Meghan Markle has announced a surprise visit to the Swiss city of Geneva this weekend as she calls for stronger online protection for children.
The Duchess of Sussex, 44, will on Sunday attend the opening in Switzerland of the Lost Screen Memorial, dedicated to people who have died after suffering digital harm.
She will be joined by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), who she and Prince Harry travelled with in February for a quasi royal-tour of Jordan.
Guests – who include global health leaders, ministers and families – will see an installation of 50 illuminated lightboxes, each displaying a mobile phone lock screen image of a child who has lost their life because of online violence and digital harm.
Digital harm, also known as online harm, refers to any harmful content online.
On Friday, Meghan’s office said: ‘During the ceremony, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will pay tribute to the children remembered in the installation and underscore the urgent need for stronger global protections for children online.’
This comes as Prince Harry and Meghan on Friday announced plans to produce a film adaptation with Netflix, who they have partnered with since 2020, of a best-selling memoir about a British military mission in Afghanistan.
No Way Out: The Searing True Story of Men Under Siege, written by British Major Adam Jowett, chronicles his work leading a unit of paratroopers and Royal Irish Rangers in July 2006.
Meghan Markle visited the QuestScope Youth Center in Mafraq, Jordan, which she visited during a quasi royal-tour with Prince Harry
Meghan visited Jordan with Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO)
The WHO and Archewell Philanthropies, the charitable foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are hosting the event in Switzerland, which is being held ahead of the 79th World Health Assembly.
It is also being run in partnership with The Parents’ Network, a community of bereaved families advocating for safer online spaces for children and young people.
The foundation added the memorial, which runs until May 22, ‘seeks to highlight the measurable and preventable harms associated with online violence against children’.
This includes: ‘cyberbullying, grooming, sextortion, exposure to self-harm content and unsafe emerging technologies without adequate safeguards’.
Geneva mayor Alfonso Gomez Cruz will be among those at the memorial, alongside online child safety advocate Amy Neville, whose son Alexander is among the children featured in the exhibition. Ms Neville will also speak at the event.
The Lost Screen Memorial adds on to Harry’s previous comments at the 2024 Clinton Global Initiative, where he urged for immediate action to protect children online. During his speech, he showed his own lock screen with a photo of his two children.
Harry and Meghan, who left the Royal Family and moved to the United States, last week shared a glimpse into their life at Frogmore Cottage before they moved to Montecito, California.
Celebrating their son Prince Archie’s seventh birthday, Meghan posted two unseen snaps, including a rare baby photo of the young royal taken during their time living in the cottage in Windsor.
Harry, 41, and Meghan moved into the four-bedroom property in Windsor shortly before Archie was born on May 6 2019.
Meghan’s photograph showed the then-newborn sleeping peacefully on Harry’s chest, as the prince gazed fondly at his son.
Archie celebrated his birthday more than 5,000 miles away from the Royal Family, who have only met the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son a handful of times.
When Prince Harry and Meghan made the unprecedented decision to give up their royal roles in 2020, it was unknown what the future would look like for their son Archie, who at that time did not hold a title.
Yet, according to royal biographer Omid Scobie, it was actually Archie who gave the Duke and Duchess of Sussex the courage to leave the Royal Family in the first place.
The young royal, then only eight months old, motivated his parents ‘to stand up for what was right for them, regardless of what the consequences,’ he claimed.
