Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited families in Uvalde, Texas, over the weekend, nearly two years after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
On Saturday, John Martinez, whose aunt, Irma Garcia, was one of the teachers killed in the shooting, shared on X, formerly Twitter, that the royal couple came to his house to celebrate his mother’s birthday.
“MEGHAN MARKLE AND PRINCE HARRY CAME TO MY HOUSE !?!?!?! they’re such a beautiful couple and i’m so blessed, so glad they came to check up on the family,” he wrote.
Back in December, Martinez shared a video on X of Markle calling to check in on Irma Garcia’s children on Father’s Day. About 48 hours after Irma Garcia was killed, her husband, Joe Garcia, died of a heart attack.
Prince Harry and Markle also visited Layla Salazar’s family. Layla was one of the 19 children killed during the shooting.
Markle was in Texas to speak on the panel “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen” during South by Southwest in Austin on Friday. Markle spoke about how she was bullied online while pregnant with her two children.
“You have to really wrap your head around why people would be so hateful. It’s not catty — it’s cruel,” she said, according to Variety. “And certainly when you’re pregnant or you have a newborn, as moms you know it’s such a tender and sacred time. And you can either succumb to it or nearly succumb to how painful it is. And maybe in some regards, that mammalian instinct just kicked in: ‘Do everything you can to protect your child’ and as a result protect yourself too.”
Just a few days after the shooting in 2022, Markle visited Uvalde and donated food to volunteers hosting a blood drive. During her visit, she was wearing a baseball cap and mask, leading many people not to recognize her.