Meghan Markle's 2022 Revelations—Nursery Fire to Meeting Kate Middleton

Meghan Markle had an unparalleled opportunity to speak directly to the public in 2022 as 12 episodes of Archetypes and six hours of her Netflix documentary were released.

Among major revelations, the duchess told the world she was forced to work after her son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor was nearly caught up in a fire.

She also got into her experiences in school, her first meeting with Kate Middleton and her Nigerian ancestry.

Baby Archie's Nursery Fire

Meghan Markle told her Archetypes Spotify podcast Archie was nearly caught up in a nursery fire during a 2019 tour of South Africa but she and Prince Harry had to go back out to work anyway.

"Archie was what, four and a half months old?" she said. "And the moment we landed, we had to drop him off at this housing unit that they had had us staying in. He was going to get ready to go down for his nap.

"We immediately went to an official engagement in this township called Nyanga, and there was this moment where I'm standing on a tree stump and I'm giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say there's been a fire at the residence. What? There's been a fire in the baby's room. What?"

The duchess said Archie had only by chance been out of the room with his nanny while she got a snack when the fire started.

She added: "And we came back. And of course, as a mother, you go, 'Oh, my God, what?' Everyone's in tears, everyone's shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement? I said, 'This doesn't make any sense.'"

Meeting Kate Middleton for the First Time

Meghan told her Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan: "Even when Will and Kate came over and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner and I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot."

"It's like I was a hugger," she said. "I've always been a hugger. I didn't realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits."

She added: "I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through to the inside…that there is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door, and you go 'Oh…OK we can relax now.' But that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me."

Friendship With Samantha Markle's Daughter

Meghan told the documentary that while she had never had a close bond with her half-sister Samantha Markle, she did become friends with Samantha's daughter, Ashleigh Hale.

"We just hit it off, I was on Suits at the time, so I said 'let's go on vacation,'" the duchess said. "We both craved the same things, I wanted a sister and she was like a little sister."

Meghan added that she was told by the palace that she could not invite Hale, who was raised by her grandparents rather than Samantha, to her royal wedding.

She said: "How do we explain that this half-sister isn't invited to the wedding but the half-sister's daughter is. And so with Ashleigh, the guidance at the time was to not have her come to the wedding."

Meghan's Comments on Prince William and Private Messages

Meghan was seen in the documentary reacting to news that former Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf had released her private messages to the Court of Appeal in a case between her and The Mail on Sunday.

Knauf worked for Meghan, Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton during his time in the role but after quitting went on to work with William and Kate at their charity, The Royal Foundation.

Mandana Dayani, former president of the Archewell Foundation, can be seen in the footage saying: "He works for his brother."

Meghan replies, "I know," before telling Prince Harry: "It's your brother. I'm not going to say anything about your brother, but it's so obvious."

Harry says "yeah," and adds: "It's even more obvious that they'll try and cover it up. Again, Jason 'the former aide of Meghan and Harry,' as opposed to…"

Meghan's Nigerian Ancestry

Meghan told her Archetypes podcast that she "had my genealogy done a couple of years ago," and is "43 percent Nigerian."

Meghan added: "I'm going to start to dig deeper into all this because anybody that I've told, especially Nigerian women, are like 'What!'"

Meghan Was an 'Ugly Duckling' in School

Meghan interviewed actress Mindy Kaling for Archetypes and revealed she was the smart one not the pretty one in school.

"No. Oh god, no. Ugly duckling," Meghan said. "Not conventional beauty as in, now maybe that would be seen as beautiful. But massive frizzy curly hair and a huge gap in my teeth. I was the smart one, forever and ever and ever and ever and then just sort of grew up."

She added: "I grew up in L.A. and I went to Hollywood School House and then I went to Immaculate Heart. But I never had anyone to sit with at lunch. I was always a bit of a loner and really shy and didn't know where I fit in.

"And so I just became, I was like, 'OK, well I'll become the president of the multi-culture club and the president of the sophomore class and the president of this and French club.'

"And by doing that I had meetings at lunchtime. So I didn't have to worry about who I would sit with or what I would do because I was always so busy."