In her first interview since her revealing sit down with Oprah Winfrey in March, Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle shared some special memories about her husband, Prince Harry.
Markle was interviewed by NPR Weekend Edition about her New York Times bestselling children’s book, The Bench.
She shared that the book — which tells a story about dads spending time with their children at a particular outdoor sitting spot — started as a poem she wrote as a 2019 Father’s Day gift for the prince. The Bench features inclusive images of fathers, including Black and white dads, a Sikh dad in a turban, a military father and one in a wheelchair.
About its inclusivity, Markle said, “Growing up, I remember so much how it felt to not see yourself represented. Any child or any family hopefully can open this book and see themselves in it, whether that means glasses or freckled or a different body shape or a different ethnicity or religion.”
The overall message of The Bench is that while life can be both happy and sad, fathers can be present for it all. “It’s really just about growing with someone,” said Markle, “and having this deep connection and this trust so that, be at good times or bad, you know that you had this person.”
She told NPR that in addition to the poem, Markle gifted her husband with a bench for his first Father’s Day.
“I thought I just wanted something sentimental and a place for him to have as a bit of a home base with our son,” she said.
The Bench, she said, is a “love story” about fathers and their children.
“I often find, and especially in this past year, I think so many of us realized how much happens in the quiet,” Markle told NPR. “It was definitely moments like that, watching them from out of the window and watching [my husband] just, you know, rock him to sleep or carry him or, you know … those lived experiences, from my observation, are the things that I infused in this poem.”
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