Royals at War

by Dylan Howard

  While the British public certainly enjoyed rebels crashing into the upper tiers of society—Diana is still seen as a saint by many, for the way she shook up the monarchy—the gentry still placed a great deal of weight on protocol and tradition. In these circles, nouveaux riches bores and rule breakers are simply not tolerated. Such individuals are brutally excommunicated in the most insidious manner, so subtly that in many cases, the offending party wouldn’t even realize that they had been sent to social Siberia. They may still attend parties and events, there would be no superficial signs of discord or dislike—but there would be a definite undercurrent, perceptible only to those who were attuned to the faintest of glances and signals. That’s not to say this ever actually happened to Meghan, of course, but it’s known that a significant number of people in royal circles never embraced her at all. They saw Meghan as an interloper, without the pedigree and background deemed essential to match Harry’s.

  It is at this time Harry is said to have privately asked the Queen for permission to marry Meghan, a formality really, but crucial, given his position and Meghan’s status as a foreign-born divorcée. The Queen saw how happy Meghan had made her grandson, how stabilized he now seemed—if somewhat deranged with love. And so she assented.

  That August, Harry swept Meghan off to Botswana. Unlike their previous trip to the country, when no one knew about the pair’s budding romance, this visit was keenly observed from afar as the beleaguered star-crossed couple sought refuge in the one place that brought peace and serenity to Harry. Back at the Okavango Delta, where they had stayed in 2016, with Kensington Palace and lodge managers declining to comment, the two could finally enjoy each other’s company without the rest of the world looking over their shoulders every minute.

  Harry and Meghan slept in a traditional thatched cabin with an outdoor shower and a carved wooden bed looking out over a lagoon where they would enjoy sunset cruises and fishing and where Harry caught a sharp-toothed catfish.

  One local who saw the couple said: “They are like regular guys. They were just relaxed. You could see they were very happy together.” The staff at the Lodge all knew “Mr. Harry” well—he had brought Chelsy to the same place in 2007. After a few days, Harry and Meghan were off, driving eight hours to Victoria Falls and the Tongabezi Lodge, on the banks of the Zambesi River. Despite the heartbreakingly beautiful scenery and solitude, this is not where Harry got down on one knee. It is, however, the place where he secretly sourced something incredibly valuable indeed—something that would soon be encircling a dainty finger.

  Though the couple returned to London without a sparkler on Meghan’s finger, bookmakers stopped taking bets on an engagement being imminent, and every royal watcher in the world knew it was now just a matter of time.

  But this was also a turning point. Meghan was, said aides, starting to make Harry realize the power their relationship wielded. They had an announcement of value, so why not let people wait and speculate? Stir them up into a frenzy. Meghan had always been a canny operator, Harry less so. Meghan saw the enormous power their dual presence had and understood that if she manipulated this immense asset they had, the sky would be the limit! While Harry has always claimed to loathe the press, Meghan was basking in the attention—this beat anything that had happened on Deal or No Deal!

  Meghan knew that this period, before she was ready to allow Harry to announce their engagement, would be the window of opportunity for her to tie up loose ends and capitalize on her unprecedented fame and power as a single woman on the cusp of marriage.

  To that end, she arranged to fulfill one of her girlhood dreams, and in September, she graced the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. It is doubtful whether Suits actress Meghan Markle would have achieved this rare honor, but royal princess-in-waiting Meghan was going to grab the chance, all the same. It was extraordinary, and a sign of things to come. Usually, prospective royal brides were silent ahead of their marriages, demure, dutiful, and discreet. Even rebels like Di or Sarah Ferguson wouldn’t have imagined preempting the accepted protocol of things by spilling all in a revealing interview before their engagement had even been announced. But here was Meghan, doing just that.

  In her gushing interview with Vanity Fair’s Sam Kashner, Meghan alternately told it like it was, or simpered cutely. “We’re a couple,” she informed Sam, while cooking him supper in her Toronto home. Then she managed to flag up the imminent engagement to one of the world’s best-selling magazines, while sweetly affecting a deep need for privacy. “We’re in love. I’m sure there will be a time when we have to come forward and present ourselves, and have stories to tell, but I hope what people will understand is that this is our time. This is for us. It’s part of what makes it so special, that it’s just ours. But we’re happy. Personally, I love a great love story.”

