Meghan Markle recently opened up about a nightly ritual she started to help preserve memories for her kids. During her recent appearance on “The Jamie Kern Lima Show,” the Duchess of Sussex got emotional as she explained why she started emailing her kids before going to bed each night. One day, when her kids are older, Meghan will give her kids access to the email accounts so they can see all the emails their mom sent them over the years. It seems like a sweet idea — but to some critics, it seemed “inauthentic” and “narcissistic.”
Meghan explained what kinds of things she includes in the emails.
The nice thing about Meghan’s email writing ritual is that it’s not too time-consuming. Some of the things she might send to her kids — Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3, — are quite simple. She listed some examples, like report cards, funny things her kids said that day, photos of them having breakfast together, or photos of them playing with the dog. The kinds of things she includes are not necessarily “the things you’re not gonna frame” or “the things that you’re not gonna put pen to paper in a journal,” but they’re still special, especially when you have a collection of them from nearly every day of your life.
She plans to give her kids access to the email accounts when they’re 16 or 18.
Right now, Archie and Lilibet don’t know about the emails their mom is writing for them. Meghan plans on telling them when they’re older, so they can look back and see all of the times when their mom was thinking about them. One day, she’ll be able to tell them, “Here’s everything and every moment that I wanted to tell you how much I love you and how proud I am of you.”
She added that her hope is that her kids will “be able to look back and go, ‘Oh my gosh, she has loved us so much.'”
Some people were not impressed.
A clip from this moment during the podcast has been circulating on social media. After hearing about Meghan’s email writing ritual, some naysayers on X pointed out several flaws in Meghan’s plan. A few critics suggested that her kids probably won’t want to comb through thousands of emails — especially when they’re teenagers.
“Imagine opening up this account and there are 20,000 emails from your unhinged mother,” one critic wrote.
A second added, “My kids won’t even read a text more than a couple lines. Her kids will never care to read 4 emails let alone 4,000.”
Others accused Meghan of making everything about herself. They took issue with the way Meghan said he kids will look at the emails and think “she has loved us so much.” “The emails are not about the kids, they’re about the kids praising her,” one person wrote on X.
Another person agreed, writing, “Note that she always brings everything back to HERSELF, ‘… oh my gosh she loved us so much …'”
One critic concluded that “everything she does is cringe and/or inauthentic.”
But others defended the idea.
You people in the comments… have you ever experienced the death of a loved one?
— ᴛ . ᴛ ☀️ (@MissTimiTimz) May 1, 2025
From your heartless comments & silly jokes, it appears not.
Do you recall her husband's mother died?
This is a warm gift of love & tenderness to go through at their own pace when it is needed💕 pic.twitter.com/PHoEjC76NR
At this point, it seems like Meghan is going to face criticism regardless of what she does. In spite of the backlash, some people liked Meghan’s idea, and even encouraged other parents to do the same thing. One fan of the idea wrote: “I would encourage all parents to do this! For you and the kids! I’ve been doing it about 2 years and very crazy to look back on who you were and how you grow.”
“I actually don’t think this is a terrible idea,” a second person wrote. “Captures those small moments.”
Others noted they wished they had something similar to go back to, especially after losing a loved one. “This is a warm gift of love & tenderness to go through at their own pace when it is needed,” another X user said.
