Royal Biographer Reveals Queen Elizabeth’s Sweet Gesture to Meghan Markle During Their First Joint Appearance
Queen Elizabeth made an extra effort to make Meghan Markle feel welcome during their first joint appearance, a royal biographer revealed. According to the author, the queen had Meghan in mind for this particular engagement for a sweet reason.
Author says Queen Elizabeth was ‘concerned’ about Meghan Markle’s ‘future happiness’
In his new book, Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, author Gyles Brandreth revealed how Queen Elizabeth felt about Meghan.
An excerpt of Brandreth’s book, published on the Daily Mail website, explained how the queen was happy to see Harry and Meghan get married. “The truth is that when her grandson told her he was marrying Meghan Markle, she was truly delighted by the prospect,” the author wrote. “She liked Meghan and told lots of people so. And she did everything she could to make her future granddaughter-in-law feel welcome.”
The queen even told Meghan she could continue her acting career. “She was concerned for her future happiness. At their first meeting, the queen said to Meghan: ‘You can carry on being an actress if you like — that’s your profession, after all,’” Brandreth noted.
Meghan declined, however. “She would have been totally understanding if Meghan had decided to continue her career. But the former Suits actress was ready for royal duty and, of course, the queen was delighted by that,” the author explained. “She was particularly delighted by the enthusiasm Meghan showed for the Commonwealth and by the commitment she made to do ‘whatever you think we should be doing for the Commonwealth.”
The queen helped Meghan Markle adjust to royal life, author says
Brandreth shared how Meghan didn’t want to let the queen down. “The queen (who, of course, had seen it all before) understood that Harry’s girl might find adjusting to royal life ‘challenging to begin with’ (as she put it). ‘It is very jolty, but you soon get used to it’ — that was Her Majesty’s experience going back many years,” the author shared.
The biographer continued, “To help Meghan, the queen suggested that her daughter-in-law, Sophie Wessex, would be an ideal mentor. ‘Sophie can help show you the ropes,’ said the queen.”
Meghan didn’t feel that was necessary, however. “Meghan made it clear that she did not feel she needed Sophie’s help. She had Harry. The queen was a little concerned at that, and concerned, too, when word reached her that Meghan was reportedly occasionally a bit ‘high-handed’ with staff. The queen put it down to pre-wedding nerves,” the author noted.
The queen was thoughtful with one small detail about Meghan’s joint appearance with her, biographer shares
The biographer also shared a sweet detail from the queen and Meghan’s first joint appearance that illustrates how thoughtful the queen was. “Less than a month after the wedding, the queen took Meghan on her first solo outing — to my old constituency, the City of Chester,” he wrote. “The date marked the first anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and the queen wore a green outfit in memory of the victims of the fire.”
“Meghan (in cream-coloured Givenchy) looked beautiful — and did her bit, effortlessly and well, to the manner born. She kept a step behind the queen without fail, she smiled, she chatted, she coped with her hair in the blustery weather, she admitted she had never been to the North of England before but was ‘loving it already,’” he continued.
The queen believed one area of the appearance was particularly well-suited for Meghan. “’Top marks,’ said the queen, who had chosen this particular day for her new granddaughter-in-law’s induction to royal duty, in part because it was ‘a fairly typical day’, but mainly because the program included a visit to a theatre — ‘and she is an actress after all,’” Brandreth wrote.