  As they ate, Meghan underlined the burden of her song, in case Sam had missed it. “We’re two people who are really happy and in love. We were very quietly dating for six months before it became news, and I was working during that whole time, and the only thing that changed was people’s perception. Nothing about me changed. I’m still the same person that I am, and I’ve never defined myself by my relationship.”

  That last line rang alarm bells over at Buckingham Palace, where courtiers and Palace officials gulped discreetly as they scanned the article. More drama was clearly incoming. Further panic was occasioned by the cover, which saw Meghan showing off her shapely shoulders, unencumbered by the inconvenience of clothing.

  There was a collective intake of breath over the photographs and the magazine headline “She’s Just Wild About Harry!” The photographs were among the last taken by the late Peter Lindbergh, who, shortly after shooting her, personally told me what a natural Meghan had been in front of the camera and how little encouragement she had needed to come alive for his lens.

  A Royal expert who saw the photos opined thus: “It’s Meghan, the nearly-royal rebel. It is a beautiful and very natural portrait of her. However, her shoulders are bare—it looks as though she could be topless. This is not a way anyone associated with the royal household should present themselves.”

  Needless to say, copies of the magazine were banned from the Palace, and great lengths were gone to ensure the Queen never saw it. A Palace insider admitted that “Harry received a very stern call from his father about this. It was unbecoming, he felt this was the wrong thing for Meghan to do. Charles started to suspect that Harry couldn’t control his fiancée. It started to dawn on him that she was someone who would put up a fight when it came to royal protocols. He also started to realize that despite what Harry was telling him, he was secretly enjoying this. Harry was reveling in the upset he was causing and—as he always had—been the rebellious one, who can’t be controlled.”

  “Just like his mother,” Charles would surely have muttered to himself.

  Some sources claimed Meghan wanted to announce their engagement in the interview, but Harry talked her out of it. But the damage had been done, and the Royal hackles had been raised about this mouthy broad. As one source wearily said, “I think it is a mistake. You can hardly bleat about privacy if you choose to do such things. Ultimately, to make a call on whether this was a good or bad idea, one has to question who this interview actually benefits, and what it achieves.”

  Christopher Andersen, whose book The Day Diana Died had topped e-book charts, told the Daily Beast: “For Harry a large part of Meghan’s appeal is that she breaks—make that shatters—all precedent when it comes to royal brides. She is a television actress, she is American, she is biracial, she is divorced. The fact that Meghan is the last person Britain’s establishment would choose for him to wed makes her that much more irresistible to the renegade prince. Like Kate Middleton, Meghan has played her cards right. She seems utterly unflappable despite all the hounding by the press, and like Kate has demonstrated a remarkable amount of patience. The consensus now in royal circles is that a royal wedding is inevitable, and it will probably take place ne
xt spring. There’s no turning back, really at this stage.”

  At the launch of the Invictus Games in Toronto at the end of September, Meghan was on home turf but, even here, found herself on the receiving end of a huge snub on the opening night. She sat several rows behind Harry, who was cajoled into a VIP box with Justin Trudeau, US First Lady Melania Trump, and various other presidents and dignitaries. This was Harry’s event, and he couldn’t even get his own girlfriend into the VIP box? Meghan put on a brave face but was truly put out.

  However, she took a little comfort in the fact that she knew that had she sat with Harry, it would have made her the center of attention and taken away from the real reason of the day, which was to celebrate the fantastic servicemen. Also, several news outlets noted that per royal protocol, the Prince was not allowed to sit with her until they were engaged. For once, Meghan took a cue from Kate’s playbook by sitting aside to offer support while also letting her boyfriend be the focus of the day.

