American Princess

by Leslie Carroll

  “There’s a lot to do,” Harry agreed, finishing her sentence, as Meghan nodded. “The fact that I fell in love with Meghan so quickly was confirmation to me that all the stars were aligned, that everything was just perfect. It was this beautiful woman who just literally tripped and fell into my life; I fell into her life; and the fact that I know she’ll be unbelievably good at the job part of it as well is obviously a huge relief to me, because she’ll be able to deal with everything else that comes with it. But we’re a fantastic team, we know we are; and we hope to, over time, have as much impact on the things that we care about as much as possible.”

  Harry sees The Firm as a “team” as well. Perhaps he was trained to develop that optic in the army, or perhaps it was why he did well there. So when he was asked by Ms. Husain if Meghan would represent “something new” for the royal family, Harry deftly deflected the question.

  If the interviewer was looking for the prince to discuss Meghan’s race or nationality, or both, Harry wasn’t biting. Instead, he replied that he viewed Meghan as another “member of the team” to carry out their engagements and their work, and to “try to encourage younger generations to see the world in the correct sense rather than perhaps having a distorted view.” It’s possible Harry meant their diversity is a microcosm of a more global sensibility, rather than representing the image of a passé colonial one; or he simply means that he and Meghan have a more hands-on approach to humanitarian work than previous generations of the royal family. Neither of them has ever been content just to cut ribbons. Both Meghan and Harry have become physically involved in their charities, building fences and wells, journeying to villages, and spending days helping to improve conditions. “We don’t want to turn up, shake hands, but not get involved,” Harry has said.

  What Harry’s comment may have meant is that he—along with William and Catherine—is keen to overhaul the British monarchy, to put a youthful modern face on the thousand-year-old institution. “The monarchy is a force for good, and we want to carry on the positive atmosphere that the Queen has achieved for over sixty years, but we won’t be trying to fill her boots.”

  In 2017, Hello! magazine named Meghan their Woman of the Year. After her engagement was formally announced, she swiftly became one of the most famous and photographed women in the world. What’s more, not only had Meghan won the heart of a prince, but she had so charmed the Queen of England that Her Majesty was breaking her own rules to allow Meghan to take part in all of the Sandringham Christmas events as if she were already one of the family.

  On Wednesday, December 20, Meghan joined fifty members of the royal family for the Queen’s annual pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, arriving with Harry in a black Range Rover. A long-lensed photographer managed to snap a photo of her from the shoulders up. Although Meghan was seated and her ensemble was obscured by a shoulder harness, eagle-eyed fashionistas managed to identify her dress, which featured a mock turtleneck black-and-white guipure lace bodice and black crepe skirt, as the Nightshade Midi Dress from Self-Portrait, a London brand also popular with Kate. The frock sold out within hours after the image was posted online, likely by the time the royal family was enjoying a post-prandial brandy.

  Her Majesty’s pre-Christmas lunch marked Meghan’s maiden opportunity to meet the Windsors who inhabit the family’s outer orbit. Only the Queen’s immediate family spends the holiday with her at Sandringham, so the luncheon is the sovereign’s way of celebrating the season with the members of the extended clan.

  Unfortunately, as welcoming as the royal corgis had been to Meghan, one member of the family felt it necessary to remind the American bride-to-be of her, well, roots.

  Princess Michael of Kent, whose views on race are as progressive as Wallis Simpson’s, if not George Wallace’s, wore a large shiny blackamoor brooch pinned to her white jacket.

  The blackamoors were African slave children who were brought to Britain’s royal courts, primarily during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were costumed in exotic ensembles, with turbans, balloon trousers, and Turkish slippers, garments that constituted a romantic vision of the way the British imagined people dressed in Africa and the Ottoman empire. Treated as a charming curiosity, blackamoors served as page boys to members of the royal family. Having a blackamoor in one’s train was a status symbol, akin at the time to owning a rare breed of lapdog.

