Meghan and Harry: Lockdown meant we were both there for Archie’s first steps, Sussexes tell Malala
Written by News on 12/10/2020
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have talked about their son Archie’s first steps during lockdown in a virtual chat with Malala Yousafzai.
Meghan revealed that the coronavirus pandemic had provided “a lot of good family time” for the Sussexes, with Harry adding: “We were both there for Archie’s first steps, his first run, his first fall, everything.”
Meghan said: “It’s just fantastic and in so many ways we are fortunate to have this time to watch him grow. In the absence of COVID, we would be travelling and working more externally and we’d have missed a lot of those moments.”
Harry added: “These are really special moments, but we have been working really, really hard.”
Harry and Meghan talked to the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner about the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 outbreak has had on girls and their education, as well as about its impact on their family.
Malala Yousafzai, now 23, was an outspoken advocate for women’s education in Pakistan when she was shot in the head by the Taliban in retaliation for her activism.
She was treated in the UK and went on to graduate from the University of Oxford earlier this year, since when she has continued to campaign for girls’ access to education.
Harry said: “We do take it for granted and it is a privilege but every single person, every single child, every single young person needs an education.
“To know there’s over 130 million girls out of education right now, before the pandemic, and the numbers are only going to go up, it worries me and it probably worries all of us, the effect that is going to have not just on the individual, but on the family, and community, for the country and the world at large.”
Meghan said that the pandemic exacerbated existing problems about unequal access to education.
She said: “So much is at stake if we don’t give a young woman an opportunity to learn and to get an education.
“I think there’s no greater time for all of us to acknowledge that with everything else happening with COVID, on International Day of the Girl, for each of us to make a commitment that yes, the layers upon layers that are happening in this context of COVID-19 are immense but all it has done is add on top of the problems that already existed.”
(c) Sky News 2020: Meghan and Harry: Lockdown meant we were both there for Archie’s first steps, Sussexes tell Malala
