Royals at War

by Dylan Howard

  Two days later, on May 14, Thomas told TMZ that he had decided not to attend the wedding after all. Now his own official mouthpiece, he explained that he’d suffered a heart attack the previous week, and was not fit to travel internationally

  The news was greeted with shock and sadness in London. That night, Kensington Palace released a statement about the situation. “This is a deeply personal moment for Ms. Markle in the days before her wedding,” a palace spokesman said. “She and Prince Harry ask again for understanding and respect to be extended to Mr. Markle in this difficult situation.”

  But the drama was far from over. The very next day, Thomas said Meghan had contacted him about the paparazzi photos and apparently convinced him to come to the wedding and walk her down the aisle. Although he had just suffered a heart attack, he said that he would come once he got the OK from his doctors.

  Now the Palace reformed its plan and prepared to welcome the father of the bride. All seemed well. But then, only a few hours later, Thomas announced that his medics had scheduled his surgery for May 16, meaning he would now be absolutely unable to attend the wedding.

  The next day, Meghan released a statement via Kensington Palace, whose Twitter feed was fast resembling that of a daytime telenovela instead of a royal communications channel. “Sadly, my father will not be attending our wedding,” Meghan said. “I have always cared for my father and hope he can be given the space he needs to focus on his health. I would like to thank everyone who has offered generous messages of support. Please know how much Harry and I look forward to sharing our special day with you on Saturday.”

  Months later, Thomas admitted that he was still making money from paid interviews. “I’m going to defend myself and I’m going to be paid for it. I don’t care,” he told a documentary crew. “At this point, they owe me. The royals owe me. Harry owes me. Meghan owes me. What I’ve been through I should be rewarded for.” Suffice it to say with less than three days to go until the wedding, there was no father of the bride in sight. At Harry’s request, Prince Charles very splendidly stepped in to walk Meghan down the aisle. “I asked him to, and I think he knew it was coming, and he immediately said, ‘Yes, of course, I’ll do whatever Meghan needs and I’m here to support you,’” Harry said in a documentary. “For him, that’s a fantastic opportunity to step up and be that support, and you know he’s our father, so of course he’s going to be there for us.”

  A nation breathed a sigh of relief and Charles began pacing around nervously. Now, with all that settled, Kensington Palace tweeted a stern statement of intent: “This wedding, like all weddings, will be a moment of fun and joy that will reflect the characters and values of the bride and groom.”

  THE POWER OF LOVE

  When the day finally arrived, the ceremony didn’t take place in historic, venerable Westminster Abbey, where Will and Kate sealed the deal back in 2011. Instead, Harry and Meghan opted for St George’s Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle, an intimate venue with a capacity of eight hundred people, compared with Westminster’s two thousand. Its apparent mustiness had been dispelled, to Meghan’s satisfaction, with candles from Diptyque. And so it was to host a truly epochal wedding, unlike anything the Royals had seen before.

  After all the fuss, dramas, family fights, tears, and tantrums, it all worked out in the end. Everyone got their first glimpse at the bride when she traveled to the chapel with Doria, the pair having spent the night before at the exclusive Cliveden House. On arrival, Meghan greeted her wedding party. Young pageboys Brian and John Mulroney—the twin sons of her best friend, Jessica Mulroney—held the sixteen-foot-long train as she made her entrance, applauded by a sparkling array of guests including the Queen, Prince Philip, the Prince of Wales, and the Duchess of Cornwall.

  As Meghan walked up the aisle on his father’s arm, Prince Harry’s nervous, tense expression gave way to a huge grin. Meghan wore a simple, elegant Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy dress, crisp and white with a bateau neckline and a dramatic veil. Her hair was in a low bun, her makeup was minimal, and a smile stretched from ear to ear. As Prince Charles steered Meghan over to Harry, the latter leaned over and whispered in his father’s ear. “Thank you, Pa,” Harry said, before turning to Ms. Markle and saying, “You look amazing. I’m so lucky.” Meghan was clutching a bouquet that featured flowers picked by Harry, just before the wedding. Blooms in the bouquet included sweet peas, lily of the valley, astilbe, jasmine, astrantia, and forget-me-nots, which were Princess Diana’s favorite. Like all royal wedding bouquets, it included a sprig of myrtle, which dates back to the wedding of Queen Victoria.

