by Dylan Howard
To add insult to injury, many of the stories originated with Meghan’s estranged family members. Her stateside relatives—most notably, her estranged father, Thomas Markle, and her sister, who referred to Meghan as “Princess Pushy”—served as a dial-a-quote service to media outlets looking for commentary and headlines.
It’s all been quite embarrassing. A poll published in August 2019 indicated that Queen Elizabeth was Britain’s favorite member of the Royal Family, with a whopping 73 percent favorability. Duchess Kate ranked fourth, behind Prince Harry and Kate’s husband, Prince William. Meghan came in at number seven, after the wildly mocked Prince Philip and her father-in-law, the famously unloved Prince Charles. Indeed, Meghan’s popularity had dropped six percentage points from the previous year.
“Part of the problem seems to be Meghan and Harry’s perception about their place in the world,” a source said. Critics chastised that they acted like VIPs, not public servants. “Do they want to be American celebrities or hard-working members of the British Royal Family?” asked Princess Diana’s former private secretary, Patrick Jephson. It seems we now have our answer, as the pair have turned their backs on the Royal Family and relocated to Los Angeles.
Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, would have been “appalled” by the young couple’s behavior, claimed Lady Colin Campbell, a royal commentator. “She was very aware of how important it was to be gracious, while Meghan—and Harry to an extent—trot out the charm when it suits them but are otherwise graceless.” She felt Meghan, “a very proud hustler,” should keep in mind that being a member of the Royal Family is about service, not “hustling your way from the bottom to the top.”
In a damning op-ed, British television host Piers Morgan, a former CNN anchor, went so far as to accuse Meghan and Harry of “exploiting” the tragic death of Princess Diana for their own financial gain.
Morgan—an outspoken critic of Meghan’s since her engagement to Harry—slammed the couple over their reported appearance at a JP Morgan event in Miami, Florida. Referring to Harry’s ongoing struggles with grief in the wake of his mother’s death, he wrote, “There’s a big difference between talking about it to raise public awareness of grief-related mental health issues—and doing it privately for a big fat fee to a bunch of super-rich bankers, business tycoons, politicians and celebrities.”
Fortunately, the Duchess has some strong supporters in the Royal Family—chief among them Prince Harry, of course. In 2019, he publicly sprang to her defense by condemning the “ruthless” treatment she had encountered in the media. “I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been,” Harry said in a statement, adding that he had been “a silent witness to her private suffering for too long.” Comparing Meghan’s plight to what his mother, Princess Diana, encountered, Harry announced that he was taking legal action against a British tabloid newspaper that printed one of Meghan’s private letters.
At that moment in time, Queen Elizabeth was said to be a source of strength for Meghan. “The Queen had been supportive, despite what others were saying,” said the friend. “At the end of the day, HRH (Her Royal Highness) is a reasonable woman and accepts that marrying into the Royal Family isn’t easy and mistakes are going to be made.”
The successful royal tour of South Africa was widely seen an excellent first step toward becoming more respected in the public eye.
Even Lady Colin, who has been one of Meghan’s most ardent and outspoken critics, admitted that there was still time for the young royal to turn things around. “I’m rooting for Meghan,” she said after the visit. “But I think the verdict is out at the moment.”
A COMMONER PRINCESS LIKE NONE BEFORE
As the sun rose over Windsor on the morning of Saturday May 19, 2018, the rays pushed away the swathes of early morning mist to reveal hundreds of forms huddled on the pavement and along the famous Royal Mile. They emerged from sleeping bags, set up deckchairs, and organized those first, essential flasks of tea.
As the trains from London began arriving—the 0518 from Paddington being the first—a steady stream of jubilant revelers in party attire waved Union Jacks, the national flag of the United Kingdom. The streets were filled with that peculiarly British sense of shared anticipation and excitement that appears only in times of national crisis or celebration.
It was the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle—a day that would transcend even the traditional pomp and pageantry of a British Royal wedding and instead become a true moment of world history. Not only had the third in line to the British throne chosen to marry a commoner, he had chosen a tough, confident, biracial American actress to be his wife and helpmeet. In doing so, he had turned centuries of tradition upside down.