  Because Princess Michael was a woman who reportedly once told a group of black diners in a New York City restaurant to “Go back to the colonies!” few believed that she had just randomly pulled an old piece of jewelry out of the vault that morning. The personal history of the Czech-born “Princess Pushy” has been too well documented for her pin not to have been a deliberate slur, intended to “stick it” to the newest member of the family. In American culture, the blackamoor pin might be equated with a piece of costume jewelry resembling Aunt Jemima or a lawn jockey.

  Photographs of Princess Michael wearing the offensive brooch went viral and she was vilified for her insensitivity, with calls for the Queen to ban her from future gatherings. The princess issued a toothless apology, claiming that the pin had been a gift from her husband Prince Michael and that she had worn it several times in the past without incident.

  Sadly, the “colonial” attitude toward people of other races has been par for the course for decades among some of the senior royals. The nearly hundred-year-old gaffe-prone Duke of Edinburgh has put his foot in it numerous times on state visits, particularly when in Africa and Australia, where he has made ignorant and insensitive remarks to people of color. The Prince of Wales and Camilla have also endeavored to suppress fits of uncomfortable giggles during tours abroad.

  It has been, and will continue to be, up to the new generation of royals to move the British monarchy into the modern era.

  The day after Meghan had to endure such a rude welcome from the Queen’s officious cousin, her official engagement portraits with Harry were released. Fashion and celebrity photographer Alexi Lubomirski took the photographs at Frogmore, the private gardens situated within the Home Park, a private park adjoining Windsor Castle. Queen Victoria and her beloved consort Prince Albert, the most romantic couple in royal history, are buried together in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore.

  Frogmore indeed derives its name from the multitude of frogs that dwell in this marshy area near the Thames. Any mention of frogs will lead to that of kissing and marrying princes, and the inevitable fairy-tale comparisons!

  The engagement photos did allow Meghan to have a Cinderella moment after all. Some critics derided her choice to pose in a $75,000—and semi-sheer—ball gown with an embellished bodice designed by the British-based Australian house Ralph & Russo. After all, Harry seems to own just one blue suit that he trots out for all special occasions.

  But how often does a biracial American girl from View Park–Windsor Hills marry a Windsor?

  Who wouldn’t wear a phenomenal gown in her formal engagement portraits with him?

  The day was all about Meghan and Harry’s personal lives, yes. But it was also a milestone for the British monarchy, for an American woman, and for that particular American. Aware of the importance and the impact of the occasion, Meghan recognized that it required a special dress. Yet whether she realized it or not, the Ralph & Russo gown Meghan wore for her engagement photos is also reminiscent of the one Halle Berry wore in 2002 when she became the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. Berry, like Meghan, is biracial: her mother is white. Ms. Berry’s first words, after tears amid a standing ovation were “This moment is so much bigger than me.”

  There was additional messaging involved in Meghan’s wardrobe choices. Both her gown and the sweater she wore in the black-and-white photographs were by British designers. She displayed the same sartorial acumen that Michelle Obama and the Duchess of Cambridge have for wearing native designers on their home turf. When Meghan was filming Suits in Toronto, she was known for advancing the work of Canadian labels
.

  The sweater was designed by Meghan’s new friend Victoria Beckham, who in her previous persona as Posh Spice posed with the adolescent Harry at a Spice Girls concert in Pretoria.

  For any photo shoot to be successful, the subjects and the photographer need to establish a rapport. One reason Harry and Meghan’s engagement photos are so engaging, and the two of them appear so at ease in front of the camera, acting as if no one is watching them just be in love, is because they were at ease with the man behind the lens.

