Meghan Markle has revealed she briefly returned to California to see her young children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, amid her travels between various prestigious events.

The Duchess of Sussex shared the touching disclosure while speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington DC on Tuesday.

Her trip to the US capital was the cherry on top of a busy period for the duchess, who made headlines with her solo appearance at Paris Fashion Week.

Over the weekend, Meghan was also in New York City with Prince Harry. To couple scooped up the “Humanitarian of the Year” award at the Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day Gala.

However, she did not travel directly from France to the US East Coast – instead extending her journey significantly by flying to the other side of the country to California.

Meghan’s short dash saw her spend just one day in Montecito to be with her children before boarding the six-hour flight to the Big Apple.

The duchess was quizzed on the diversion by Fortune’s Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell as they chatted in D.C.

“You’ve been all over the place, and we were talking backstage about how yes, you’ve been to Europe, you were just in New York… and you made it home for one day to see your kids?” Ms Shontell asked.

Meghan Markle has revealed she made a quick stop in California to see Archie and Lilibet amid a bust week of traveling

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Laughing, Meghan exclaimed: “Yes, I had to!”

“We were talking about that because everyone said, ‘Oh, you must have gone from Paris straight to New York,’ and I said, ‘No, I need to see my babies,’” she said.

“So went back to California for a day and then continued on,” the duchess explained.

Elsewhere in their conversation, Ms Shontell asked Meghan the renewal of she and Harry’s Netflix deal, which was inked in August this year.

The duchess explained she made the extensive extra trip because she ‘had to’ be with her children

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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex originally signed a five-year deal with Netflix, after stepping down as working members of the Royal Family in 2020.

In August, Netflix announced the renewal of the couple’s creative partnership through Archewell Productions in the form of a multi-year, “first look deal for film and television projects”.

In her first public discussion of the deal since sharing that she was “proud” at the time, Meghan praised the first look arrangement.

“My husband and I were in an overall deal with Netflix then, not dissimilar to Higher Ground and the Obamas’ deal,” she began.

Meghan was speaking as she attended Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington D.C.

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“Once that had come to its term, the extension of it — which was such an incredible sign of the strength of our partnership — was now being in a first-look deal.

Meghan was keen to stress the “exciting” advantages of her new agreement with the streamer.

“It gives us flexibility to go to our partners first, then at the same time, shop content that might not be the right fit for Netflix but has a home somewhere else,” she explained.

During the conversation, the duchess also shared her thoughts on the future of her lifestyle programme, With Love, Meghan.