As the morning wore on, the sun blazed down on the crowds. As with any occasion in Britain, this elicited a vast communal sigh of relief among spectators—but clearly, even a torrential downpour wouldn’t have dampened the spirits. Thousands of well-wishers now stretched along the two-and-a-half-mile length leading up to the historic St George’s chapel, where the nuptials would take place. They were six, seven deep along the tree-lined Long Walk, Castle Hill, and Windsor High Street.
Shortly before 10 a.m., Harry and Meghan’s guests began arriving, an uncommonly cosmopolitan collection of superstars, nobles, and dignitaries. Cheers of recognition went up as Oprah Winfrey, Idris Elba, Earl Spencer (the brother of Diana, Princess of Wales), George and Amal Clooney, and David and Victoria Beckham made their way to St George’s chapel.
The couple had extended invitations to six hundred VIPs and a lucky two thousand members of the public to view the ceremony from the grounds of the castle, chosen for their work with charities and good causes. They were invited into the most exclusive fold, directly in front of the chapel itself, where they not only enjoyed a front-row view of the arriving guests and the ceremony, but even received official goody bags—totes branded with Harry and Meghan’s initials and stuffed with special commemorative chocolate, shortbread, a magnet, a bottle of Windsor Castle water, and a wedding program. When some of the privileged special guests took their wedding swag to eBay within hours of the wedding, frantic bidding saw bags being sold for five-figure sums.
That morning, the Queen, Elizabeth II, as is traditional on such occasions, blessed the impending union by bestowing official titles upon the couple. Now, like his brother, Harry was a Duke and Meghan, like her counterpart Catherine, a Duchess.
Referring to Harry by his real first name, palace said, “The Queen has today been pleased to confer a Dukedom on Prince Henry of Wales. His titles will be Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton, and Baron Kilkeel. Prince Harry thus becomes His Royal Highness The Duke of Sussex, and Ms. Meghan Markle on marriage will become Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex.”
“Today will be the most amazing party on the planet,” said one spectator. “Harry is marrying an American—if that’s not reason for a global celebration, what is?”
Little did anyone suspect at that time the Prince and his new bride would be made to stop using their Royal Highness titles less than two years later.
When Harry announced his engagement to Meghan in November 2017, the world collectively whooped with joy and then immediately began to consider what it meant for a biracial woman to marry a prominent British royal. Markle was celebrated by some as Britain’s first “black princess”—a milestone for a Royal Family that had presided over centuries of slavery and colonialism. (The House of Windsor was formed after the monarchy changed its name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor because of anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom during World War I.) The union of Harry and Meghan wasn’t just a coming together of two young, adorable lovebirds. A more profound occurrence was to take place—a reconciliation and uniting of two very different histories. Lineages that had enjoyed privilege and nobility would entwine with those that had suffered oppression and slavery. The modern day Black-American experience would penetrate the fusty walls of Buckingham, Windsor, Balmoral, and Sand
ringham.
Past the headlines, the truth of the matter was more complex. Harry is a cocktail of bloodlines, reflecting the tangled ancestral history of the British Royal Family. Meghan can trace her ancestors back to slaves and British nobility. This was going to be one hell of a marriage.
In the outpouring of media analysis and commentary in the wake of the couple’s announcement, much was speculated about the heritage of Prince Harry’s future wife. One eminent genealogist sought to allay the fears of the more wary British by uncovering a distant link between Meghan’s family and the Royals. According to genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts, Meghan is a direct descendant of England’s King Edward III, who ruled from 1327 until 1377—which would technically make her and Harry seventeenth cousins. (The link was discovered to be through a certain Rev. William Skipper, a royal descendant who arrived in New England in 1639 and a distant forebear of Thomas Wayne Markle). Another expert discovered that, in the 1500s, one of Harry’s ancestors, the notorious King Henry VIII, ordered the beheading of Lord Hussey, first Baron Hussey of Sleaford and another Markle ancestor. (One wonders whether this topic has ever come up during Christmas reunions at the Buckingham Palace dinner table.)
