Meghan Markle and Prince Harry looked visibly distressed as they stood at the bedside of Maria, a 14-year-old burns victim, at the Speciality Hospital in Amman this week. The Sussexes – on a 48-hour non-royal trip to Jordan – heard how the teenager narrowly avoided amputation of her right leg, losing her toes, after her parents and four other family members were killed in an explosion in Gaza.
“Does she mind showing us?” Harry intervened as Maria’s doctor lifted the 14-year-old’s blanket to show her badly injured foot to the bedside crowd, demonstrating the signature care and compassion that characterised the charity visits of his late mother, Princess Diana – but Maria didn’t mind.
Lifestyle
LET’S UNPACK THAT
Decoded: Harry and Meghan’s next power move
As the royals reel from the fall out from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest, the Sussexes head to Jordan for a charity visit. Lydia Spencer-Elliott analyses what the trip signifies where every outfit and comment has been crafted for maximum impact
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry looked visibly distressed as they stood at the bedside of Maria, a 14-year-old burns victim, at the Speciality Hospital in Amman this week. The Sussexes – on a 48-hour non-royal trip to Jordan – heard how the teenager narrowly avoided amputation of her right leg, losing her toes, after her parents and four other family members were killed in an explosion in Gaza.
“Does she mind showing us?” Harry intervened as Maria’s doctor lifted the 14-year-old’s blanket to show her badly injured foot to the bedside crowd, demonstrating the signature care and compassion that characterised the charity visits of his late mother, Princess Diana – but Maria didn’t mind.
Dr Hamzeh Odeh, the emergency department manager at the Specialty Hospital, said that the Sussexes’ visit – one of many the couple will make to projects they’ve financially backed that facilitate the medical evacuation of children from the Gaza conflict – had been encouraging for staff and patients: “They have a very beautiful touch of humanity and it affects us,” he told reporters. “We take it as appreciation from them to come and say ‘thank you’ for our work – it’s like a very good push forward.”
The praise was a stark contrast to the heat hurtling towards the monarchy back in Britain, where the royal family is reeling from the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Harry’s uncle was last seen looking pale and startled as he attempted to recline out of view in the back of a car while leaving Aylsham police station, having spent 11 hours in custody. But, much like when Andrew was first linked to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Harry didn’t address the arrest.
As Meghan, with Harry at her side, stepped out in Jordan earlier in the day in an all-white £1,500 ivory Veronica Beard jacket, a white T-shirt, and matching trousers, the couple looked like the antithesis of the hell storm circling the monarchy in the UK. Squeaky clean and stainless, literally and figuratively. Accessorising the angelic look with an excited smile, the Duchess appeared eager for her engagements, while William and Kate put on a contrastingly tense display at the 2026 Baftas on Sunday night.
Unlike Harry, William doesn’t appear to have had the option to decline to comment on Andrew’s arrest. He and his father have spoken of their “concern” over the former prince’s conduct, with William adding at the film awards that he was unable to watch the historical drama Hamnet before the ceremony because “I need to be in quite a calm state, and I am not at the moment”. No kidding.
There has been some suggestion that Jordan was a tactless location choice for Harry and Meghan’s charity visit. Kate has a personal connection to the country as she lived there for two years as a child when her father, Michael Middleton, was sent to Amman during his career at British Airways.
