Meghan Markle’s Last Royal Engagement at Buckingham Palace Was Quite an Emotional One

Published Mar 12, 2020

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1:39pm

Meghan Markle made the most of her last day as a working member of the royal family. The Duchess of Sussex attended one final event for one of her royal patronages before she left London for Canada on Monday.

Yup, before attending the queen’s service with Prince Harry and the rest of the royal gang, it turns out Markle attended a meeting at Buckingham Palace with the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU). The duchess took over the role of Royal Patron of the ACU in January 2019 from Queen Elizabeth, who had been the patron for 33 years before.

At the event, she met with a group of 22 Commonwealth scholars studying and researching important areas surrounding cleaning up plastic pollution in our oceans, helping to build more sustainable cities, improving the quality of heath for citizens and supporting decent work and economic growth.

Members of the group hailed from 11 different Commonwealth countries, including Malawi, India, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

And that’s not all, royal editor-at-large Omid Scobie (along with two other journalists) was invited to cover the engagement, which he revealed was quite an emotional one.

Scobie wrote in Harpers Bazaar, “At this point, the 1844 Room is almost empty and tears that the duchess had been bravely holding back are free to flow among familiar faces. As she embraces some of the loyal staff she will most likely not see again, I can’t help but feel sad for the dedicated team members whose tireless efforts—to promote the couple’s work, launch landmark projects, and deal with the near-daily crises brought on by tabloid lies—have come to an abrupt end.”

Now that’s some powerful stuff.

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