Meghan Markle makes first public appearance since explosive royal doco

By Victoria Craw

news.com.au·

22 Oct, 2019 07:04 PM3 mins to read

The Duchess has arrived at the One Young World Summit opening ceremony. Photo / Getty Images

The Duchess of Sussex will make her first public appearance in the UK following the raw ITV documentary in which she confessed friends warned her not to marry Prince Harry and she was struggling to fit into UK life.

Meghan, 38, will attend the One Young World Summit opening ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Tuesday evening solo.

The global forum for young leaders will bring together 2000 young people from 190 countries and wants to create the next generation of responsible leadership.

This is Markle's first public appearance since the Sussexes' Africa tour documentary aired earlier this week. Photo / Getty Images

The Duchess is vice president of The Queen's Commonwealth Trust, which is partnering with One Young World top bring Commonwealth leaders to the event.

It comes after Meghan and Harry went on their first family tour to southern Africa and attempted to shine a light on issues of gender-based violence and conservation.

However their official duties were overshadowed by a stark documentary in which Meghan opened up about the fact she was struggling with life in the UK.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal)

"When I first met my now-husband, my friends were really happy because I was so happy.

"But my British friends said to me 'I'm sure he's great, but you shouldn't do it because the British tabloids will destroy your life'," she revealed.

"And I very naively thought — I'm American, we don't have that there — what are you talking about? That doesn't make any sense … I didn't get it.

"I think I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a still upper lip. I really tried.

"But I think that what that does internally is probably really damaging and the biggest thing that I know is that I never thought that this would be easy. But I thought it would be fair."

Prince Harry also confirmed reports of a rift with his brother, Prince William and said his mental health required "constant management" with his mother's death a "wound that festers".