Born in Los Angeles in 1982 to parents Doria Ragland and Thomas Markle, Meghan enjoyed a happy and successful childhood, due in no small part to her innate sense of self-worth, determination, ambition, and guts. She was nicknamed “Flower” by her family for her sunny disposition and charismatic personality, but the question of her heritage and identity dogged her through her formative years, as her parents split and she grew up with her mother. As she encountered racial prejudice in school and from the world at large, she was never sure if she identified as “black” or “white.” She often tells a story of a childhood dilemma in which she was asked to complete a registration form, ticking a box for “white” or “African-American” and not knowing what to do, for fear of upsetting one of her parents—she instead followed her father’s advice, when she told him what had happened. “Make your own box, Meghan,” he said.
That sunny morning, as a vintage Rolls Royce Phantom IV from the Queen’s personal stable of luxury British cars drove Meghan and her beaming, tearful mother to the ancient Windsor chapel, where her Prince stood in military regalia waiting for her to marry him and become one of the most admired women in the world, Meghan must have reflected on that pivotal moment from her childhood. That moment when she decided that if there was no box for her to fit into—well, she would make that box herself.
FORCED TO FLEE
It was supposed to be a real-life royal fairy tale.
Britain’s own Prince Charming sweeping an American actress off her feet and pledging a life of service to the Crown. Unlike Harry’s mother, Meghan hit the ground running. Having learned valuable lessons from the tumultuous time Princess Diana spent as a member of the Royal Family, the Queen was determined that Meghan would have every support to help her navigate the first few months of her life as a Royal.
The country was in a haze of love for the new recruit to the family. An estimated 1.9 billion viewers had tuned in around the world to watch the couple exchange vows, and the wedding had pumped about 3.5 billion pounds into the British economy. She was clearly a valuable asset to the Firm.
The Queen had formed a bond with the American in the run-up to the wedding. Still, she shrewdly loaned her one of her most trusted aides, Samantha Cohen, in order to ensure that an old hand be present to keep an eye on Meghan. She didn’t want her making any major blunders along the lines of Sarah, Duchess of York’s un-royal missteps and meltdowns. Those ranged from topless tabloid photos while her husband was away serving in the royal navy, to selling out access to her ex-husband, to taking a three-million-dollar contract with Weight Watchers after being cruelly dubbed the “Duchess of Pork.”
The fact that Harry was still dazed with love and devotion to his new wife made things much easier all round. Meghan naturally took the lead in the marriage and embarked on her new life with tail-wagging enthusiasm, while in public, Harry skulked awkwardly in the background, happy to let her get on with it.
Weeks after the wedding, Meghan undertook her first joint engagement with the Queen—a monumental ascension within the Firm’s ranks. Notably, this came far sooner than Kate’s first public visit with Her Majesty. The pair opened the Mersey Gateway Bridge in Cheshire and the Storyhouse Theater in Chester, and attended a lunch at the Chester Town Hall. Against all odds, the event was a success. Traveling to Chester in the Queen’s private train—another very high honor indeed, seeing as not even William and Harry have been permitted to use it—Meghan and her then ninety-two-year-old grandmother-in-law laughed, joked, and chatted with each other. The Queen was sufficiently chilled to indulge Meghan a slight mix-up about who should get in a car first (clue: not Meghan). Meghan made sure that she was deferential and polite to the monarch and behaved with immaculate elegance. For her part, the Queen was seen nattering happily to Meghan throughout the day and even roaring with laughter at one point. As a gift, the Queen gave her a pair of diamond earrings to mark the occasion.
Video from the event shows Meghan was also working hard to ditch her California twang and instead adopting a slightly wobbly British accent as she greeted rambunctious crowds. One woman yelled out to Meghan asking how she was enjoying her new role. “It is wonderful, I’m really enjoying it,” Meghan said, sounding like a tipsy Sloane—a British reference to a young woman from a rich upper-class background. The woman then told her to “give our love to Harry,” to which the Duchess replied: “Ay will do. That means an orful lot to us. He’s the best husband evah.”
