Daily Mail

Harry to ld friends: I’ve got to marry someone famous

Only someone in spotlight can handle pressures of dating me, he said – just before meeting Meghan

- By Emily Kent Smith

WITH her Hollywood smile and confident air, actress Meghan Markle may seem a world away from Prince Harry’s previous girlfriend­s.

But there was one person who was not the least bit surprised that he would find love with a glamorous celebrity – the royal himself.

Shortly before meeting Miss Markle, the prince had told friends he would marry someone used to the spotlight.

The fifth in line to the throne told a confidante that ‘only somebody who was already in the public eye would be able to understand and handle everything that goes with being with [a prince]’, it was reported.

Harry, 33, met divorcee Miss Markle, 36, last summer, shortly after making the comments, yet the source added: ‘I don’t think he went out and deliberate­ly looked for a famous actress.’

The prince’s candid remarks came after his two serious ex-girlfriend­s, Chelsy Davy, 32, and Cressida Bonas, 28, admitted they struggled with the scrutiny of being with the royal.

Miss Davy said the attention during their seven -year on-off romance was ‘ so full- on: Crazy and scary and uncomforta­ble’.

A source close to the prince told The Sunday Times: ‘It makes sense that he has ended up with a celebrity… he feels comfortabl­e being with someone who has already come to terms with the price of fame in the way that his other girlfriend­s never could.’

New pictures from the Markle album illustrate the future royal’s life long before she met Harry.

One shows Miss Markle, aged 18, as she graduated from her all-girl Catholic high school where she was known as ‘Markle Sparkle’ because of her popularity among her peers.

Other images show a glimpse of Miss Markle’s reclusive father Thomas.

A photograph from 2010 shows the former lighting director mingling with old classmates at his school reunion.

As his family confirmed that he would make a rare appearance at next year’s royal wedding, which will be watched by millions, friends told of how he proudly carries pictures of the celebrity daughter he affectiona­tely calls ‘Bean’.

In an interview with a Sunday newspaper, a friend told how when he last saw Mr Markle, 73, he declined an invitation to stay because his daughter had warned him about his loud snoring. Instead, the retiree, who lives on a diet of junk food, checked into a hotel during one of his infrequent outings.

And Mr Markle is so aware of his bulging gut that he has fondly nicknamed it the ‘money belt’, according to one person close to him. Loretta

‘Come to terms with price of fame’

Strawser, 76, from Newport, Pennsylvan­ia, described Mr Markle as a ‘great guy’ and said: ‘He’s always been very proud of Meghan.

‘He talked about her career and the things she was doing. Tom is very laid back and likes his life in seclusion. He doesn’t like to be in the spotlight.’ Another friend, Ron McGowan, told of how when he saw Mr Markle in 2010, he produced a picture of his daughter in a blue dress, adding: ‘ He just beamed when he talked about her’.

When his old friend had turned up at his door in 2010, he had joked: ‘Do you have any room for an old, fat, bald man?’ Mr McGowan said.

Those close to Mr Markle have told of how he worships his youngest child, yet Prince Harry has never met the man who was once an award-winning lighting director who would often take his daughter on set. Since declaring bankruptcy last year, he has built a new life in a quiet beach town in Mexico.

Images of his 1979 wedding to Miss Markle’s yoga instructor mother Doria Ragland, 61, show the bride in a floral crown and simple white dress while the groom looks on lovingly in an grey suit and red shirt. A world away from the pageantry Miss Markle will share with Harry in May, her parents wed in an unconventi­onal ceremony at a fauxIndian temple.

The nuptials were on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles – in front of a man named as Brother Bhaktanand­a, dressed in orange robes.

 ??  ?? Elusive: Tom Markle in 2010
Elusive: Tom Markle in 2010
 ??  ?? Unconventi­onal: Meghan’s parents Doria and Tom on their wedding day in California in 1979
Unconventi­onal: Meghan’s parents Doria and Tom on their wedding day in California in 1979
 ??  ?? Hollywood smile: Meghan aged 18 in her high school graduation photo
Hollywood smile: Meghan aged 18 in her high school graduation photo

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