IS SHE SUITABLE?
Kate and Marley discuss Harry’s princess bride
As my daughter saw off yet another friend after a recent playdate (school holidays are playdate central, aren’t they?), she cleared the mailbox.
Watching from the front door, I noticed her stop, do a double take, stare at the cover of the magazine she’d picked up and slowly screw up her face. I could see from where I was standing that she was holding a copy of Woman’sDay. “Whatever was on the cover?” I wondered.
“Oh, my goodness, Mum!” she exclaimed, waving the magazine as she walked towards me. “Can this be true?!” “Can what be true?” I asked. “This!” she pointed out, exasperated at the cover shot of Meghan Markle. “It says she’s set to marry her prince! But Mum, it’s the girl off Suits – how can she be marrying a prince?!”
“Excellent question,” I said, impressed at how she’d added up that British royalty plus American actress equals slightly odd equation.
“I mean, she’s on Suits!” she continued, baffled. “How does she even know Prince Harry and how can she marry him?”
I explained the connection and how they met, yet shared her view it was indeed weird.
But why did I feel this way? I mean, it’s their lives. He’s entitled to fall in love with whoever he likes, absolutely. It doesn’t bother me that she’s been married before because that royal rule seemed stupid anyway (lest we forget Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend!). Was it bothering me that she was American and I wanted him to marry an English rose? Was it that she was a Hollywood actress and this is the royal family? Could it just be I didn’t like her Suits character Rachel? I find Rachel a high-maintenance pain in the bum who whispers when she talks. Infuriating! But that couldn’t be it. Why did it still bother me?
Then I figured it out. Like everyone who looks in from the outside on a public relationship, I’d already formed a view. To my mind, Harry’s just infatuated with a yoga-loving actress, and she’s just seen an opening to a lifestyle and a position she likes the look of.
Sure, she may actually love Harry, but I’m not convinced. It’s all happened so fast. She’s seemingly jumped in with all the controls, moved her stuff into Kensington Palace, rearranged the furniture and had him make a press statement about her. I feel she’s calling too many shots too soon and too much of it’s all about her. (Or am I just a mum of teenage boys wary of the angst girls can create? Hmmm.)
Surely, giving up your entire world – career, friendships, family, future – takes longer than a few months to contemplate? And isn’t part of a life of royalty accepting that you’ll forever be number two to the crown?
“What do you think, Mum?” Marley pulled me out of my judgmental daydream.
“Hmmm,” I replied. “I’m suspicious.”
“We’ll just see,” my patient, wise, big-hearted daughter said, doing what her mother wasn’t – lovingly giving the royal and the actress the benefit of the doubt.