Harry & Meghan SEPARATE LIVES

Prince Harry spends more than three weeks away from Meghan Markle - sparking divorce rumors

Her arrival surprised everyone. "I'm just grateful for everything they do," Meghan Markle, in a red-hot Carolina Herrera dress, gushed at the Children's Hospital LA Gala on Oct. 5, adding that she was "happy to be here to support [them]."

But, according to sources, that wasn't her only reason for going. "She only showed up for the red carpet - she didn't even go into the gala, she just went home," a source says of Meghan, who had been on her own with kids Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3, for two weeks at that point, with Prince Harry on a trip to New York, London and South Africa. "It was almost like she was showing him what he was missing." Meghan's surprise appearance and Harry's lengthy absence - only intensified rumblings of a royal divorce. "They spent about 24 nights apart," estimates the source. "Whatever is going on, it's clear they're leading separate lives."

A ROYAL 'TOUR'

Harry was in his element. After rubbing elbows with Queen Mathilde of Belgium at a Sept. 22 World Health Organization dinner during a few days' stopover in NYC to meet with his various charities, the prince, 40, jetted to London for the WellChild Awards on Sept. 30. "From the moment he arrived in the reception room, he had an infectious energy about him, and there were no airs and graces at all," royal watcher Sophie Vokes-Dudgeon reported of his upbeat behavior at the event, which he had previously attended with Meghan, 43.