‘Smart’ Meghan Markle ‘Knew Exactly How to Butter up’ Queen Elizabeth II — Author
Sure, maybe Queen Elizabeth II was told to be cautious of Meghan Markle. But, according to a royal author, the Duchess of Sussex knew “exactly how to butter up the queen.” Ahead, how Prince Harry offered a “glimpse” of Meghan’s ability to charm the queen. Plus, how Meghan “kept in touch” with her grandmother-in-law.
Queen Elizabeth ‘liked’ Meghan, who could ‘butter up’ the late monarch
Speaking to Newsweek about her latest book, My Mother and I, which examines King Charles III’s relationship with his mom, author Ingrid Seward shared her surprise at learning Queen Elizabeth liked her granddaughter-in-law.
“I was so surprised when I heard the queen liked Meghan, but she did. Meghan’s a smart lady, whatever people think of her,” Seward said. “She knew exactly how to butter up the queen.”
So it seems while the queen didn’t care for Meghan’s royal wedding dress — according to Seward’s book, she thought it was too white — the late monarch had a fondness for Meghan.
“Even Harry gave us a little glimpse of it by the dogs,” the author added in reference to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s 2017 engagement interview.
Harry told Meghan the queen’s “corgis took to you straight away,” to which Meghan said they were “just laying on my feet during tea. It was very sweet.”
“Maybe she had a few treats in her handbag for them,” Seward said. “Harry actually said Meghan was a great hit with the dogs. They always yap at him, but they were all over Meghan.”
Meghan ‘kept in touch’ with Queen Elizabeth through phone calls
Seward continued, saying Harry and Meghan probably didn’t spend a lot of time with the queen. “I don’t think that the queen actually saw very much of them,” she told the outlet.
However, that doesn’t mean they didn’t talk. Seward claimed Meghan used to make phone calls to Queen Elizabeth.
“Meghan, being American, used to ring her up, which a lot of her children don’t do,” the author said. “I think she kept in touch with her because she knew it was important. And then she [the queen] met Meghan’s [mother].”
Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland, is the only member of Meghan’s family who attended her 2018 nuptials to Harry.
Previously, Harry revealed in his 2023 memoir, Spare, that he had a phone conversation with the queen just days before her death in September 2022.
The Duchess of Sussex met Queen Elizabeth in 2016
Now for when the former Suits star met Queen Elizabeth. In 2016, Harry introduced his then-girlfriend to the queen at The Royal Lodge, the home of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
But, as explained in Harry & Meghan and Spare, the couple weren’t expecting to see the queen when they headed to the Royal Lodge for lunch. The late monarch stopped by on her way back to Windsor Castle after church.
Meghan received a quick lesson in how to greet the queen from the Duchess of York on the grass before heading inside to meet Harry’s grandmother.
“There wasn’t like some big moment of, ‘And now you’re gonna meet my grandmother,’” Meghan said in the 2022 Netflix docuseries, calling it “surreal.”
“I just thought it was a joke,” she recalled of Harry asking if she knew how to curtsy on the way to the Royal Lodge.
Meghan went on to call the experience “so intense” before doing a mock curtsy for the camera. She also shared how she replied to Ferguson, Princess Eugenie, and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, when they commented she did “great”— “I didn’t know what I was doing.”
