During a New York visit with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle read her children’s book “The Bench” to pupils at a Harlem elementary school.

In a video taken by news reporter James Ford, Harry can be seen sitting cross-legged next to a group of children while Meghan reads the text and shows pictures from it. Their objective was to encourage early literacy.

“I wrote this when we just had our little boy, and I haven’t read it to any other kids but you!” she told them.

Meghan dedicated her book to “the man and the boy who make my heart go pump-pump,” and she explained to the kids that she coined the term while educating her 2-year-old son Archie about the heart.

During her reading, the Duchess sat on the school’s playground, dressed entirely in red.

Meghan’s first book explores the story of a particular bond between a father and son through the eyes of a mother, and the Duchess has previously said that Harry and Archie, her firstborn, were the inspiration for it.

Meghan told the youngsters a touching story about the book’s importance, according to local news station ABC7 New York.

“For me, the idea of The Bench is it doesn’t have to be a bench, it could be a chair, it could be any place, just a special place where you feel comfortable,” she explained. “I was, at the moment, witnessing my husband with our son when he’d just been born, and watching that this could be a place where they could continue to grow and connect and learn, and that could be anywhere. So it’s about finding that special place for you that’s in your heart, and wherever you find it, to always go and reset and go, ahhhh, this feels good.”

She also explained that at the core of the book is “the idea of representation … [when you’re able to say,] ‘That looks like me!’ … I wanted everyone to be included in this book.”

Meghan Markle Gotham/GC Images

Principal Melitina Hernandez, who was joined by two student ambassadors, was also seen showing the pair around the campus.

Harry and Meghan gifted two garden boxes packed with vegetables and herbs to assist the school’s ongoing community activities.

Meghan and Harry also visited a painting made by fourth and fifth grade children at the school before the reading.

Meghan and Prince Harry were given pink paper hearts with personal stories and tributes by the pupils, and Meghan read through them one by one, engaging with the students by name.

The royal couple’s Archewell Foundation is partnering with Procter & Gamble to provide health goods for families at the school, as well as a washing machine and dryer for the uniforms of pupils.

In addition, the Duchess is donating reading nooks to a number of Graham Windham sites in New York to help families have access to literature.

“It was really extraordinary because [Meghan] just wrote a book,” art teacher James Reynolds tells HELLO! “We just got back into school after a year and a half and the kids were really excited about creating this mural because it was a complete surprise to them, and so being able to meet her was a chance of a lifetime.”

“So everybody was really excited, it was a secret from all of us over the course of the week, so it was just a marvellous experience for them to come. And for her to read, she said the only other time she’s read the book was to her own children.”

Prince Harry Lanford Beard

The students “were just eternally grateful that [Meghan] took the time to stop by,” he continued.

Meghan looked gorgeous in a burgundy three-piece ensemble with matching shoes. Her long, wavy hair was arranged loosely. Harry, on the other hand, was dressed in khakis and a long-sleeved shirt. As they talked with others at the school, both wore black face masks.

When the couple arrived at the school’s playground, they were asked how Archie, two, and Lilibet, three months old, were doing. “They’re good!” Meghan responded.

Gotham/GC Images

Meghan and Harry began their visit to New York on Thursday morning with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Kathy Hochul at One World Observatory at the World Trade Center, where they visited the 9/11 Museum and Memorial, followed by a Thursday afternoon meeting with US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

According to the Daily Mail, there was a “important discussion” on the coronavirus during their UN meeting. They also talked about racial justice and mental wellness.