For Meghan Markle, family is everything during the holiday season.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, shared a rare insight into how she and husband Prince Harry, 40, and the couple’s kids Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3, are spending Thanksgiving this year during an interview with Marie Claire published Friday, November 22.
“We’re always making sure we have something fun to do,” Markle told the outlet. “Like any other family you spend time having a great meal and then what do you do? Play games, all the same stuff, someone brings a guitar — fun.”
The Suits alum added that now that Archie and Lilibet are getting old enough to understand significant holidays, the experience is even more enjoyable as a parent.
“I love the holidays,” she said, adding, “every year it gets better” because of her children’s ages.
“At first, I think as a mom with children you’re just enjoying having them there, but they’re not understanding everything that’s happening yet,” she explained. “But now we’re at the age where I just can’t wait to see it through their lens every year.”
Markle added that while she and Prince Harry keep their Thanksgivings “low-key”, she thinks it’s also important to be inclusive of others.
“I was thinking about, in the past few years of having Thanksgiving here, like many of us, I think you always make sure there’s room at the table for your friends who don’t have family, which is really key,” she said.
Markle told the outlet that feminist icon Gloria Steinem visited for Thanksgiving one year.
Since making the move from the U.K. to the U.S after stepping back from the Royal Family in 2020, the couple has embraced paired-back Thanksgiving celebrations.
For their first Thanksgiving in Montecito, California, in 2020, royal reporter Omid Scobie shared details of their plans at the time.
“They are going to have a quiet dinner at home and are looking forward to celebrating their first American Thanksgiving in the States as a family,” Scobie, 43, shared via X. “They plan to enjoy a homecooked meal with traditional Thanksgiving dishes, including recipes made with fresh vegetables from their garden.”
A year later, Markle appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and spoke about her Thanksgiving plans for 2021.
“I love to cook,” she said. “We’ll be home and just sort of relax and settle in. It’s our second Thanksgiving at home in California. It’ll be nice, it’ll be really nice.”
