Meghan First Met The Queen Ahead Of Her And Harry’s Engagement
In October 2017, a month before Harry and Meghan announced their engagement, Meghan met grandma Queen Elizabeth for the first time, for afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace.
In an excerpt from his new book ‘Meghan: A Hollywood Princess’, royal author Andrew Morton writes that Meghan’s first encounter with the Queen” was the most important audition of Meghan’s life.”
“No rehearsal, no script, no second takes. This was live and improvised
“When she was driven through the gates of Buckingham Palace on an overcast, drizzly Thursday in October in a black Ford Galaxy with darkened windows, the actress was about to give the performance of her career.”
Morton says that there was an “air of tension about the occasion”.
“This was perhaps inevitable. As fifth in line to the throne, the prince had to obtain his grandmother’s formal permission to marry.
“It was by no means a foregone conclusion. She could say no. She’d done it before. Then what?”
Funny, but Morton revealed that the Queen actually had a doubt in her grandson Harry.
“Any possible uncertainty about the outcome of this meeting lay not with Meghan, but with the man, she wanted to marry.”
“He was the one who had been, if not on trial, then under close scrutiny.”
“If he had come to see Grannie a few years earlier when he had an unenviable reputation as an angry drunk with poor judgment, it would have been doubtful that the Queen would have agreed to him marrying a divorced American actress.
“Harry’s transformation over the last few years has, together with the popular union between Prince William and Kate Middleton, secured the future of the monarchy.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their engagement in November 2017. And they had their first interview as a couple a few hours after the announcement was made.
In the engagement interview, Meghan praised the monarch who she said was ‘an incredible woman.’ The Duchess has revealed she had met the Queen ‘a couple of times’ for tea.