Prince Harry’s fiancee craves ‘ Diana 2.0’ role claims biography
Book authored by royal writer Andrew Morton, who penned a book on Diana
London: Meghan Markle has her heart set on becoming “Diana 2.0”, according to a new biography of Prince Harry’s fiancee that details her lifelong embrace of good causes but also points to a calculating streak. The US actress, who is set to marry her royal beau on May 19, is fiercely protective of “Brand Meghan” and sidelines people as she moves ahead in life, according to people who know her cited in the book.
Meghan: A Hollywood Princess , which is due out in Britain on Thursday, details how the 36- year- old Suits star ditched her first husband in a way that also cost her a lifelong friend.
The biography was authored by Andrew Morton, the British royal writer who penned the blockbuster Diana: Her True Story, with the late princess’s covert assistance.
Morton also details her fascination with Harry’s mother Diana around the time of her death in 1997, watching her funeral in tears and old tapes of her marriage to Prince Charles. Family friends said she was intrigued by Diana “not just for
her style but for her independent humanitarian mission, seeing her as a role model”.
Her childhood friend Ninaki Priddy is cited as saying: “She was always fascinated by the royal family. She wants to be princess Diana 2.0.”
Morton says comparisons with Diana are inevitable, given her humanitarian work and glamorous appeal.
However, he notes the crucial distinction between the timid Diana, who married Charles aged 20, and the 36- year- old Hollywood professional. “In some ways, the groomed and camera- ready Ms Markle was the woman Diana always
strove to become,” he wrote.
The book also claims that as she finally found success as an actress, Markle shed her old acquaintances — including her film producer husband Trevor Engelson, who helped her get on the acting ladder with early parts. “Her friends in Los Angeles noticed the change in her now that she was on the way up,” Morton wrote. “She no longer had the time for friends she had known for years. A networker to her fingertips, she seemed to be carefully recalibrating her life, forging new friendships with those who could burnish and develop her career.” Markle had been with Engelson since 2004 and they married in Jamaica in 2011.