But inside Buckingham Palace, and behind the scenes, things weren’t as they seemed. Following whispers of tension between the pair, all eyes were on Kate and Meghan as they attended the Women’s Singles Final of the US Open on July 14. Meghan’s close friend, Serena Williams, was facing down Angelique Kerber, a three-time German Grand Slam champion who’d unwittingly been cast in the most-watched event in the world … and it wasn’t because of what happened on the court. Given her close friendship with Serena, Meghan had chirpily offered to get Kate a courtside seat, to which Kate politely replied that actually, the Royal offices could sort that out for them, according to a source. The two sat by each other in VIP seats, making polite small talk. There was no roaring laughter or diamond earrings in this case.
The wariness felt by some of Harry’s older friends began to make itself known that summer. “Skippy” Inskip, a pal, felt he was being distanced from the Duke of Sussex. Perhaps it was because of his rather juicy speech at the wedding, full of racy tales and fond memories of bad behavior, such as the infamous time when Harry was caught on camera cavorting naked during a game of strip billiards at a “high rollers hotel suite” in Las Vegas in 2012. What happened in Vegas on that occasion certainly didn’t stay there, and pictures of Harry naked and hiding his modesty were circulated around the world.
While embarrassing for Buckingham Palace originally, with the passage of time, it became somewhat of a folklore story.
Six weeks after their own wedding, Harry and Meghan and the Windsors were back at St George’s Chapel, this time for the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, a British wine merchant and brand ambassador who married the youngest daughter of Sarah, Duchess of York, and Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Onlookers were astonished at the change in Harry in such a short period of time. Far from being the cheeky life and soul of the party, he looked tense and unhappy. They sat next to a beaming William and Kate, looking as if they’d just had a major fight. At one point, Meghan even turned to Harry and snapped at him. Using film from the event, body language expert Judi James noted: “For some reason Harry looks distracted and fidgety as they wait in the pews, while Meghan sits facing front and looking demure and impervious, with a polite social smile on her face.”
She added, “Harry mutters something to Meghan and her eyebrows raise before she turns her head towards him, using what lo
oks like an emphatic gesture with each word of her reply.” Meghan continued her conversation with Zara Tindall (the daughter of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips and the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II) on her other side, leaving Harry looking visibly upset and discombobulated, as if he had been told off by an angry parent. “Harry rubs his face, chews his lips, and leans into the side of his seat like a child that has just been told to sit still,” observed James.
To the family, the unease they had felt about Meghan’s control over Harry was now becoming stronger. While his discomfort with the press and being watched all the time like a hawk was known and understood, he was a dutiful young Royal, good-looking, charismatic—and a brave soldier. What’s more, he was known as a clown who could laugh easily at himself. Within his trusted circle of friends and family, Harry’s company was usually a riot of cackles and giggles. But now—suddenly—it appeared that Meghan had changed him.
Later on at the reception Meghan put her foot in it when she decided that it would be the ideal moment to announce that she and Harry were expecting their first child. This was a huge social gaffe, even if you were not a Royal—stealing the limelight from Eugenie, who was furious, as was her mother, Sarah.
Harry would have been only too painfully aware just how big a no-no this would be, yet he went along with Meghan’s wishes. Following the wedding and the premature announcement, there were also some concerned discussion within the family about the speed at which Meghan had gotten pregnant, ensuring her connection with the family was now irrevocable and ceding even more power to her.
The next day, Harry and Meghan departed for Sydney, Australia, for the first stop of their first royal tour, where, on arrival, they announced their pregnancy to the world at large. The Australians—for whom the Queen serves as the nation’s sovereign and head of state—were thrilled for the couple, as Meghan played the perfect part of newlywed Duchess. As Harry bumbled and wilted in the periphery of the spotlight, Meghan shone.