  Alexi Lubomirski has much in common with both Meghan and Harry, from his mixed background to his childhood experiences to his passion for giving back to those who need it most. Born in England to a Peruvian English mother and a French Polish father, Alexi is a prince of the Polish Lubomirski dynasty. But after his parents separated when he was only eight years old, he moved to Botswana. Three years later, Lubomirski’s stepfather gave him his first camera. Lubomirski is the author of Princely Advice for a Happy Life, an etiquette book he wrote for his two young sons on the virtue of behaving in a manner befitting a prince living in the twenty-first century. Proceeds from his book sales go to the charity Concern Worldwide, which helps the poorest people on the planet to break out of the cycles of poverty and hunger.

  Of his royal assignment, Lubomirski said, “It was an incredible honor to be asked to document this wonderful event, but also a great privilege to be invited to share and be a witness to this young couple’s love for one another. I cannot help but smile when I look at the photos that we took of them, such was their happiness together.”

  AS THE PAIR continues their journey toward the altar, Meghan has moved across the pond to London to be Harry’s fiancée; and gave up, or is in the process of giving up, her lifestyle blog, her Instagram feed, her American citizenship, her religion, and her acting career. Before she became engaged to Harry, Meghan was shortlisted to be a Bond Girl in Daniel Craig’s next 007 film. The producers’ brief had been to find a rising star, preferably someone American or Canadian. Meghan had caught their eye as Rachel Zane. However, as her relationship with Harry heated up, she was removed from the running. The producers had a hunch she would soon become unavailable.

  But, to paraphrase a line in Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein, what did Harry give up for her?

  In advance of their wedding, Harry has given Meghan quite possibly one of the best gifts of all. Meghan is a nonsmoker, and he has kicked the habit. Smoking is officially banned at Kensington Palace, and Nottingham Cottage is situated on its grounds, but when has Harry been known to obey the rules?

  Harry has always either ignored the rule book or shredded it. He and Meghan already broke royal protocol by being openly affectionate during their first official royal engagement. They held hands and slipped their arms about each other’s waists during a visit to Nottingham for a World AIDS Day celebration on December 1, 2017. The public was delighted to see Harry so happy and in love. They took to Meghan immediately, and the affection was mutual. Meghan and Harry were just as demonstrative in January 2018, when they visited Reprezent Radio in Brixton to learn how young people in the community were using broadcast media for social impact.

  However, certain things about the royal family are set in stone, and one of them is the Court Calendar, which is very much like a twenty-first-century version of a sixteenth-century Elizabethan royal progress. Various months of the year, as well as certain important holidays, are traditionally enjoyed at specific royal residences.

  Christmases are always spent at Sandringham, the Queen’s official residence in Norfolk. Built in 1870, this redbrick manor house has been the private home to four generations of British monarchs. Edward VII threw lavish parties there. Queen Elizabeth’s father died there.

  The Queen has an ironclad rule that only married couples may reside in the main house during the Christmas holiday. Although Meghan enjoyed her first Christmas with her future in-laws in high style, she would not be allowed to stay with Harry in the main house until after their wedding in May 2018. Therefore, rather than endure a Victorian-style separation, the couple bunked with William and Kate and their children in Anmer Hall, the Cambridges’ ten-bedroom, eighteenth-century country home in Norfolk, approximately two miles east of Sandringham.

  Nevertheless, Meghan is the first royal fiancée ever to be permitted to participate in the family’s Christmas celebration and to attend church with them on Christmas morning. When the announcement was made that the Queen was breaking one of her own previously inviolable traditions to welcome Meghan sooner rather than later, some members of the press suddenly became dreadfully prudish. What in blazes had happened? they cried. Kate Middleton was engaged to Prince William by Christmas in 2010, and she received no such invitation!

  But the explanation was simple. Catherine wished to spend her last Christmas as a “civilian” with her tight-knit family at their home in Berkshire; and in the intervening seven years, the Queen mellowed a bit. She and Prince Philip are now both in their nineties, and above all they wished to see Harry happy. If that meant including Meghan at Sandringham when she was still a royal fiancée, then time must march on.