  Two days into the games, a Royal press officer surprised photographers by suddenly alerting them to keep cool during a game of wheelchair tennis and not leave their places. Sure enough, a ripple of amazement made its way around the stadium as Harry and Meghan strolled in, hand in hand, dressed casually, laughing and joking with each other and taking their places courtside. Meghan was wearing a “husband shirt,” as she had described it on The Tig, designed by her friend Misha Nonoo (it had sold out within minutes of being featured on the blog). Former President Obama, Joe Biden, and his wife Jill also all showed up to hang with Harry at the finale to the wildly successful event, where the Prince took the mic to thank the participants, the crowds, and Toronto for making it such a memorable games. “You have delivered the biggest Invictus Games yet, with the most incredible atmosphere, making our competitors feel like the stars they are.” It was a milestone for the competing athletes and the Invictus project, but for that moment, all eyes were on Harry, standing in the VIP enclosure next to a beaming Doria Ragland and her daughter. Harry leaned over and kissed Meghan, to astonished and delighted applause.

  Game on.

  ***

  On the morning of November 27, 2017, Kensington Palace issued an official statement:

  His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince Harry to Ms. Meghan Markle. The wedding will take place in spring 2018. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course. His Royal Highness and Ms. Markle became engaged in London earlier this month. Prince Harry has informed Her Majesty The Queen and other close members of his family. Prince Harry has also sought and received the blessing of Ms. Markle’s parents.

  Not to be outdone, a joint statement was released by Meghan’s parents, Thomas Markle Sr. and Doria.

  “We wish them a lifetime of happiness and are very excited for their future together.” Meghan had reached out to her father, by now living in Rosarito, Mexico. Thomas Sr. now lived a reclusive life, changing his number and residence frequently. Meghan spoke to him, alerted him of the coming engagement, and warned him he would now be chased by the world’s media. Harry had also called him, to politely ask him for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

  The Queen and Prince Philip weighed in with an assurance that they were “delighted for the couple and wish them every happiness.”

  That afternoon, the world’s media massed at Kensington Palace to meet the couple and have them pose for their official engagement photos.

  The royal couple held their photo call in the Sunken Gardens, one of Diana’s favorite places. Harry, looking stiff and nervous, was gently steered into place by a perky-looking Meghan, who held his hand reassuringly throughout. When asked by the press how they felt, Harry simply replied: “Thrilled.”

  “Very glad it’s not raining!” Meghan piped up, showing she was already a pro at the British habit of making small talk about the weather. “I’m so very happy.”

  When asked when he knew she was the one, Harry said with a shy smile, “The very first time we met.”

  Then the couple walked out into the garden, holding hands. Meghan, wearing a white coat by Line The Label, reassuringly stroked her nervous fiancé’s arm as reporters asked them for details on the proposal. Was it a romantic proposal, Harry was asked? “Of course it was!” he responded tersely, while Meghan softened the reply with a beaming “Very.”

  Of course, everyone wanted to see the ring, which Harry had designed himself. The center stone was a diamond from Botswana, while two outside diamonds had, touchingly, been sourced from Diana’s collection.

  That evening, the BBC broadcast the official engagement interview with the couple, by renowned broadcast journalist Mishal Husein, who had been specially selected by Harry and Meghan in light of her campaigning work to ensure gender equality at the BBC. It was a warm and fuzzy chat—light years from Charles and Diana’s awkward, stilted conversation on their engagement day, much more relaxed even than William and Kate’s rather wooden engagement interview. Harry told Mishal he had proposed to Meghan one evening at home in Nottingham Cottage, while roasting a chicken for Meghan. This became a big story in itself. Why on Earth did Harry take the knee while cooking up a roast chicken supper at home? Had he bent down to inspect the bird in the oven when Meghan walked in unexpectedly? Did he get a cramp and had to come up with a quick excuse? We will never know.

  “It was just an amazing surprise,” Meghan cooed to Mishal. “It was so sweet and natural and very romantic; he got on one knee.”

  (Pundits quickly assumed that the chicken recipe Meghan had dug up in an interview the year before, by Ina Garten, was the one they had been using on the night in question. It was a simple dish, but an old favorite of Meghan’s and, if prepared according to Garten’s instructions, loaded with lemon, garlic, thyme, butter, and onions. The surefire winner is now known worldwide as “Engagement Chicken.” So excited was Garten to hear of her recipe inspiring a royal marriage, she took to Twitter to congratulate the pair, wryly pointing out the romantic properties of her chicken recipe.)