  The vows had been written by the bride. As with Kate, the traditional promise to “obey” had been dropped. “I, Meghan, take you, Harry, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part; according to God’s holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow.” Harry’s vows echoed those of his new wife.

  Then, in case anyone thought this was going to be just another royal wedding, came the highlight of the day: a show-stopping sermon from Bishop Michael Curry. The first black bishop in the Episcopal church all but set the ancient chapel roof on fire with a sermon, “The Power of Love,” that had the audience eating out of his hands. Indeed, at one point, he cheerily instructed everyone to raise their hands, at which point there were serious fears Prince Philip would spontaneously combust in fury. Everyone survived, despite visible eye rolls from some of the staider guests.

  With windmilling arms, the Bishop stepped up and testified in a captivating, jubilant voice:

  There’s power in love. Love can help and heal when nothing else can. Love can lift up and liberate for living when nothing else will. And the love that brings two people together is the same love that can bind them together. Whether on mountaintops of happiness and through valleys of hardship.

  This love, this is the way of Jesus. And it’s a game changer. Imagine our homes and families when this way of love is the way. Imagine our neighborhoods and communities when love is the way. Imagine our governments and countries when love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when this love is the way. Imagine our world when love is the way.

  The chapel erupted in slightly baffled applause, many just thankful the speech was over. Harry was spotted, gobsmacked, uttering the single word Wow. If the royal rebel had been planning to disrupt the centuries of tradition that accompanied royal weddings, he could not have found a greater disrupter than Michael Curry. The bishop had been allocated five minutes and cheerfully spoke for fourteen. As he got into his stride around the five-minute mark, the Queen retained her Buddha-like otherworldly calm. But as he excitedly approached the ten-minute mark, she coughed warningly. At one point, she was noticed pointedly checking her watch.

  This was followed by a gospel choir singing “Stand by Me,” another first for a royal wedding.

  Truly, this was the wedding of a modern, diverse couple leading the way into a very different future for the Royal Family. Meghan and Harry, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, were delighted. With around 1,900 guests invited to the Westminster Abbey service and a global television audience estimated at two billion people, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding had been a major production. Yet Harry and Meghan showed that weddings of second siblings in the Royal Family aren’t always understated.

  Following their wedding ceremony, Prince Harry and Meghan went on a horse-drawn carriage procession around Windsor. They waved, smiled, and kissed each other as they traveled through the town and back up the Long Walk in the spring sunshine. The crowds lining the route cheered the radiant couple in delight.

  At the Queen’s lavish lunch party for the newlyweds, the cake was revealed. In yet another break from tradition, the cake was supplied by American baker Claire Ptak, owner of the Violet Bakery, an old favorite of The Tig. Unlike the comfortable predictability of Kate’s 2011 fruitcake confection, this
was a lemon elderflower cake with buttercream frosting, decorated with fresh flowers. The plan for the cake, Ptak described to Town & Country magazine, was always going to be unorthodox. “We discussed that they wanted something very unique and outside the box; they didn’t feel that there should be any kind of constrictions to do something within tradition,” she said.

  That evening, a boisterous reception was held at Frogmore House. The couple arrived in style, in a silver-blue Jaguar E-Type Concept Zero, which had a plate numbered 190518 in recognition of their wedding date. Meghan, now Duchess of Cambridge, had changed into a second wedding dress, a high-neck, sleeveless Stella McCartney gown. She paired it with Aquazzurra shoes and Diana’s emerald-cut aquamarine ring, while the new Duke of Cambridge sported an American-style tuxedo.

