Meghan Markle confirms fire in Archie's nursery
<p>Meghan Markle has revealed that her son narrowly escaped a fire that broke out in his nursery while on a tour of Southern Africa in 2019.</p>
<p>The Duchess of Sussex shared the story on the first episode of her new podcast, <em>Archetypes</em>, which featured her "dear friend" and tennis champion Serena Williams. </p>
<p>During the hour-long conversation, Markle discussed the devastating incident with her then four-month old son Archie while aboard on a royal engagement. </p>
<p>This ill-fated tour to Southern Africa in October 2019 was the last official engagement for Harry and Meghan before they stepped back from being senior working royals. </p>
<p>In the podcast, Meghan explained how their family had only been in the township of Nyanga for a few hours before the incident took place in Archie's nursery. </p>
<p>She said, "I'm giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say, 'There's been a fire at the residence. There's been a fire in the baby's room.' What?"</p>
<p>She went on to explain how Archie's nanny Lauren had taken him downstairs briefly before he was put to bed for a nap, and the heater in the room caught fire. </p>
<p>Luckily, no one was injured during the fire, but Meghan said both her and her husband were rattled by the experience and were rushed out to attend another engagement, rather than stay with their son. </p>
<p>She said, "And we came back. And of course, as a mother, you go, 'Oh my God, what?' Everyone's in tears, everyone's shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement?"</p>
<p>"I said, 'This doesn't make any sense'. I was like, 'Can you just tell people what happened?' And so much, I think, optically, the focus ends up being on how it looks instead of how it feels."</p>
<p>The first episode of <em>Archetypes</em> is available now on Spotify, and will feature a new guest each week, with next week's guest being music legend Mariah Carey. </p>
<p><em>Image credits: Spotify</em></p>
