The Duke and Duchess of Sussex named their daughter Lilibet as a tribute to her paternal great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. But what did the late Queen really think of Meghan Markle?
That’s what I’ve been looking into for the next edition of my YouTube television series, Reading The Royals. And that research has raised some troubling questions about Prince Harry and Meghan’s behaviour.
There’s no doubt that the Queen warmly welcomed the American actress into the Royal Family.
The first clear evidence of that came some time before Meghan and King Charles’s younger son had exchanged vows at St George’s Chapel in 2018.
While other women who had married into the Windsors, such as Kate Middleton and Sophie Rhys-Jones, had to wait until after their weddings to be invited to spend Christmas at Sandringham, Meghan was allowed to join Harry in 2017, five months before the big day. It was an unprecedented and highly personal gesture by the Queen.
There was also a reference to ‘new members’ of the family in the Queen’s Christmas broadcast that year, which was widely thought to be another nod to Meghan, as well as to the expected arrival of Prince William and Catherine’s third child, Louis, the following April.
The Californian clearly felt at home at the royal retreat in Norfolk, later saying on her Netflix series Harry & Meghan: ‘I remember so vividly the first Christmas at Sandringham, calling my mom, and she’s like, “How’s it going?” and I said, “Oh, my gosh, it’s amazing.” It’s just like a big family, like I always wanted. And there was just this constant movement and energy and fun.’
Courtiers say the Queen believed that Meghan – a divorced, mixed-race American actress – would be a breath of fresh air and a great asset to the Monarchy.
There’s no doubt that the late Queen welcomed Meghan Markle into the Royal Family. The US actress is pictured on her first engagement, a visit to Chester with Her Majesty in June 2018
Courtiers say the Queen believed that Meghan would be a breath of fresh air and an asset to the Monarchy. She is pictured with Harry and Meghan a month after their wedding in 2018
The Queen fast-tracked her entry into the Royal Family, inviting Meghan to join her at a service to mark Commonwealth Day – her first official engagement with the Queen – two months before the wedding. It was another clear indication that Her Majesty valued Meghan and wanted her to be seen as a part of the family without delay.
However, as the couple prepared for their wedding, the Queen began having concerns about Meghan’s behaviour and approach.
First, she was said to be surprised that the new arrival rejected her suggestion that Prince Edward’s wife, Sophie, offer her guidance on joining ‘The Firm’.
Her Majesty was also taken aback at the divorcee’s choice of a white bridal gown for what was her second wedding – but it was Meghan’s attitude towards her headwear that gave the Queen more serious cause for concern.
She had offered Meghan access to her collection of tiaras and, during what Harry later described as an ‘extraordinary morning’, allowed her to try them on in front of her, her devoted dresser Angela Kelly and a royal jewellery expert in her private dressing room.
Something later went badly wrong, however, when Meghan tried to arrange a fitting with Kelly, who, it seems, did not like the manner in which she was being treated by the bride and groom.
Perhaps accustomed to ordering around underlings on a television shoot, Meghan may not have been used to dealing with someone such as Kelly, who – although a servant – was also a confidante and friend of the Queen.
Harry denied in his memoirs, Spare, that he angrily told Kelly, ‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets.’ He did, however, admit they had been exasperated by the dresser, who ‘fixed me with a look that made me shiver’.
Elizabeth II was taken aback at the divorcee’s choice of a white bridal gown for what was her second wedding at St George’s Chapel
How sad that the Queen’s genuine efforts to welcome Meghan during her final years, when she was in failing health, were thrown back in her face
He added: ‘I could read in her face a clear warning. This isn’t over.’
Despite all the pre-wedding strains, and perhaps a growing apprehensiveness about Harry’s choice of bride, the Queen made sure that Meghan felt welcome in the royal fold.
She gave her the Duchess of Sussex title, and invited her granddaughter-in-law to accompany her on a solo visit to Chester just weeks after the nuptials, prompting Meghan to tell Oprah Winfrey in 2021: ‘The Queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me.’
Other thoughtful gestures by Her Majesty included handing Meghan a role as royal patron of the National Theatre and giving her important positions within the Commonwealth. Meghan was named as the Vice-President of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust in 2018.
How did Meghan repay that generosity and kindness? By announcing, via a statement on the Sussexes’ Instagram page in January 2020, that they would be stepping back as senior working royals.
Meghan then attacked the Royal Family in the most damaging way in that Oprah interview and later, in one of the most cringeworthy moments in her and Harry’s Netlfix ‘docu-series’, appeared to mock the deep curtsy that she had performed in front of the Queen at their first meeting.
I have spoken to staff who worked at the Palace when the Sussexes were working royals, and some of them have told me that they formed the impression from the start that Meghan may not have wanted to make a success of her life in Britain.
She appeared to be actively seeking reasons to be unhappy or resentful, and encouraged Harry’s long-standing bitterness at being the ‘spare’ and not the heir, the courtiers claim.
How sad that the Queen’s genuine efforts to welcome Meghan during her final years, when she was in failing health, were thrown back in her face.
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