Why Were Meghan Markle And Prince Harry Just In New Jersey?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have certainly not been wasting their time during their trip to the East Coast, which happens to be their second one within a few months. 

In November, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended the 2021 Salute to Freedom Gala at the Intrepid Museum in New York City, according to People. The royal couple looked every bit the Americana power couple with Harry in a Giorgio Armani tux and Meghan in an eye-popping red custom made Carolina Herrara gown. While on the red carpet, Meghan gushed about her husband, saying, "I'm always proud of him," per Us Weekly, while Harry couldn't help but tell the crowd during his speech that he is most certainly living the life in California. "Just last week, I went for a ride on the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile — how's that for living the American dream," he said, as detailed by Metro.

While this isn't a royal trip per se, you may think it was simply by where Harry and Meghan decided to go for their next stop.

Soon after the Salute to Freedom Gala ended, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wasted no time in making their way from the Empire State to the Garden State to meet with service members and their families at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst on Veteran's Day. According to People, the duke and duchess spent the day at the military base speaking about the importance of mental health, which, of course, is a topic very close to Harry's heart. While Harry admitted that his time in the military "made me who I am today," he said that "in war, you also see and experience things you hope no one else has to." 

These conversations show how Harry is trying to do things a bit differently than his predecessors. Before his grandfather Prince Philip died in April, Harry said that he had developed a strong bond with him because they were both active servicemen. "Going off to Afghanistan he was very matter of fact and just said: 'Make sure you come back alive' ... then when I came back, there wasn't a deep level of discussion, more a case of: 'Well you made it. How was it?' That's how he was," Harry recalled, per the Independent. "He was very much a listener... but he would never probe."

Seeing how Harry is doing a lot of listening these days, we'd say that's a great quality to have inherited from his grandfather. Hopefully, the servicemen Harry met in New Jersey feel the same way.