Meghan Markle fought back tears at a makeshift memorial for the 19 pupils and two teachers killed during Tuesday's Texas school shooting.
The Duchess of Sussex was pictured by the tributes outside Uvalde County Courthouse - not far from Robb Elementary School where 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos struck.
The former actress, 40, laid a bouquet of white roses during her lowkey visit on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the Duchess said she went to the scene of the Texas school shooting in Uvalde in a "personal capacity as a mother" as she wanted to offer her condolences and support in person.
Meghan's appearance in the small community, roughly 80 miles west of San Antonio, was unannounced, and came as a surprise to the grieving town.
She was dressed incognito in a simple T shirt, jeans and baseball cap.
It is unclear whether husband Prince Harry, who lives with her and their two children in Montecito, California, accompanied her on the trip, but he was not seen at the memorial with her.
The Duchess was joined by her head of security Alberto Alvarez who looked on from a respectful distance.
The memorial, overlooking a pond, consists of a series of crosses with tags bearing the names of those who were killed.
The Uvalde shooting is the deadliest attack of its kind since 20 elementary-age children and six staff were killed at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
Ramos was able to enter the school without any confrontation, authorities have said, contradicting earlier reports that a police officer engaged him outside the building.
The teenager crashed his pickup truck outside the school at 11.28am (4.28pm GMT) and fired several shots at two bystanders across the street.
He walked into the school at 11.40am (1640 GMT), Victor Escalon, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, told a news conference on Thursday.
Escalon said officers arrived and entered the school four minutes later but took cover after Ramos fired multiple rounds at them and barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom, where he shot his victims.
An hour passed before a US Border Patrol tactical team breached the classroom and killed Ramos, Escalon confirmed.
The newly detailed timeline came hours after videos emerged showing desperate parents outside Robb Elementary School during the attack, imploring officers maintaining a perimeter to storm the building, with some fathers having to be restrained.
The massacre has reignited a national debate over the country's gun laws.
President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats have vowed to push for new restrictions, despite resistance from Republicans.