  The six hundred invited guests included Sir Elton John and his husband, David Furnish; George and Amal Clooney; and an eye-catching transatlantic contingent including several members of the cast of Suits. They feasted on pea risotto and pork belly, as well as slabs of wedding cake and copious quantities of champagne. Harry took to the floor to make an emotional speech in which he moved his wedding guests to tears when he praised his new wife, saying they made a “great team” and that “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.” Predictably, Meghan again upended tradition here, by standing up to make a speech (not usual for brides) in which she thanked the Royal Family for welcoming her and especially, to Charles for being so caring of Doria. “That’s something a lot of people don’t know,” Camilla murmured in earshot of guests: “Just how kind he is.”

  Loads of toasts followed, with guests enjoying a special cocktail featuring ginger (in honor of Harry’s red hair) and rum (not that Meghan was Jamaican) named “When Harry Met Meghan.” Late-night talk show host James Corden served as emcee, introducing various speeches and keeping the comedy vibes going as the party loosened up.

  Wedding guest Peter Fearnhead, cofounder of African Parks, told the Sunday Telegraph: “When Harry and Meghan came in, they stood on the podium and Prince William introduced them. Prince Charles made a really gracious speech, it was amazingly endearing. He’s got a wonderfully dry sense of humor.”

  Charles’s speech gently ribbed his younger son about his childhood antics and included a very informative anecdote about changing Harry’s diaper. He didn’t mention Diana at all. More emotionally, he described how moving it was to watch his little boy get married and finished by saying, “My darling old Harry, I’m so happy for you.”

  William struck a poignant note by reminding guests how proud Diana would have been of the way her younger son had turned out. But as the booze flowed, William and close family friend Charlie von Straubenzee got revenge for Harry’s merciless mocking of his brother at his wedding party, with an ear-burning recital of fraternal tiffs and pratfalls. Harry had visited the van Straubenzees’ family home in Cornwall almost every summer since he was a boy, surfing, relaxing, and exploring local attractions, including cider and pretty girls. So Charlie van Straubenzee and William had plenty of embarrassing anecdotes to share with the audience. Charlie’s brother, Tom, and “Skippy” Inskip then took to the stage, once the older members of the assembly had left, with some cruder nods to Prince Harry’s playboy past. However, there had been strict instructions to downplay Prince Harry’s pre-Meghan Las Vegas trips.

  William put an end to their recounting of increasingly lurid anecdotes by coughing gently into the slightly shocked silence before hammily asking if any of the guests could play the piano.

  Sir Elton John waddled importantly to the stage and kicked off his set with Diana’s favorite, “Your Song,” before playing “Tiny Dancer,” “Circle of Life,” and “I’m Still Standing.” “He was incredible. It became like a miniconcert in the reception area,” said one guest. “Some people were even crying.”

  A close friend of Harry’s told the Sunday Times: “As Elton John was playing, dowagers were sent flying as guests raced to the front to dance.” The friend described the reception as “so much more relaxed than William and Kate’s, just like a lovely, family wedding.” Soon, the atmosphere changed, and DJ Sam Totolee (who also performed at Pippa Middleton’s wedding) started banging out house anthems, a “drinks of the world”-themed bar was available, and candy-floss and “dirty burgers” were offered as midnight snacks.

  After the reception ended, boozed-up guests headed to the trendy A-list hangout the Chiltern Firehouse to carry on the night. Other A-listers who attended the wedding held an “after, after party” at the bar in Marylebone at around 1 a.m.

  As the party faded into the night, Harry and his wife retired to their quarters so Meghan could be up early for her yoga and the pair could begin the first day of their married life—a life that would forever change the monarchy.

  At least one source, speaking to this author, worried that the star-splashed nuptials didn’t bode well for the future. “The wedding, with A-list stars, was showbiz,” said the source. “The whole point about showbiz is that it’s not real. It’s make-believe. It won’t sustain you—and therefore the marriage won’t last. The House of Windsor hasn’t quite disintegrated, but there’s little doubt the Royal Family is fraying at the edges.”

