Meghan Markle was not with Queen Elizabeth II when the monarch died on Thursday at the age of 96 – the end of a relationship that started amicably but became controversial.
It was tea for two that brought Markle and the Queen together for the first time.
The American actress joined the British monarch for the royal ritual at Buckingham Palace on a gloomy afternoon in October 2017.
It would have been short and sweet – the encounter lasted an hour but was a great success. Supposedly, even the Queen’s corgis took a liking to Markle, who gushed about her soon-to-be mother-in-law.
“She’s an incredible woman,” Markle told the BBC in a joint interview with Harry in November 2017.
The duo got engaged and publicly announced the news on November 27, with plans to tie the knot in the spring of 2018.
“To be able to meet her through his lens, not only with his honor and respect for her as a monarch, but the love he has for her as his grandmother…all of those layers have been so important to me that when I met her I had such a deep understanding and of course incredible respect to be able to spend that time with her,” she told the BBC.
The former “Suits” actress and the Queen’s relationship seemed to be off to a good start. In a March 2021 interview with CBS, Markle opened up about a trip she took with Her Royal Highness to Cheshire, England, suggesting the monarch was hotter than many realize.
Markle said: “We were in the car between fights. And she’s got a blanket laying over her lap for warmth, and it was cold. And she was like, ‘Meghan, come on’, and she put it in my lap too… and it made me think of my grandmother, where she was always warm and inviting and really welcoming.
And in 2017, Markle broke royal precedent by celebrating Christmas with the Royal Family when Queen Elizabeth invited her to join them at her Sandringham estate, Insider reported. Royal fiances would not be invited to join.
Then, on May 19, 2018, Prince Harry and Markle officially got married at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
Things took a turn in 2020, however, when Markle and Harry announced they wanted to distance themselves from royal duties. The couple have announced they are stepping down as “senior” members of the Royal Family and will be splitting their time between the US and the UK. The explosive resignation of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from the royal family has made headlines and has been dubbed “Megxit”.
The royal family – including Prince Charles, Prince William and the Queen – were said to have been “incandescent with rage” because they had not received the correct warning, The Post previously reported.
Harry’s father and brother reportedly learned of the split through the news, according to reports at the time.
“This is a declaration of war on the family,” a senior source told The Sun of the Megxit announcement.
Although the Queen appeared to express her support for her grandson and the Duchess of Sussex when they moved to the United States in 2020 with her son Archie, a source told US Weekly in 2021 that she does not was not happy. “The Queen was hoping they would come back, but she can’t do much about it and accepts their decisions.”
Markle’s relationship with Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family seemed even more strained in 2021 when the duo had an explosive encounter with Oprah Winfrey. Markle said she experienced racism while living in London and said she did not feel the support of the Royal Family. During the two-hour chat, Markle revealed she was contemplating suicide amid a flurry of British tabloid headlines like ‘Hurricane Meghan’, and she detailed how her skin color son Archie had been debated.
“There’s a conversation about how dark your baby is?” Winfrey, looking stunned, asked Markle.
The revelation sparked the hashtag, #AbolishTheMonarchy, which was trending on Twitter at the time.
Following the interview, Buckingham Palace released the following statement: “The whole family is saddened to hear how difficult the past few years have been for Harry and Meghan.”
Then, in April 2021, Prince Harry attended Prince Philip’s service without Markle by his side. He and his brother Prince William took part in the procession for their grandfather, although the brothers were not seated next to each other during the service; instead, they were separated by their cousin Peter Phillips — a move that was unexpected despite the drama, according to US Magazine.
The Queen was reportedly relieved that Markle did not attend the funeral, telling her aides: ‘Thank God Meghan is not coming’ lest she distract from the gloomy day, Newsweek reported, citing the new book by royal biographer Tom Bower.
The dust seemed to settle a bit after Harry and Meghan welcomed their daughter, Lilibet, named after the Queen’s nickname.
In April, the couple paid a secret visit to the Queen at Windsor Castle en route to the Invictus Games, a sporting event in support of injured veterans, according to reports. The visit took place two years after they left for Hollywood.
Yet the family drama continued. Who could forget the rebuff of the royal seat by none other than the Queen herself during the Platinum Jubilee in June? Bower said in a recent interview that the Sussexes were supposed to be seated away from Prince Charles, Prince William and Kate Middleton to avoid attention being drawn away from the event, Newsweek reported.
When Harry allegedly asked an usher during Jubilee who told them where he should be seated, the usher replied, “Your grandmother”, according to Bower’s book.
Then, in August, Markle told the world how she really felt about life after the Royal Family, saying she was ‘happy’ to leave the monarchy and regain her freedom – and talk about it too . In a scathing interview with New York Magazine’s The Cut, she claimed her photos were given to people who “called my kids the N-word.”
Indeed, Markle’s apparent social media censorship was a point of contention. She told NY Magazine reporter Allison P. Davis that her tightly controlled Instagram outlet was @KensingtonRoyal, which she shared with Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton.
“It was a big adjustment — a huge adjustment to go from that kind of self-reliance to living a different life,” she told the publication of turning over the 3 million of her own followers she had. previously.
Markle noted how problematic it was for her to have private images of her family shared with the press instead of being able to control her own social narrative and decide when she was comfortable sharing images of her children with the press. world.
“There is literally a structure whereby if you want to post pictures of your child, as a family member, you first have to give them to the Royal Rota,” she told the magazine. royal pool of British media distributing the historic footage. globally.
“Why would I give the very people who call my kids the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people who love my child?” she asked.
The newly minted podcaster also blamed media scrutiny for Megxit, noting that the only way ‘all the noise would stop’ might be if they made a living, instead of having their lives funded by money. taxpayers.
Additionally, the 41-year-old mother-of-two told Davis that her union with husband Prince Harry was doomed in the eyes of the royal family: “Just by existing, we changes the dynamics of the hierarchy. ”
And so, when she returned to the UK this summer to usher in Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, she called it “bittersweet”.
