Ride fit for a U.S. divorcee: Was Rolls a dark joke?

WERE courtiers making a cruel joke at Meghan Markle’s expense before the Royal Wedding?

A motoring buff points out that the Rolls-Royce Phantom IV the Royal Mews sent to deliver Meghan and her mother, Doria Ragland, to St George’s Chapel, was the same vehicle they used to convey Wallis Simpson to the funeral of her husband, the Duke of Windsor, in 1972. Like Meghan, Mrs Simpson was an American divorcee. Her marriage to Edward VIII caused the 1936 abdication crisis.

If it was a joke, it wouldn’t be the first time Meghan, whose mother is descended from slaves, has faced such poor taste since becoming engaged to Prince Harry. At the Queen’s Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, Princess Michael of Kent chose to wear a blackamoor brooch.

She later apologised for the accessory, which depicted a black servant. However, Aatish Taseer, the former boyfriend of her daughter, Lady Gabriella Windsor, claimed Princess Michael had a ‘desire to shock’.

Does poor Meghan know what she’s let herself in for?

Wheels of history: (Clockwise from right) The Queen, Wallis Simpson, the Queen Mother and Prince Philip at the Duke of Windsor’s funeral in 1972; Simpson in the Rolls at Buckingham Palace; and Meghan in the same car on her wedding day