Meghan Markle has enjoyed a ‘beautiful’ response from the ‘loving’ British public since her return to the UK, her best friend has revealed.
Kelly McKee Zajfen, who has been staying with Meghan and Harry over the past week, suggested that people they met in the Cotswolds have repeatedly told the Duchess how much she has been missed.
Ms Zajfen, one of Meghan’s closest friends, has also shared the first pictures of the Duchess since her return to Britain around three weeks ago.
Kelly described Meghan as her ‘bestie’ in an Instagram post featuring a photograph of the Duchess smiling while tenderly holding her son, Jack, in a country pub.
In the carousel of photos shared with tens of thousands of her Instagram followers, Harry is also pictured laughing while playing on the floor with the baby boy, who was born earlier this year.
Kelly revealed that she saw that Meghan has received a warm welcome following her return to Britain, adding that the response had deeply touched her friend, who left the UK with Harry in 2020.
She told her tens of thousands of Instagram followers: ‘To everyone we’ve met or bumped into, thank you for being so loving to my friend [Meghan].’
Suggesting that Meghan had repeatedly been told she had been missed, Kelly added: ‘It’s been beautiful to witness. She missed you too!’
Meghan has been pictured by her friend Kelly (together in 2024) in the UK for the first time, in a pub holding her son Jack in an Instagram post
Kelly described Meghan as her ‘bestie’ in the post, which featured photographs of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with baby Jack.
It has also been reported in the US that Meghan and Kelly enjoyed a pub lunch with Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, who recently celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary.
Kelly said she enjoyed fish and chips in the garden, with Jack also having a try.
Another picture showed Kelly playing mahjong with Meghan and close friend, Markus Anderson, one of the Duchess’s closest confidants who has become known as the ‘third wheel’ in her marriage to Harry.
Kelly’s trip included her young son, who was born four years after she tragically lost her nine-year-old son to Covid.
The Alliance of Moms co-founder, 45, has been friends with the Duchess of Sussex for more than 20 years and, until last month, was a near neighbour in California.
They first met through Meghan’s ex-husband Trevor Engelson, but have remained close ever since.
She said of her visit: ‘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 told HELLO! what the most British things are 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.





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