Meghan Markle, Prince Harry's Plans After Welcoming Baby Girl Revealed: Report

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will be taking leave after welcoming their second child, a baby girl, in the summer, according to a report.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced last year that they were expecting again, weeks after Markle revealed her miscarriage. During their interview with Oprah Winfrey last month, the couple confirmed that they were expecting a girl. Now, a friend of the Sussexes has said in a new report that Prince Harry and Markle plan to take some time off following Markle's delivery and focus on their family.

"They will both take some proper time off," the anonymous friends told Vanity Fair. "It will be the summer and they want to make sure they both take their leave so they have some real quality time together once the baby arrives."

As for their birthing plans, Markle wants to have a home birth at their Montecito, California, estate, Page Six reported. The Sussexes have yet to comment on the report.

The duchess had hoped to deliver Archie the same way at their U.K. residence, Frogmore Cottage, with an all-female midwife team. However, the first child was a week overdue, and Markle was taken to London's private Portland hospital instead.

"Meghan’s plan was to have a home birth with Archie, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans," an unnamed source told Page Six. "In the end, her doctors advised her to go to hospital and all she was interested in was about delivering Archie safely."

"But she has a beautiful home in California, it’s a beautiful setting to give birth to her baby girl," the insider added.

Markle gave birth to Archie in the early hours of May 6, 2019, with Prince Harry by her side.

Meanwhile, the Duchess of Sussex opened up about the miscarriage she suffered in July last year in a New York Times op-ed published November 2020.

Some had wondered why it took months for her to share it. An unnamed source told People that Markle waited because it was too "painful" for her but decided to still share it because she wanted to encourage compassion and further conversation around pregnancy loss.

"She talked about the taboo of miscarriage," Ruth Bender Atik, national director of the Miscarriage Association in the U.K., said in December 2020. "And I know that’s something that concerns a lot of people. And she talked about her feelings of both physical and emotional pain — for Harry too. It’s important to realize that partners are affected."