Meghan Markle's Nigeria Visit Has Deeply Personal Backdrop

Meghan Markle is heading to Nigeria with Prince Harry in May to attend events and activities associated with the Invictus Games. The duchess revealed in 2022 that she had discovered a previously unknown personal link with the West African country.

Both Harry and Meghan have accepted an invitation to visit the country from its chief of defense staff, according to the magazine People. And Harry will travel to Britain to attend a 10th anniversary church service for the Invictus Games at St. Paul's Cathedral in London on May 8.

This will be the couple's first joint public visit to Africa since they undertook an official tour of Southern African countries on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II in 2019. It was their last tour as working members of the royal family.

This will also be Harry's first official visit to Nigeria, and is also believed to be Meghan's first time in the country, too.

Newsweek approached representatives of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex via email for comment.

In October 2022, during an episode of her award-winning Archetypes podcast, Meghan said that she shared a special link to the country in a discussion with Nigerian American internet show host Ziwe.

"I just had my genealogy done a couple years ago," Meghan told listeners, to which Ziwe asked: "What? What are you?"

"Forty-three percent Nigerian," Meghan said. "I'm going to start to dig deeper into all this because anybody that I've told, especially Nigerian women, are like 'What!'"

The revelation was celebrated among the duchess' fans, and since then, she has added to her engagement with the country and its people.

In the same month as her podcast episode with Ziwe aired, it was announced that Meghan and Harry had donated funds through their Archewell Foundation to UNICEF and Save the Children after flooding in Nigeria resulted in widespread devastation and loss of life.

In an X, formerly Twitter, post made on October 29, Save the Children Nigeria wrote: "Over 1.5 million children are at risk after flooding in Nigeria. We're grateful to the Archewell Foundation, co-founded by The Duke & Duchess of Sussex, for donating to help us deliver life-saving supplies to affected families."

In addition to this, in 2023 both Harry and Meghan forged a stronger link with Nigeria as the country sent a national team to compete in the Invictus Games for the first time, at the tournament held in Düsseldorf, Germany.

During the games, which were co-founded by Harry in 2014 to provide an international platform for wounded, sick and injured veterans to showcase their mental and physical rehabilitation through sport, the couple attended a sitting volleyball match between the Ukrainian and Nigerian teams.

Sitting in the stands among supporters from both nations, Meghan was spotted waving a Nigerian flag as the event took place.

Little information about the couple's upcoming visit to the country has so far been confirmed. As a competing nation, it is understood that Nigeria could one day be considered as a host for the games, which will next be held in Canada in 2025.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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