There were other forfeits, too. Following the public announcement, she resigned from her position as global ambassador for World Vision Canada and stepped back from her involvement with gender equality and women’s empowerment in organizations like United Nations Women and One Young World. Now that she was inside the wrought iron palace gates, she had to play by their rules.
Politics in particular is firmly out of bounds. Meghan has previously used her celebrity to back Hillary Clinton, lament Brexit, and attack Donald Trump as “misogynistic” and “divisive.” Such strident opinions will be muted by palace protocol that aims to prevent royals—not always successfully—from publicly expressing views on political figures, parties, and issues.
Her communications secretary, Jason Knauf, told around a hundred journalists who arrived for a briefing at Buckingham Palace that, after touring the country, her withdrawal from her existing humanitarian work would give her a “clean slate” to judge where to invest her time and talent. It will be a struggle and a test for a woman who has grown used to enjoying a public platform. As a friend of Meghan’s noted: “She is going to bring a lot of diversity and new ideas, new ways of doing things. She is not just going to blend into the royals.”
During their engagement interview, Prince Harry hinted at the future direction the royal couple may take, working with young children in Commonwealth countries where her mixed-race heritage will be a positive asset. In April the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, known as CHOGM, took place, giving Harry the chance to introduce his bride-to-be to some of the heads of state of the fifty-two countries in attendance in central London. It was a primer for Meghan’s future role inside the royal family—and her first taste of a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.
A royal insider said: “Prince Harry will definitely have a role to play, and now he is marrying Meghan Markle, CHOGM would provide the perfect opportunity for her to find out more about the Commonwealth.”
Amid the back-and-forth about her future royal career, there has also been talk of family matters, Harry saying in their engagement interview that the time for children would be “in the near future.”
Though Meghan upon marriage will be conferred with the appellation Her Royal Highness and become a duchess—the smart money is on Sussex—she is going to retain her American citizenship at least for the time being. This means she is still eligible to pay American taxes. In parallel, she is going to apply to become a British citizen, a process that can take up to three years. The application culminates in a quiz about British history and culture. Given her poor performance in that television quiz back in July 2016—where she was tested on cockney rhyming slang and the national animals of the British Isles—few thought she would do well.
She would not be the only one. After all, a YouGov survey showed that when the quiz was given to a group of Brits, half of those under the age of twenty-four flunked the exam. Some respondents thought that Hawaii was part of Britain and that National Insurance was used to pay for supermarket home deliveries. Other questions on the $65 test, such as what is Vindolanda (a Roman fort north of Hadrian’s Wall) and the Statute of Rhuddlan (the annexation of Wales to England), left even social historians baffled.
There were other life changes as well. As she and Harry were marrying in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle under the auspices of the Church of England, Meghan, whose father is Episcopalian and whose mother is Protestant, the faith she was born into, had to be baptized and confirmed before the May celebration, a procedure that is seen as an “important milestone of faith.” Her former religious studies teacher at Immaculate Heart, Maria Pollia, has no doubts that Meghan will “utterly astound and delight” clerics from the Church of England when she undertakes her studies in preparation for her induction into faith. “She will understand the liturgy and sacrament, not to mention demonstrating the depth of her theological appreciation.”
From the beginning, the couple was determined to have control over the wedding day itself. As their communications director, Jason Knauf, said:
“The couple of course want the day to be special, celebratory moment for their friends and family. They also want the day to be shaped so as to allow members of the public to feel part of the celebrations too and are currently working through ideas for how this might be achieved. This wedding, like all weddings, will be a moment of fun and joy that will reflect the characters of the bride and groom. Prince Harry and Ms. Markle are leading the planning process for all aspects of the wedding.”
It will have relieved Tom Markle Senior to know that the royal family was paying for the flowers, reception, the service, and the music. He or Meghan would only have to shell out for her dress.