  Harry spoke movingly of his mother, how she would have been “thick as thieves” with Meghan and how having two of her diamonds on the wedding ring ensured that she would be there to “join us on this crazy journey.” “The stars were all aligned,” Harry famously observed, of his whirlwind romance. “It was this beautiful woman who just sort of literally tripped and fell into my life, I fell into her life.” They also revealed Meghan would give up acting to focus on causes close to her heart, working alongside her husband-to-be.

  “I know that she will be unbelievably good at the job part of it,” said Harry.

  The stage was set for the wedding in May 2018, confirmed for St George’s Chapel in Windsor. Meghan had made her way into the Firm.

  Had Meghan Markle dreamed that from the moment of her engagement, she would be living a nonstop life of glamour and decadence, her first engagement as a Royal fiancée put to rest any such romantic notions. On the morning of December 1, 2017, she undertook her first official royal engagement in the prosaic surroundings of Nottingham, in the Midlands. A historic city, most famous for claiming to be home of Robin Hood, it produced thousands of eager people lining the streets to catch a glimpse of the glamorous new Royal-to-be as she accompanied Harry to an AIDS charity care center. There were echoes of Diana everywhere that day, from the absolute pandemonium on the streets to the patients in the center who were impressed with Meghan’s natural ease with them. They remembered Diana’s groundbreaking embrace of an AIDS sufferer in the early 1980s, when the illness was widely feared and misunderstood, and the huge impact the sight of her hugging and comforting the patient had on the public. While Meghan didn’t do any hugging, one prominent UK columnist, Jan Moir, positively reviewed the day, declaring: “Meghan Markle was not born to be a princess, but she moves with ease in her brave new world.”

  ***

  Ahead of Christmas 2018, Harry came up with a cunning plan to soothe any ruffled feathers Meghan had
caused at the highest level of the family, by editing together a YouTube compilation of clips of Meghan in Suits, to play to the Queen and Prince Philip. His editing skills must have been extremely judicious, as the Queen broke protocol to green-light Meghan’s appearance at the family Christmas.

  “WHAT MEGHAN WANTS, MEGHAN GETS”

  Christmas with the family was Meghan’s first major challenge after the engagement. Prince Philip and the Queen kept their misgivings to themselves and tried to forget Harry forcing them to watch Suits and invited Meghan to the first event of the Royals’ festive calendar. At the annual staff party at Windsor, the family celebrated hundreds of royal staff, from courtiers to footmen, butlers to gardeners. This year, there was one member-to-be of the family everyone was dying to meet. Meghan circulated regally around the room, drawing hard-won approval from the cynical staffers. “She asked everyone their name and what they did—she was a natural,” commented one member of Palace staff.

  Harry mentioned later that there was “plenty” that he had to explain to acclimatize Meghan to the myriad traditions and rituals of the Royals’ Christmas, but overall, she had done a “fantastic” job. This in contrast to Diana, whose sighing unhappiness and sulky boredom at family gatherings rarely went unnoticed.

  The couple spent the holiday at William and Catherine’s home, Anmer Hall, two miles from Sandringham, where they played with the couple’s children, George, four, and Charlotte, two.

  “We had an amazing time,” Harry said. “We had great fun staying with my brother and sister-in-law and running around with the kids. Christmas was fantastic.”

  But there was a hint of unease as well in his comments. “I think we’ve got one of the biggest families that I know of, and every family is complex as well,” he said pointedly.

  Harry may well have been referring to rumblings of disquiet behind the scenes at Anmer Hall. The unusual step of welcoming Meghan into the family fold for the holidays at Sandringham was unprecedented—even faultlessly behaved Kate hadn’t been afforded that privilege prior to being married to William, despite their years of courtship and her gradual immersion into the royal bubble. Harry felt that despite the Queen’s generous invitation to Meghan, there was a distinct coolness on the part of William and, by extension, Kate. That was beginning to bother him.