WEDDING COUNTDOWN:

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle exchange vows in May, it will change more than just their own lives. Melanie Bromley takes a look at the “Meghan-isation” of the royal family and how this wedding will alter the British monarchy for ever.

Harry and Meghan: the love that will change the monarchy

The marriage of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in May will be the royal wedding fans have been dreaming of, and herald a new chapter for both the American actress and the House of Windsor.

The prince, who as a boy was thrust into the spotlight as he mourned the death of his mother 20 years ago, has finally met a woman he can spend the rest of his life with, while simultaneously erasing the heartbreak of his past.

His unconventional choice, a previously married actress who was living and working in Toronto, Canada, is proof that the era of a predictable monarchy is well and truly over. As Meghan and Harry sat side by side to describe how they fell in love, we witnessed the beginning of a revolutionary new chapter. The last time a British royal picked an American divorcee as a partner it caused a constitutional crisis and almost brought down the family. Eighty-one years later, times have changed and now Harry is free to put his heart before his duty; but while his choice hardly makes for an international scandal, it’s arguably just as radical.

Meghan’s initiation into one of the most famous clans in the world marks the beginning of a Hollywood makeover for the centuries-old institution. Not only is she confident and headstrong, but she also possesses an ingredient that so far seems to have been missing from the DNA of most new royal additions: an ability to handle the intense spotlight.

It’s a skill even Prince William and Harry, two heirs who have been media trained since their very first photo shoots as toddlers, have found elusive. It’s taken both of them