As reunions go, it was not at all what I expected. Two hours after greeting my friend Tom Markle, the Duchess of Sussex's estranged father, in his 19th floor apartment in Cebu in the Philippines, on Tuesday night, the building started to sway violently.
As the high-rise block rocked from side-to-side for more than 15 seconds, we could hear the screams of neighbours. I looked at the clock on the wall, 9.59pm. Then I turned to Tom and said: 'I'm terrified.'
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake had just hit.
As we opened the front door and looked into the hallway, I noticed a long crack on the wall that ran the entire length of the corridor.
A woman from Chicago, a single mother, was hysterical as she hurried past in tears towards the emergency exit. 'Get out!' she yelled as she prepared to run down 19 floors to the street because the lift was out of action.