It was like a rebirth: a new religion, a new country, a new culture, a new language (sort of), and certainly a new career. In making a new beginning with the man she loved, she was also giving up a lot. She could never again wander down to the shops without a bodyguard, never take her dog Guy for a walk on her own, never tell the world about a passing thought or fancy on Twitter or Facebook. In short, her life would never be the same again.
Almost overnight she and Prince Harry were the most famous couple on the planet and “Megan Markle” the most googled name of 2017. She had been blessed with a gift, a gift that would challenge and fulfill her, giving her the kind of access and influence she never dreamt of. Her next test was how to use that gift wisely.
13
The Billion-Dollar Bride
The moment Meghan Markle said, “I will,” you could almost hear the cash registers singing. Within minutes of committing to the royal family, the recently retired actor spawned a one-woman industry to rival any Hollywood blockbuster.
Everything from the coat, dress, and boots she wore for her engagements to her eye shadow, nail polish, and sweaters—even her cute turned-up nose—was copied, imitated, advertised, and sold. She was big business, very big business, the fairy dust of royalty boosting fashion brands, tourism, and even plastic surgery. The white wool coat by Canadian company Line the Label that she famously wore on the day of her engagement announcement sold out within minutes, leaving eager customers no option but to add their names to the four-hundred-strong wait list. It was relaunched the following spring when it had been renamed “The Meghan.”
Meghan mania gripped the nation. Newspapers printed special supplements about the life and times of Britain’s newest “Mega Star,” to steal the Sun’s headline. In a declining industry, the hope was that Meghan, like Diana before her, was the new golden goose who could lay profitable circulation eggs.
Step aside, Kate Moss, there was a new queen of the High Street in town. Everything Meghan touched or wore transformed lives—and bottom lines.
The niche sunglasses firm Finlay and Co. was able to open a shop in Soho, Central London, on the back of a surge in sales after she wore their shades on her first public outing with Prince Harry in Nottingham. The company sold £20,000 worth of glasses within twenty-four hours, thanks to Meghan’s Midas touch.
Again, when she carried a £500 tote bag produced by a small Edinburgh-based company called Strathberry, stock ran out within an hour.
Strathberry cofounder Leeanne Hundleby couldn’t believe her luck. A couple of weeks before, acting on impulse, she had sent Meghan a selection of handbags and was thrilled to see her product given the royal seal of approval. “It’s just amazing, it really is the greatest,” said a company spokesman. “We’re suddenly incredibly busy and we are so excited.”
For Meghan, her induction into the royal family was an opportunity to influence her new army of fans by wearing the labels of ecologically and ethically minded designers, as well as companies that have a philanthropic element in their business ethos.
She previously used her blog The Tig to promote such brands as Conscious Step, a sock company that plants twenty trees for every pair sold, as well as the Neshama Project, a California-based jewelry business that donates a percentage of profits to Innovation: Africa.
She had always known that being with Harry would give her a megaphone, and even if she was having to step back from her charity work while her future was being ironed out, she was determined to use it and communicate the messages that mattered to her in any way she could.
Careful and considered, Meghan is completely aware that anything she wears, be it makeup, clothes, a new hairstyle, or jewelry has an impact. She has to think strategically. During her days on Suits she got used to being looked at and discussed. But this was a whole new level of scrutiny. She has the personality to cope, describing herself as someone who likes to think things through, to pause before she jumps in. As she admits: “I give things a lot of thought and I try to be as sensitive and thoughtful as possible to how it’ll make someone feel.”
For example, during her visit to Cardiff she carried a bag by DeMellier, a British label that funds lifesaving vaccines through their sales, and a cruelty-free coat by Stella McCartney, an animal-rights activist as well as a topline designer. As Meghan once noted on her blog: “It’s good if you are fabulous but great if you do something of value to the world.” Not everyone was impressed. Columnist Amanda Platell snarked: “There’s a thin line between doing good and signalling how virtuous you are. We live in an age of social media, but the Windsors are NOT the Kardashians.”
