. A palace insider told Page Six that “tensions were so high” that Meghan could not have gone, hinting at “behind-the-scenes drama.”
The Queen’s death was confirmed by the royal family at 6:30 p.m. UK time Thursday, Sept. 8, with Buckingham Palace saying she died “peacefully.”