  During Harry’s deployment in Afghanistan in December 2007, he insisted that “Christmas is overrated anyway.” He never could have dreamt that exactly ten years later, his grandmother would give him such a magnanimous present by inviting his intended to join the family at Sandringham. In yet another break with tradition, it may be the first non-gag gift ever bestowed by one of the Windsors on another.

  At the age of ninety-one, Elizabeth II, it seemed, was the one taking after Harry to become a royal rule breaker!

  Sandringham sits on twenty thousand acres of parklands, gardens, orchards, farms, and woods. The estate grows and harvests its own Christmas trees, so every year there are invariably a number of gorgeously decorated stunners on display throughout the home.

  Every Christmas, a Norfolk spruce is chopped down by staff members and decorated with ornaments that belonged to Queen Victoria. Fairy lights are already twinkling on the tree by the time the Queen arrives a few days later. She always has the honor of adding the tinsel and topping the tree with its star.

  When Harry was a boy, he would arrive with his family on Christmas Eve, when he would receive his holiday card from “Granny and Gramps.” The royal children always had their own Christmas cake.

  On Christmas Eve, after their eight P.M. drinks, the family assembles for a black-tie dinner. The menu typically consists of Norfolk shrimp, and lamb or game that has been shot on the estate itself, washed down with champagne and vintage wines. After dinner, the royal family pops bespoke paper crackers that have been embellished with gold or silver crowns. Christmas crackers traditionally have little prizes inside; the Queen evidently loves to read the corny little jokes that pop out when the crackers explode.

  In another tradition that dates back to Victoria and Albert, presents are exchanged on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas morning. The family gathers in the White Drawing Room, a comfortable salon with a cream-colored sofa, white-on-white boiserie paneling, mirrored doors, and glass-fronted curio cabinets. The ceiling is painted in a trompe l’oeil effect with blue sky and birds winging overhead. Wall sconces, the crackling logs in the fireplace, and the sparkling lights on the tree provide the only illumination.

  The royal family does not lavish expensive Christmas gifts on each other. Only gag gifts are exchanged. A separate trestle table covered with a white cloth and piled with presents is set up for each family member. As a boy, Harry was very easy to shop for because he loved anything to do with the army: toy soldiers, toy tanks, and miniature army uniforms.

  Meghan’s gift to the Queen, a singing toy hamster on a rope, was a great success. Thoroughly delighted, Her Majesty evidently burst out laughing, but had only a few moments to amuse herself with Meghan’s present before the royal corgis made a grab for it.

  On Christmas morning, the royals awaken to stockings filled with treats before attending th
e eleven A.M. service at St. Mary Magdalene, a church on the Sandringham estate that dates to the early sixteenth century. On December 25, 2017, as she walked with the rest of the royal family to church, Meghan was attired head to toe in shades of fawn, wearing a beige baby alpaca trench by the Canadian brand Sentaler, American Stuart Weitzman brown suede boots, a $1,550 two-toned Chloé Pixie bag, and a cinnamon-hued toque designed by milliner to the royals Philip Treacy. The hat sparked the most discussion, as it bore more than a passing resemblance to, variously, an acorn, a chocolate truffle; and to its detractors, the poo emoji. The role of royal fiancée on her way to worship with her new family in front of hundreds of fans and all manner of cameras was one that Meghan appeared understandably nervous to play at times; and she kept her arm tucked inside Harry’s during most of the walk to church. It could have been the hat—the first time her ability to blend the traditional with a dash of Hollywood élan seemed to have deserted her.

  The route to St. Mary Magdalene is customarily lined with visitors waiting to catch a glimpse of the royal family. It was especially crowded in 2017, as well-wishers hoped to see Meghan and Harry, as well as the Duchess of Cambridge, so they could offer their congratulations both to the newly engaged couple and the mum-to-be. Tourists began arriving as early as two A.M. on Christmas morning in order to secure an optimal vantage. One young American took the opportunity to propose to his girlfriend as they waited for the Windsors.