Meghan Markle has received a “beautiful” welcome from the “loving” British public since returning to the UK, according to her best friend.
Kelly McKee Zajfen, who has been staying with Meghan and Prince Harry, said people they encountered in the Cotswolds had told the Duchess of Sussex how much they had missed her.
Ms Zajfen has also shared the first photographs of Meghan since the Duchess returned to Britain around three weeks ago.
In a series of Instagram images, Meghan can be seen smiling as she holds Ms Zajfen’s son, Jack, in a country pub. Prince Harry also appears laughing as he plays on the floor with the baby boy, who was born this year.
Ms Zajfen said Meghan had been deeply touched by the warm reception she received during her return to the UK, six years after she and Harry moved to the United States.
Writing to her tens of thousands of Instagram followers, she said: “To everyone we’ve met or bumped into, thank you for being so loving to my friend [Meghan].”
Suggesting that Meghan, whom she calls her “bestie”, had repeatedly been told she was missed, Kelly added: “It’s been beautiful to witness. She missed you too!”
Ms Zajfen, who has spent the past week staying with the couple, continued: “There’s something so special about getting a taste of this magical place with my bestie, and having my sweet Jack along for the adventure.
“I’ve loved seeing this sweet chapter through her eyes and daily adventures! Especially getting to experience so many little firsts with Jack by my side.”
Meghan and her “bestie” Kelly McKee Zajfen at a gala in California in 2024
Prince Harry kisses his daughter Lilibet, five, in photographs released by Meghan for his 42nd birthday this month
Harry drives a quad bike with Lilibet and Archie in the back as their dog Pula follows, in one of Meghan’s images offering a glimpse of their life back in Britain
US reports have also said Meghan and Kelly enjoyed a pub lunch with Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, who recently marked their 18th wedding anniversary.
Ms Zajfen said they ate fish and chips in the garden, with her son Jack also trying the meal.
Another photograph showed Ms Zajfen playing mahjong with Meghan and Markus Anderson, a close friend of the Duchess who is one of her most trusted confidants and has been dubbed the “third wheel” in her marriage to Harry.
The visit included Ms Zajfen’s young son, who was born four years after she lost her nine-year-old son to Covid.
The 45-year-old co-founder of the Alliance of Moms has been friends with the Duchess of Sussex for more than 20 years. Until last month, she was also a near neighbour of Meghan and Harry in California.
The pair first met through Meghan’s former husband, Trevor Engelson, and have remained close ever since.
Reflecting on the trip, Ms Zajfen wrote: “Family time is just what the heart ordered, with a side of mashed peas and fish and chips. All of it has filled my heart.
“You’ve been so good to us. We’re leaving with full hearts and definitely leaving a piece of ours here.”
It came as Prince Harry, who flew to New York this week, revealed the ‘most British things’ he and his family do since moving back to the UK.
Speaking to HELLO! at Monday’s WellChild Awards in London, the Duke of Sussex, 42, said his children now enjoy Marmite on crumpets, despite previously ‘dissing’ him for keeping the spread in the house.
Asked about the most British thing he has done with his family now that they’ve moved back from California, he replied: ‘Gone for a walk. Lots of walks. Isn’t that the most British thing?’
He continued: ‘OK yes Marmite on crumpets – please tell me that is a British thing because it has always been in my life and now the kids are eating Marmite on crumpets, which is a big moment for me.’
And asked whether Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, now enjoy the spread, Harry replied: ‘They do, they do very much.
‘They used to dis me for having Marmite in the house but now we are in the UK that is kind of water under the bridge.’
He added: ‘I already tried beans on toast. That was in California. That was years ago. It didn’t go down very well at all.’
Harry appeared to become emotional during the Royal Lancaster Hotel event, while revealing how becoming a father has changed the way he experiences the charity’s annual event, which celebrates seriously ill children and the families caring for them.
‘Once you become a parent it does change everything,’ Harry said.
‘It is not the fact that all the years I wasn’t a parent, that meeting the kids didn’t matter as much but you suddenly realise how grateful you are to have kids that are not sick.’
Prince Harry, pictured in Birmingham last week, has spoken of the most British things that he and his family have been doing since returning to the UK
Harry also spoke about a particularly relatable moment at the breakfast table earlier that day, revealing that Archie and Lilibet had been suffering from the ‘Monday blues’ ahead of school.
‘Breakfast this morning, they had Monday blues,’ he said, comparing it to the ‘Sunday night blues’ he experienced before being sent away to boarding school.
But the duke managed to turn the mood around by explaining what he would be doing at the WellChild ceremony later that evening.
‘You know what you are just being a little bit tricky so I am going to tell you what I am doing tonight and they were genuinely fascinated and interested and had all sorts of questions.’
Harry said he and Meghan want to use their work to help their children understand more about the lives of others, adding that now ‘no longer being 5,000 miles away should make it easier to be more available to support the charities that need us and that we really enjoy working with’.
It comes after Harry and Meghan returned to Britain with Archie and Lilibet in August, with the children beginning school in the UK.
After a false start at one private school due to traffic on the school run, the children are now settled into a new school in the Midlands.
