Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, joined Prince Harry at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday for her first public appearance since her estranged father’s arrest, attending an event focused on protecting children from online harm.
Prince Harry delivered the keynote address alone after Meghan withdrew from a planned joint speech. He said children deserved to feel safe wherever they were and called for action to prevent harm rather than waiting for tragedy, ITV News reported.
The appearance marked the opening of the Lost Screen Memorial, a travelling installation commemorating children who died after experiencing harm online. Harry did not directly refer to Thomas Markle Sr or the criminal allegations against him during his speech.
Harry puts prevention at the centre of his speech
The duke described himself as a father supporting bereaved families rather than as a technical specialist or elected official. He said he and Meghan stood alongside parents whose experiences had brought them into conversations about children’s digital safety.
His address argued that young people should be able to benefit from technology without being exposed to preventable danger. He explicitly rejected the idea of a world without technology, saying that was neither possible nor what young people wanted.
“All children should be able to go online and discover something wonderful. A friend. An interest that becomes a passion. A place where they feel understood,” Harry said, according to ITV.
He compared the expectation of online safety with the protection children should have in classrooms and playgrounds. The central question of his speech was why safeguarding children became complicated when the discussion moved into digital spaces.
Harry also described prevention as a guiding principle in his approach to life. His appeal was to stop harm before it happened rather than rely on public pressure after families had already suffered a loss.
Meghan attends but does not speak
Meghan arrived holding Harry’s hand at the Paul-Henri Spaak building. ITV reported that she did not answer questions shouted by journalists about how she was coping.
Her absence from the speaking programme had been announced ahead of the visit. ITV’s earlier report attributed the decision to sources in her office who said she did not feel emotionally strong enough to deliver public remarks.
That explanation is attributed to those sources, not to an onstage statement by Meghan. She continued with the visit despite withdrawing from the address, appearing alongside Harry while leaving the speaking role to him.
A memorial built around families’ photographs
The Lost Screen Memorial displays 50 images of children whose families have linked their deaths to harm experienced through social media. The photographs are presented in enlarged smartphone-screen settings, reflecting the personal images parents kept on their phones.
AFP reported that the European Parliament event was hosted by MEP Antonio Lopez-Isturiz and presented as a call to action for policymakers, technology companies and the wider public.
The installation puts the experiences of bereaved parents at the centre of a debate often framed around platform rules and regulation. The individual photographs convey the losses behind the campaign without making the event a hearing about any one criminal case.
Father faces a charge in the United States
Thomas Markle Sr, 82, was arrested in Florida on November 6 and charged with possession of child sexual abuse material. Reuters reported that he had denied the allegations when they first became public.
The charge is an allegation, not a finding of guilt. His case is separate from the Brussels memorial and the families represented in it. Harry’s remarks should not be interpreted as a statement about his father-in-law’s legal proceedings, which he did not directly discuss.
Reuters noted that Meghan has been estranged from her father since the period before her 2018 wedding to Harry. Their family relationship does not establish responsibility on her part for the conduct alleged against him.
The immediate focus of Tuesday’s appearance remained the memorial and Harry’s appeal for safer digital spaces. Meghan attended without speaking, while the duke urged that children’s ability to explore online should not come at the expense of their safety.
