Meghan makes first public appearance after her father's arrest — at a European Parliament event on protecting children

First public appearance after her father's arrest

Duchess of Sussex Meghan made her first public appearance on 10 November 2026 after her father Thomas Markle was charged in Florida with possession of material depicting child sexual exploitation. She joined her husband, Prince Harry, at the European Parliament in Brussels at an event dedicated to protecting children online. This was reported by BBC News and euronews, which noted that Markle appeared in court in Florida on Friday, is under house arrest with electronic monitoring and has previously denied the charges. Meghan has long been estranged from her father; he did not attend her wedding in Windsor in 2018, citing poor health. When reports of the arrest emerged last month, Meghan said she was 'deeply shaken' by the news and hoped that 'justice would be fully served'.

Harry's speech and Meghan's withdrawal from speaking

Harry delivered the main speech alone: according to the BBC, Meghan declined to speak alongside him because she did not feel emotionally strong enough. euronews also notes that she did not deliver her planned speech, as the past two weeks had been emotionally difficult for her. The Duchess held her husband's hand on the way to the Paul-Henri Spaak building and did not answer journalists' questions about how she was feeling. 'I am not here as an expert or a politician. I am here as a father. My wife is a mother', Harry said at the European Parliament, stressing that children 'deserve to feel safe everywhere', including classrooms and playgrounds. During the panel discussion that followed, he called the addictive design of social media 'brainwashing on an extraordinary scale' and said that responsibility for protecting children from companies that 'clearly don't care' lies with everyone.

Lost Screen Memorial and the EU campaign

The visit coincided with the European opening of the Lost Screen Memorial installation, first shown in New York last year and supported by the couple's charitable foundation Archewell. The exhibition consists of photographs of young people whose parents link their deaths to harm from social media: among them 13-year-old Breck Bednar from Surrey, who died in 2014, and Jools Sweeney from Gloucestershire, who took his own life in 2022. The couple also met Sandra Spitael, whose 15-year-old son Glenn took his own life after a nude photo of him was spread on social media. According to euronews, the couple spent about ten minutes with families affected by online harm, and posed for photographs with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola; Meghan also took part in closed-door meetings with MEPs.

Context: the EU Kids Act and pressure on platforms

At the event, organised by the European Parliament's cross-party group on children's rights, Harry accused social media companies of failing to make platforms safer, leaving children at risk of bullying 'sometimes with fatal consequences'. 'These companies have caused so much harm — there must be accountability', euronews quotes him as saying. He also backed the EU Kids Act, a bill under discussion in parliament that shifts responsibility from parents to companies: the document provides for delaying children's access to social media, age verification and stronger default safety settings, including limits on addictive features. The couple's campaign aims to encourage social media companies to better support families who have lost a child — Harry has previously criticised companies for refusing to disclose to parents data about their children's online activity.