Whether she wants to or not, Meghan has become a one-woman walking, talking advertising board, everything she wears pored over and then sold online. Websites such as Meghan’s Mirror have been created expressly to cash in on the Markle sparkle. These sites are effectively online stores devoted to all things Meghan, selling and shipping with just a few clicks, and in the case of Meghan’s Mirror, using the same e-commerce site, RewardStyle, as The Tig in its heyday. The editor of Meghan’s Mirror, Christine Ross, explained that Meghan’s popularity was because her style was relatable to the everyday woman.
Ironically, when she was running her own website she was getting a share of the pie. Now she doesn’t earn a penny, though the rewards are much greater.
This total, head-to-foot commercialization of a royal princess is a far cry from the days when a bored Buckingham Palace press officer would grudgingly hand out a piece of paper describing what the Princess of Wales was wearing that day—and if you were lucky, it included the name of the designer. During the 1980s, Diana rarely wore High Street, preferring designers like Arabella Pollen; Victor Edelstein, who made the famous dress Diana wore when she danced with John Travolta; and later, in her years of independence, the unfussy creations of Catherine Walker. When she did occasionally step out in a High Street brand, such as an elephant-themed ensemble from the upmarket German fashion chain Escada, she faced criticism from the fashion elite.
Even if online shopping had been available in the Diana years, the cost and exclusivity of her clothing would have prevented her adoring female fans from dressing like the late princess. Of course, for years copies of royal dresses have been run up cheaply and quickly. When Wallis Simpson was married in June 1937, for example, she was furious to learn that her carefully crafted wedding dress, by the American designer Mainbocher, was copied and on sale within hours of the wedding pictures being released. In those days cheap was a relative term, and even the designer knock-offs were beyond most budgets.
In her own quiet way Kate Middleton began the fashion revolution in the House of Windsor by deliberately wearing accessible and affordable clothes, mixing these with high-end designer labels. The Reiss brand, for example, was a regular staple. She was the first proletarian princess, the palace and the High Street working in harmony, her styles and choices imitated from Maidenhead to Madison Avenue. “Catherine is stylish in affordable clothes and accessories,” noted Reiss brand director Andy Rogers.
Meghan has taken it a stage further, using the semiology of fashion to focus on little-known ethical brands. It was an interest she had long before she met Prince Harry. At the 2014 One Young World conference, for example, Meghan made a point of befriending Ali Hewson, wife of U2’s Bono, because she wanted to learn more about her ethical clothing line and makeup lines, Edun and Nude.
Ironically, when Meghan did dress like a princess, wearing a £56,000 gown by London-based Ralph & Russo for her formal engagement portraits, she was criticized for her extravagance. First in line was her half sister Samantha, who wondered how she could spend so much on a dress when her father, Tom Senior, was supposedly in need of a financial helping hand. Meghan was discovering, as Diana and Kate had before her, that whatever you choose to wear, someone always has a better idea. The stunning black-and-white photographs taken at Frogmore House, the royal burial ground inside Windsor Castle, by fashion photographer Alexi Lubomirski were a reminder of the charm and appeal exerted by this couple. “Meghan’s sheer glamour marries Hollywood to the House of Windsor,” declared the normally sober London Times. As Lubomirski commented: “I cannot help but smile when I look at the photos that we took of them, such was their happiness together.”
While the royal family were not manning the checkout tills, they had approved the sale, at gift shops in Kensington Palace, Sandringham, and Buckingham Palace, of mugs, gold-plated spoons, bookmarks, notepads, and postcards all adorned with the smiling image of Meghan and Harry. When about one thousand £20 ($27) ceramic mugs commemorating the engagement went on sale following the announcement, they were sold out within twenty-four hours. Every hotel and guest house in the vicinity of Windsor Castle was booked long before the May wedding, while the English tourism board was expecting a huge influx of visitors—around 350,000 extra tourists came to Britain during the royal wedding of William and Catherine. If visitors could not get a decent view of the happy couple, there were plenty of professional Harry and Meghan lookalikes to take their place, for a fee.
