Meghan Markle Reads Her Book The Bench on Children’s YouTube Story Channel

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, made an appearance on a children's YouTube story channel on Wednesday, reading her debut book The Bench from the garden of her $14 million mansion.

The £12.99 book, inspired by a poem she wrote for Prince Harry's first father's day after the birth of their son Archie, explores the special bond between father and son as seen through a mother's eyes.

Despite being written by a world-famous author, The Bench reportedly sold only 3,212 copies in its first week in the UK when it was released in June.

It was behind books by Marcus Rashford and Richard Osman at the time and is now outside the top 100 on Amazon.

It is not known if Meghan received an advance for the book or if any of the proceeds will be donated to charity.

Industry experts have suggested that she could have commanded a £500,000 advance alone.

Although the title was the UK's best-selling picture book last week after its release on June 8, it did not perform so well on the wider chart.

However, experts say that it could still make a fortune by being sold worldwide.

Penwin Random House Children's, the German-owned publishers of the book, have the rights to sell the English-language version globally and could also sell translation rights to other publishers.

Tom Tyvern, managing editor of the bookseller magazine, told the Daily Mirror that at a little over 3,000 copies, The Bench is obviously not a huge bestseller in week one and didn't even make the top 50.

In September, Meghan took to the stage at an outdoor reading event in New York to read her children's book to a group of second-grade students.

After reading the book, she took questions from some of the students and asked them what special place they share with the important people in their lives.

“It doesn't have to be a bench.

It can be anywhere where you feel comfortable,” she told them.

Following this, Piers Morgan took a swipe at both Meghan Markle and pop star Madonna.

Piers compared Meghan's “cringe-making display of self-aggrandizement” to that of Madonna growing old gracefully after she read to school children.

He later accused the Duchess of using the reading as a way to increase her book sales.

Then in New York, Meghan and Prince Harry visited Central Harlem.

While on the East Coast, the couple also made an appearance at the Global Citizen Live concert.

The former GMB star claimed that the Duchess' move was to increase book sales while also taking a swipe at her outfit.

“Well, I'm sure we can all agree that nothing screams defeating poverty more than Meghan Markle sporting $100,000 worth of designer clothes, though whoever paid her to wear that unflattering bulky winter wardrobe on warm sunny days probably deserves a refund, and lavishly expensive jewelry as she trotted around impoverished parts of Harlem where she read school kids' extracts from her own book, The Bench,” wrote Piers in his column for the Daily Mail.

In a brutal comparison, the outspoken media personality also took a swipe at the Papa Don't Preach hitmaker over her changing look over the years.

“We were told this cringe-making display of self-aggrandizement was to promote early literacy, but as reviewers of this god-awful pile of bilge have attested, The Bench is to literacy what Madonna is to growing old gracefully.

It takes a special kind of brazen shamelessness to use children who can barely read to fire up your book's flagging sales.”

Despite the criticism, Meghan's book has the potential to make a fortune by being sold worldwide.