Photo: Instagram/@sussexroyal
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have won an award for their decision to have no more than two kids. In light of UN’s World Population Day on July 11, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were given the award by Population Matters. The UK charity campaigns to achieve a sustainable human population and said it was an “enlightened decision” by the pair, parents to two-year-old son Archie and newborn daughter Lilibet.
The charity sees population growth as a major contributor to environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, and climate change, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are helping to ensure “a better future for their children” and “providing a role model for other families,” according to the charity organization.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry for their second pregnancy’s announcement. Instagram/@misanharriman
“Having a smaller family reduces our impact on the Earth, and provides a better chance for all our children, their children and future generations to flourish on a healthy planet. We commend the Duke and Duchess for taking this enlightened decision, and for affirming that a smaller family is also a happy family,” spokespersons for the organization said.
The couple has been given the award with nine others, and each recipient will receive a £500 donation for a charity of their choice. In 2019, Harry and Meghan revealed they only had plans to have two children to lessen their impact on the environment, telling Vogue: “Surely, being as intelligent as we all are, or as evolved as we all are supposed to be, we should be able to leave something better behind for the next generation.”
Other winners include Wendo Aszed, founder of a women’s empowerment and community health project in rural Kenya, Emma Gannon, author of Olive, a best-selling novel addressing the choice to be childfree, and Nairashe Maritsa, a teenager fighting child marriage in Zimbabwe.
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