Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty ImagesBy ANGELINE JANE BERNABE, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are appreciating their time together as a family with their son, Archie, during quarantine.
In a virtual discussion with Nobel Prize laureate and activist Malala Yousafzai on International Day of the Girl, the couple shared that Archie is starting to walk.
“We were both there for his first steps, his first run, his first fall, his first everything,” said Prince Harry.
“It’s just fantastic because I think in so many ways, we are fortunate to be able to have this time to watch him grow,” added Meghan. “In the absence of COVID, we would be traveling and working more externally and we’d miss a lot of those moments. So I think it’s been a lot of really good family time.”
The couple, who joined the 23-year-old activist virtually from their home in Santa Barbara, California for the conversation which was shared on YouTube and Malala’s Instagram page, also spoke about the importance of girls’ education, for which Yousafzai has been an outspoken advocate after surviving an assassination attempt in 2012.
“When young girls have access to education, everyone wins and everyone succeeds,” said Meghan when asked by Yousafzai about the role that education played in her life. “So much is at stake when we don’t give a young woman the opportunity to learn and to get an education.”
“There’s over 130 million girls out of education right now before the pandemic and during as well and the numbers are going up,” added Harry. “It worries me, it worries all of us.”
Meghan, who is also an advocate for girls’ education and women’s rights, went on to say how going to school is a luxury for people in many parts of the world, especially girls. She also talked about the need for women to have a seat at the table where decisions are made.
“When women have a seat at the table, conversations in terms of policy change, conversations in terms of legislation, certainly in terms of just the dynamics of community are all shifted,” she said. “When a woman is present at the table, she’s going to be advocating for the entire family as opposed to a patriarchal presence.”
Yousafzai, who graduated from Oxford University in June, shared with Harry and Meghan what it was like finishing up exams amid the coronavirus pandemic. Recently, she’s been working through her Malala Fund to help girls continue their education during this time of crisis.
“There are millions of girls that need our voice and that need us to work for their future,” she said during their conversation. “COVID has made things worse. We cannot ignore this… We need to ensure that in this time we do not ignore the issue of girls’ education.”
Yousafzai ended the conversation by sending her love to Archie.
“I don’t know if he can talk yet, but all my best wishes, kisses, love to him,” she said in a sweet moment at the end of the video.
The Sussexes also sent their well wishes before signing off and told Yousafzai to reach out if there is anything else that they can do to help support her mission.
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