Meghan Markle Gets Candid About Her Journey, Telling an Audience That Her Life “Certainly Had a Plot Twist”

Meghan Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, have wrapped up a three-day tour of Nigeria that took us back to their days as working royals, embarking on tours in Australia and New Zealand and South Africa and more. From the numerous engagements undertaken from Friday to Sunday to the fashion to the meaningful conversations, it was, simply put, fun to see the Sussexes in their element.

One such engagement that Meghan took part in was a wide-ranging conversation at a women’s leadership event, where Meghan reflected on life being full of surprises. She joined Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, to co-host a panel discussion focused on Women in Leadership. Meghan spoke “with joy,” People reports, about discovering that she was 43 percent Nigerian a few years ago, and revealed that her first order of business was to “call my mom, because I wanted to know if she had any awareness of it,” she said of her mother, Doria Ragland.

The conversation later turned to balancing a career with motherhood; Meghan is mom to Prince Archie, who just turned five this month, and Princess Lilibet, who will turn three in June. “I love being a mom, I love being a mom,” Meghan said upon being asked for her advice on the subject. “When I was on season one of Suits, so that was a long time ago. Now, I know the show is having a resurgence, but that was a long time ago. Let’s say maybe a decade ago. [Editor’s note: Suits—where Meghan played the character of Rachel Zane—premiered in 2011.] And Bonnie Hammer, who runs NBCUniversal, was a huge mentor—remains a huge mentor to me. And I remember having the good fortune at the time that she invited me to have breakfast, and I thought this was just the biggest deal in the world. And I asked her that exact question. I said, ‘How do you find the balance?’ And she said, “You don’t. You’ll never find the balance.’”

Meghan continued “And this was before I was married, this [is] before I had children, this is before all the things in my life have certainly had a plot twist,” she said with a smile. “And it struck me, and it stayed with me for a long time because you say, ‘Well, how can you be so successful?’ And she’s a mother, as well, and she’s married, and says that you’ll never find the balance? What does life feel like if it’s imbalanced?”

She concluded “What I think that to mean now is that that balance will always change for you. That balance—what seems balanced 10 years ago—is going to shift. And so being a mom has always been a dream of mine. And I’m so fortunate that we have two beautiful, healthy, very chatty, sweet children.”

It seems natural that Archie and Lili were on Meghan’s mind, as she spent Mother’s Day away from them while in Nigeria; Harry and Meghan were invited to the country on behalf of the Chief of Defense staff—Nigeria’s highest-ranking military official—and arrived in Africa on May 10 for the three-day visit, which highlighted Harry’s Invictus Games. To that end, the trip concluded yesterday with a basketball clinic with Giants of Africa, a cultural reception, and a polo fundraiser for Nigeria: Unconquered, before the couple presumably headed back to the U.S. and their two kids.