Side by side for the first time, it’s the new Fab Four!
ALL her red carpet experience had not prepared Meghan Markle for anything like this.
And understandably on her debut alongside the Royal Family at Sandringham yesterday, there were a few nerves.
Miss Markle’s smile as she waited for the Queen depart from church, hanging on for dear life to Prince Harry’s arm, was more of a rictus grin.
And her curtsy to the monarch was, to be frank, more of a wobbly bob.
Alongside her, the Duchess of Cambridge showed how it should be done. Kate, now a veteran of such occasions, maintained a relaxed smile and as she executed the perfect curtsy. Done correctly, it involves placing one foot behind the other and bending briefly at the knees while keeping the upper body straight.
Meanwhile Miss Markle went back to clutching her fiance’s arm as if her life depended on it.
The brief wobble aside, the US actress put on an assured performance as she looks to cement her place in the new ‘fab four’ – two royal couples set to make the monarchy relevant to a new generation. Certainly Harry and his glamorous fiancee made a fetching sight alongside the Cambridges.
Harry, 33, and Meghan, 36, are spending Christmas with William and Kate, both 35, at Anmer Hall, their mansion on the Queen’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
For Miss Markle, who describes herself as a ‘chilled’ LA girl it is an opportunity to wet her feet in the ways of the Royal Family without all of the formality and fuss.
But it is also a sign of the future. William, Kate and Harry have long made clear that they will do things their way, which has sometimes brought them into conflict with other members of the family ‘firm’, including Prince Charles.
The feeling among royal watchers is that the four of them will make a formidable team – William and Kate, by nature and position more formal and reserved, alongside Harry and Meghan, the glamorous new ‘rock stars’ of royalty.
Together they are set to take the Windsor dynasty into the second half of the century. And judging by the body language yesterday, they seem to get on famously – and inspire each other.
William and Kate even held hands in public as they walked to church alongside Harry and Meghan, who seem unable to keep their hands off each other.