Meghan Markle, Prince Harry to host NYC summit on World Mental Health Day

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will be in New York City on Tuesday to host the Archewell Foundation’s first-ever in-person event, Parents’ Summit: Mental Wellness in a Digital Age, in conjunction with World Mental Health Day.

The event, moderated by Carson Daly, is designed “to give voice to families who are passionate about building a safer online world for children and teens,” according to People, which first reported the couple’s plans.

The conversation is set to feature Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, along with “parents who have experienced tragic loss connected to their child’s social media use.” The discussion will be centered on “how we as a community, both globally and locally, are … developing solutions to empower families and uplift our collective mental well-being.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have previously spoken publicly about their own struggles with mental health. During a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey for Apple TV docuseries “The Me You Can’t See,” Prince Harry explained his motivation for seeking help to confront his childhood traumas, particularly the death of his mother, Princess Diana, when he was 12 years old.

“I saw GPs, I saw doctors, I saw therapists, I saw alternative therapists. I saw all sorts of people, but it was meeting and being with Meghan,” he said of what pushed him to take his mental health seriously. “I knew that if I didn’t do the therapy and fix myself that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with.”

Meghan meanwhile revealed on her Archetypes podcast in 2022 — one day after World Mental Health Day that year — that her road to wellness began after she reached her “worst point” and Harry found her a referral for a mental health professional.

“It’s for all of us to be really honest about what it is that you need and to not be afraid to make peace with that, to ask for [help],” she said.

Tuesday’s mental wellness summit will mark the couple’s first time back in New York City since May, when Meghan was honored at the Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Awards in Midtown Manhattan. The couple were swarmed by paparazzi as they were leaving the event, leading to a pursuit that Mayor Adams called “reckless and irresponsible.”

A spokesperson for the pair summarized the incident as a “near catastrophic car chase at the hands of a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi.”

That incident was reminiscent to some of the 1997 Paris autocrash that killed Princess Diana, whose driver was fleeing aggressive photographers when his vehicle hit the base of an overpass at a high rate of speed.