Harry was left confused by the Queen’s response after asking for her blessing to propose to Meghan Markle
Prince Harry, who includes a handful of details about Queen Elizabeth II in his memoir Spare, his late grandmother’s reaction to his request to marry Meghan Markle.
The Duke of Sussex’s book doesn’t have much about the late Queen, although it does contain a number of shocking stories about her family members, from jokes about rumors of her parentage to allegations of fights physical.
According to the details, due to the restrictions of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, any member of the royal family descended from King George II must ask the monarch for permission to marry.
Harry has revealed the moment he was left puzzled by the late Queen’s response after asking for her blessing to propose to his then-girlfriend.
Harry asked his grandmother for her blessing before proposing to Meghan, saying: “I’ve been told I have to ask your permission before I can propose.”
The Queen then replied, “Do you have to?” to which Harry explained that was what he had been told. There was a moment of silence before the queen replied, “Well, I guess I have to say yes.”
Harry admits he was completely taken aback by her response. He wrote: “I didn’t get it. Was she sarcastic? Ironic? Deliberately cryptic? Was she indulging in a bit of puns? I had never seen Granny do puns and this would be a while extremely weird (not to say very awkward) for her to start, but maybe she just saw the chance to toy with my unfortunate use of the “have” world and couldn’t resist.”
He claims he stood there trying to figure out what she was saying, but then “realized” she was saying yes, describing himself as a “muppet”. He then thanked her, saying it was “fabulous”.
