LEAVE YOUR SHOWBIZ DAYS BEHIND YOU

TOP priority for a royal apprentice is to know the distinction between celebrity and royalty.

Meghan may find that she can’t go to her local shop on Kensington High Street without causing a minor riot. With that kind of profile, it’s all too easy to think your very existence is cause for celebration.

For Meghan, who has devoted so much energy to acquiring celebrity, the task of distinguishing between fame she’s earned and fame she has acquired through Harry may be particularly hard. So, if she hasn’t worked it out yet, now is the time to get it clear in her own mind.

Get it wrong and she may never be forgiven.

Meghan is particularly vulnerable in this respect because there’ll always be sceptics ready to question whether her marriage is a love story or just part of a longrunning fame campaign. Although many of the perks of royalty and celebrity are identical, the defining difference is that celebrity lifestyles are won, while royal privileges are granted.

They exist in return for a life devoted to service, with lots of visible, unenviable duty and the appearance of sacrifice. Meghan may have already worked out that huge public warmth is directed at Harry and would be shared by anyone he chose to marry.

So, even more than most royal newcomers, she’ll be judged by her success as the neverfailing source to her husband of strength, comfort, encouragement and wisdom.

If Meghan allows doubt to grow that she is anything less than devoted to her man, his family and her obligations to her adopted country, then she may not have the luxury of any second chances.