After stepping back from royal duties in 2020, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry set up a life in Montecito, California, with their children Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three.
The couple have since embraced their community in Los Angeles, and as an added bonus, Meghan now lives closer to some of her closest and oldest pals— one of whom is Kelly McKee Zajfen.
Here's everything you need to know about Meghan's best pal.
Who is Kelly McKee Zajfen?
Kelly McKee Zajfen is a former model who founded co-founded Alliance of Moms, a non-profit that supports pregnant and parenting teens in the foster care system. It is an auxiliary group of the Alliance for Children's Rights, a non-profit that provides free legal services and advocacy for caregivers, adoptive parents, children and teens in L.A.’s foster care system.
What happened to Kelly McKee Zajfen’s son?
Kelly’s son George sadly died aged nine in July 2022 after being found unresponsive in their family home.
Kelly wrote a first-person essay for People about her experience with grief and how she, her husband Julian, and their daughter Lily— George’s twin sister— manage to face each day.
In it, she wrote, ‘It happened very quickly. We had no idea when we took him into the hospital that 12 hours later, he would not make it. My 9-year-old son George died. Died of Covid and viral meningitis. A healthy and vibrant boy could not fight it. We lost him. I kissed him. But it was to say goodbye. It is impossible to know how to survive this type of grief. Even more impossible is the ability to find all the right tools that will help you manage each day. I definitely do not have all the answers.’
How did Kelly McKee Zajfen meet Meghan Markle?
Kelly met the Duchess through Meghan's ex-husband, Trevor Engelson, who a is friend of Kelly’s husband, Julian.
The pair remain close friends, and after the death of Kelly’s son, Harry and Meghan donated $5,000 to a GoFundMe fundraiser in the names of their children Archie and Lilibet.
When did Kelly McKee Zajfen get married?
Kelly married entertainment lawyer Julian Zajfen in 2010.
What condition does Kelly McKee Zajfen’s daughter have?
Kelly’s daughter Lily was born with a heart condition and received a pacemaker when she was two-and-a-half years old.
She told Dôen, ‘It was something that certainly rocked our family. In a totally unexpected way, I gained more strength than I ever knew. All of our friends and family rallied around us and gave me tools to find the happiness in this journey. As a woman, we struggle enough with beauty, body, acceptance - it was something I had to really look at myself. How would I teach her that having a pacemaker, a heart condition, something that affects her every single day and will single her out, cause her pain, and make her feel things in ways I can’t imagine myself... how do I make her feel powerful? Beautiful? Happy? And in my desire to search, my little superhero has gone above and beyond and taught me what powerful, beautiful, and happy was.’
Does Kelly McKee Zajfen have an Instagram account?
She does, and you can follow her at @_heartmom_.
Sarah O'Byrne is a writer for Grazia, heat, Closer, Yours, Bella and Crime Monthly. She focuses mainly on celebrity and entertainment news.