As for other happy couples, online wedding planner Bridebook reported that inquiries for castles and honeymoons in Botswana had risen dramatically, while sales of diamond engagement rings à la Markle had gone up by a third. Bridebook chief executive Hamish Shephard commented: “Meghan and Harry’s nuptials will boost both the wedding industry and the British economy. We’re expecting a huge increase.”
Overall, the London Times reckoned that the royal family would contribute £1.8 billion ($2.44 billion) to the British economy during 2018. Of that total, valuation consultancy Brand Finance estimated that the royal wedding could be worth £1 billion ($1.4 billion) to the economy and, post-Brexit, help improve Britain’s relationship with the United States. The chief executive of Brand Finance, David Haigh, said: “The last royal wedding had an electrifying effect on people’s attitude to the monarchy and Britain, and this will impact even more because it has taken things to a global level with Harry marrying a glamorous American.”
Away from these frothy financial figures, on December 1, a week after the engagement announcement, Meghan had her first introduction to her new world when she traveled to Nottingham, meeting and greeting members of the public during an official royal engagement. It was just like walking along the red carpet, except colder, wetter, and with no red carpet.
Unlike Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, whose first engagement was christening an offshore lifeboat at a modest ceremony in Anglesey, North Wales, Meghan was thrown in at the deep end, thousands of people waiting for hours under chilly leaden skies for a glimpse of the Hollywood princess. Though the focus was on a visit to a center linked to the World AIDS Day charity, everyone wanted to see the bride-to-be. She looked a tad nervous, as well she might, and Harry frequently put his arm around her and whispered encouragement in her ear. Introducing herself as Meghan, she quickly got used to the English default conversation, chatting about the weather. (In LA it’s the freeway traffic.) She thanked people for waiting in the cold, accepted sweets, hugs, kisses, comparisons to Princess Diana, and flowers, but declined selfies, even though if there were an Olympics for selfies, Meghan would be a gold medalist—the royal bride-in-waiting was learning fast.
Inside the AIDS center they met with victims and
organizers, Meghan impressing them with her natural empathy. Chris O’Hanlon, who has HIV and works with Positively UK, a charity that helps people recently diagnosed with the disease, found the couple easy to talk to, sincere, and attentive. His verdict: “Not only will she make a good addition to the royal family, she will make an excellent ambassador to any of the causes she puts her heart and mind to.”
The royal couple went on to watch a hip-hop opera, where Harry told a fellow ginger-headed man that being with Meghan was “Great, unbelievable.” They left Nottingham folk all aquiver, Meghan having scored a bull’s eye in Robin Hood’s hometown. Complimenting Meghan on her “charm and ease,” columnist Jan Moir cooed: “What an impressive debut. Meghan Markle was not born to be a princess, but she moves with ease in her brave new world.”
With internet searches for Meghan Markle outstripping those for the recently released iPhone 8, it seemed that everyone wanted to dial into the charismatic Ms. Markle, including the Queen, her family, and her staff. Prince Harry made an edited YouTube version of Suits to show the Queen and Prince Philip so that they could understand more clearly what their grandson saw in her. The monarch was impressed enough to wave long-standing rules that only the royal family gather at Sandringham for Christmas. She extended an invitation for Harry’s fiancée to join the clan. It was an acknowledgement of the changing times, as the couple have effectively been living together for more than a year. QUEEN BENDS THE YULES FOR MEGHAN punned the Sun headline.
The first stage of Meghan’s Christmas royal progress was to join the Queen and Prince Harry for the annual Christmas staff party at Windsor Castle. Hundreds of footmen, maids, butlers, and gardeners jostled for position to snatch a brief chat with Meghan, who worked her way slowly around the room. One guest said: “She asked everyone their name and what they did—she was a natural.”
Meghan Page 21
