Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Announce First Joint Overseas Trip Since U.K. Return

NEED TO KNOW

• Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will bring the Lost Screen Memorial to Brussels next week

• The installation, previously in New York City and Geneva, honors children who lost their lives due to the harms of social media

• The trip will mark the Sussexes’ first joint trip abroad since their move back to the U.K.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are heading to Brussels on their first joint trip abroad since moving back to the U.K.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will visit Belgium’s capital on Tuesday, Nov. 10, to open the Lost Screen Memorial. Harry, 42, and Meghan, 45, previously unveiled the installation, which honors children who lost their lives due to the harms of social media, in New York City in April 2025. Meghan then traveled to Switzerland in May 2026 to bring the Lost Screen Memorial to Geneva’s Place des Nations.

The Lost Screen Memorial is comprised of 50 smartphone screens, each displaying the lock screen photo of a child whose life was cut short due to the harmful effects of social media. The personal images were shared by parents, who are members of the Archewell Foundation Parents’ Network, to call attention to the need for safer online spaces.

The Sussexes are set to give a keynote address in Brussels about the importance of meaningful action to protect children’s digital safety.

Prince Harry will also participate in a panel discussion in Belgium titled “Beyond Promises: Buidling a Digital Future That Works for Children.”

The installation is the latest step in Meghan and Prince Harry’s work to create safer online spaces, including the Duke of Sussex’s remarks at a 2024 engagement for the Clinton Foundation and the Parents’ Network, which was established in August 2024 to support families affected by social media harms. The community provides crucial support to parents whose children have suffered from the harmful effects of social media, from facing near-fatal harm, managing ongoing mental health difficulties, or experiencing the tragic loss of a child.

At the New York City event for the Lost Screen Memorial, Prince Harry said, “These children were not sick. Their deaths were not inevitable—they were exposed to, and in many cases were pushed, harmful content online, the kind any child could encounter. No child should be exploited, groomed, or preyed upon in digital spaces. To the platforms, they may be seen as statistics. To their families, they were cherished and irreplaceable.”

Meghan added, “One of the fathers said, ‘All these photographs, as you can see, illustrate the children that are lost. But we don’t have photographs of all the children who will be saved.'”

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The trip to Brussels will mark Harry and Meghan’s first joint trip abroad since they moved back to the U.K. In August, the couple announced that they were leaving California to live in Britain for an extended period. They arrived back in Harry’s home country the same month, with their children — Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5 — starting school there just weeks later.

The Sussexes made their first joint public appearance since the move on Oct. 15 in Nottingham, visiting a series of charities.

The family has laid low in the weeks since, taking a holiday with close family and friends amid Archie and Lilibet’s school break for half-term.

The trip to Brussels will also mark Prince Harry and Meghan’s first public appearance since the scandal surrounding her estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr.

The Sun reported on Oct. 22 that the Duchess of Sussex’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr., had alerted the “cops” and FBI to his alleged discovery of child pornographic images at Thomas Sr.’s home in Cebu, Philippines. The following day, the outlet published a follow-up story claiming to have seen a copy of a letter sent to the Metropolitan Police that alleged Thomas Sr. had sexually abused a child and claimed that he had admitted to traveling to the Philippines and Thailand to abuse children. It later emerged that the letter was written by Thomas Sr.’s ex-wife Roslyn Loveless.

Meghan referenced a letter to police in her Oct. 23 statement shared with PEOPLE reacting to the allegations. She said the letter “made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father, and I was given assurances that these were being investigated.”

Thomas Sr. previously acknowledged to the Mail on Sunday that he paid for sex with adult women in the Philippines, but he denied ever having sex with anyone under the age of 18 or possessing child sexual abuse material. He has not been charged in connection with the allegations.

“It’s been really difficult. She’s really cut up,” a friend recently told PEOPLE about Meghan. “She has young children, and I think that, alongside the victims, is just weighing on her mind. It’s traumatic.”

There is also “a slight sense of relief that this is all coming out,” the friend added, expressing hope that “a proper investigation can take place.”

Read the original article on People