  And everyone is asking the same question—is this a Markle-driven debacle?

  WINDSORS & LOSERS

  Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018 put them on top of the world and made them without doubt the biggest celebrities on the planet. Little would anyone at the time know that it would also represent the absolute pinnacle of their success, and only twenty months later the whole thing would come crashing down as they made their calamitous, shocking exit from the Royal Family, thumbing their noses to both of their families as they decided they knew better and that a Hollywood lifestyle would be more suited to them and their family.

  Not for Harry and Meghan anymore was the stuffy old institution of monarchy, ceremony, and service, forged through hundreds of years by the noblest minds the United Kingdom had to offer.

  The pull of the silver screen, the making of a quick buck, and the glamour of celebrity proved enough to drag them away.

  After Harry and Meghan stepped back, the public’s focus was once again returned to Prince William and Kate—stoic, reliable, and after the flash in the pan of Harry and Meghan, once again the favorite royal couple.

  By now, William, Kate, and their growing brood were becoming a familiar sight to royal watchers around the world. The birth of their third child, Louis, in 2018 had brought another sign of the changing dynamic in the Royal Family. For the first time, thanks to the Queen’s amendment of the laws of accession to the throne, Princess Charlotte remained fourth in line to the throne, instead of being trumped by her new brother. Month by month, the visibility of the Cambridges began to edge on that of the Queen. Charles and Camilla jokingly referred to themselves as Gladys and Fred, the pensioner couple happy in each other’s company, sedately making the rounds of the country. They were the caretakers of the monarchy as the elder generation finally begin to settle down and put their feet up.

  The Queen and Prince Philip, now each well into their nineties, are applying the brakes on their public appearances, after over half a century of royal duty. Philip is now fully retired. Although the Queen—as has been seen during the trials and tribulations of Megxit—is still very much the boss, she has focused her energies on keeping up with the causes and events that are closest to her heart. Otherwise, with some degree of relief, she has let Charles and the family, although wisely not the wayward son Andrew—forced to step down from royal duties—pick up the slack.

  During the past decade, the Palace has been working discreetly behind the scenes, to rotate the “center of royal gravity” away from the monarch to Charles and Camilla, en route to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as one source put it. The Palace has been quietly reassembling the vast complicated network of responsibilities, obligations, day-to-day jobs, and commitments into a new model for the next era. The proce
ss has been discreetly going on for years. So much machinery needs to be recalibrated, so much logistical legwork remains to be undertaken, especially given the rupture caused by the sudden departure of the Sussexes.

  When William finally assumes the role he has been groomed for since birth, he will no doubt seek to modernize and reassess the role of the monarchy as Britain progresses through the first half of the twenty-first century. Will he oversee the House of Windsor’s dwindling from titular head of the nation, as it was in its Elizabethan heyday, to harmless sideshow? A ceremonial bit of window dressing to keep tourists happy?

  Certainly, those who argue for the whole damn lot of ’em to be abolished have had quite a bit of ammunition over recent years. The controversies and upsets we have witnessed over the last decades of Elizabeth’s rule mean that George, Charlotte, Louis, Archie, and their peers will look to their elders and ancestors—Meghan, Harry, Andrew, Diana, Camilla—and question the very nature of their identity and purpose. In what kind of world will they come of age? Will the Brits’ inexplicable sentimentality and deep-rooted fondness for their Royals still course through the nation’s veins? We can only speculate.

  For now, the gradual easing of the Queen’s schedule means the nonagenarian is relinquishing more and more of her routine duties to Charles. Dispensing honors, conducting investitures, undertaking exhausting long-distance overseas tours—Charles is your man. He also has more or less taken over the day-to-day political business that was once the preserve of the monarch, such as the Privy Council, accompanying his mother to the State Opening of Parliament and routine meetings with government ministers, as well as receiving foreign and Commonwealth representatives.