Meghan under the queen’s wing
The new duchess has been learning the ropes from the most senior royal as a caring queen takes her under her wing
FORGET cosy nights in with her husband at their new country bolthole in Oxfordshire or loved-up sessions in front of the TV at their city pad in Kensington Palace’s recently renovated Nottingham Cottage. After a super-short, super-secret honeymoon abroad with Prince Harry, Meghan has spent her first weeks as a newlywed hard at work, thrust into the life of a full-time royal with breathless speed.
But it’s not hard to see why the powers that be in The Firm were keen to get the Duchess of Sussex show up and running – people just can’t get enough of her.
Cries of “Meghan! Meghan! Duchess!” hit fever pitch at her recent official outing in Cheshire, even though she had a far more senior royal at her side.
But Queen Elizabeth (92) is likely to have been delighted to have her new granddaughter-in-law steal the limelight – she’s singled Meghan (36) out for special treatment after all.
The palace PR machine had reportedly been touting the idea of a joint
‘The queen knows the pitfalls of not giving new members a guiding hand’
RIGHT: Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and the queen in Leicester in 2012. The monarch also gave the duchess guidance after she married Prince William in 2011.
visit for a while but it was the queen herself who suggested it should be sooner rather than later, according to royal writer Richard Kay. Clearly seeing the potential the young American has to breathe yet more life into the once-dusty old monarchy, the queen has taken a personal interest in showing Meghan the ropes.
“The queen knows the possible pitfalls of not giving new members a guiding hand,” says Ingrid Seward, author of the recent biography of the queen and Prince Philip, My Husband and I.
“It’s all about the monarchy. She can’t expect Meghan to know everything without being shown,” Seward adds.
And as Meghan and Harry will embark on their first royal tour – to Australia, Fiji, the Kingdom of Tonga and New Zealand – later this year she’ll want to have Meghan’s skills polished in a few short months.
“She doesn’t want 70 years of hard work to be for nothing and wants to pass on her knowledge,” Seward says. “I’m sure she feels Meghan needs a steadying hand in these early days.”
It’s “the way of the royal family – all part of the training and getting used to being in public life and under public scrutiny”, says the queen’s former press secretary Charles Anson.
FIRST up on Meghan’s royal crash course was the trip to Cheshire, about 320km northwest of London.
The aged monarch and her eager student had a series of public appearances lined up, including opening a bridge and a theatre, and a formal lunch.
The trip had the pair holed up in the queen’s private train overnight – a privilege that, as far as anyone knows, neither Kate, Duchess of Cambridge (36), nor even Harry (33) has experienced.
Even Kate’s husband, Prince William (36) – who’s second in line to the throne – has only been on the train once, during his 21st birthday tour in 2003, according to Hello! magazine.
The trip – Meghan’s first official engagement with the queen without her new husband – was an undeniable honour for the duchess and a sure sign of the nonagenarian’s favour.
By contrast, Kate had to wait a full year after her 2011 nuptials before the opportunity presented itself.
She attended the opening of a refurbished restaurant in Fortnum & Mason, the royal grocers, with the queen and Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
It’s unsurprising the move prompted whispers it’s a sign Meghan might be the queen’s new favourite.
But the trip in no way means Meghan is the queen’s pet, according to Kay.
“I understand the decision was taken because it was felt the Duchess of Sussex might need more help to adjust to life inside the royal family than the already poised Kate Middleton did.
“Remember, unlike Kate, she doesn’t have a family to fall back on here,” Kay says.
“The queen’s thinking is simple,” a member of the royal staff says. “She wants to put her [Meghan] at her ease.”
Though groomed to perfection, the Duchess of Sussex did seem uncharacteristically unsure of herself at the outset of the day’s events, anxiously fidgeting with her figure-hugging Givenchy dress and running her fingers through her long, dark locks.
But as the day wore on and the two women shared a few genuine giggles, Meghan’s demeanour changed. They looked, as one observer put
‘Meghan is someone who, like Diana, isn’t afraid to speak her mind’
it, “like BFFs”.
“By the time she’d watched the queen unveil two plaques, completed a walkabout, attended a civic lunch and accepted numerous posies, her early stiffness had gone and she began to relax,” Kay says.
MEGHAN couldn’t have a better role model to look up to than England’s longest-reigning monarch. In her engagement interview with the BBC, Meghan spoke with reverence of her grandmother-inlaw-to-be.
“It’s incredible, I think, to be able to meet her through his [Harry’s] lens, not just with his honour and respect for her as the monarch but the love he has for her as his grandmother,” she said.
“All of those layers have been so important for me so that when I met her I had such a deep understanding and of course incredible respect for being able to have that time with her.”
Harry is aware of what’s ahead for his bride and must surely be grateful for his grandmother’s help.
Luckily Meghan is unfettered by the constraints Kate and the late Princess Diana faced as consort to the king-to-be, likely giving her leave to embody the vivacious warmth Diana tried so hard to squeeze into her royal role.
The striking personality similarities between his mother and Meghan are believed to be a big part of what first drew Harry to his bride.
“One of the things that really attracted Harry was what she’s like on the inside,” says ABC News’ royal contributor Victoria Murphy.
“Meghan is someone who, like Diana, is so strong-willed in her beliefs, who leads with the heart, who isn’t afraid to speak her mind.”
And like the mother-in-law she’ll never meet, Meghan is already breaking down barriers within the British monarchy, says Patrick Jephson, former private secretary to Diana, who died in 1997 aged 36.
“Meghan has this remarkable story of her own success and her diverse background,” he explains. “All of these things will help continue to make the monarchy relevant.”