Meghan Markle’s Phone Number Circulated After a Parents’ Whatsapp Screenshot from Her Children’s UK School

16 Sep 2026, 22:09 · Thought Catalog

Christopher Furlong / Getty Images

Updated 3 minutes ago, September 16, 2026

A screenshot from a parents’ WhatsApp group has pulled Meghan Markle into another privacy flap — this time over something as mundane as a class chat. According to The Sun, which first reported the leak, a screenshot from a group labeled “Year 3” left the chat and circulated, including to the press. Other outlets later confirmed Meghan had joined the group. The episode has been described as a privacy breach and a security concern for the Sussexes, whose children Archie and Lilibet recently started school in the U.K. after the family’s late-August return from California.

Meghan Markle mingles with guests in the Drawing Room at Cardiff Castle during a January 2018 royal visit to Wales. Photo by Ben Birchall / Getty Images.

Meghan appeared in the chat simply as “M” and posted the night before the kids’ first day: “Hi moms! Thanks for the warm welcome ❤️. So happy to be a part of this community xx.” Her personal number was visible to other members because WhatsApp shows a user’s number when you tap their profile in a group. Joining a class WhatsApp with a personal number is ordinary parent practice — the issue wasn’t that she was in the chat, but that the screenshot left it.

The school situation itself shifted fast. Archie and Lilibet attended their first UK school for only two days before being withdrawn, a decision announced around September 14 that a spokesperson tied to discussions with the family’s private security team about “the practicalities of their current arrangements,” including a route “pinch point” that stretched a roughly 35-minute journey. They then began at a different school in the area. Reports differ on which school’s chat is at issue: some place it at the first, others at the second.

At New York City’s Jazz at Lincoln Center, the 2025 TIME100 Summit on April 23, 2025 featured Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, addressing the audience from the stage. Photo by Jemal Countess / Getty Images.

Sources close to the Sussexes called it “disappointing that fellow parents would seek to share such information.” Newspapers reported that the number circulated but stopped short of publishing the digits themselves.

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