The world celebrates with a new type of fan becoming part of the story
WITH their flags, patriotic hats and handmade signs they are a regular feature of royal weddings and christenings. But Meghan Markle has brought the whole world to the party.
From her native Los Angeles to the tiny African mountain kingdom of Lesotho where Prince Harry spent his gap year, all eyes will be fixed on Windsor.
And not all those watching will be diehard monarchists, with many new fans drawn to the event by Ms Markle’s background, her freshness and modernity.
Jeanette Valentine, 56, a travel writer from San Francisco, who graduated from the same university as Ms Markle, Northwestern in Chicago, said: “This is such a wonderful story about someone who shares my culture and is an outspoken advocate for women.”
Sheryl Jones, from Virginia, a first time royalist, says Ms Markle’s arrival on the world stage is a sign of a new inclusive spirit. “People see something of themselves in Meghan in the way they don’t with other royals. For me, as a mixed race person, this wedding is similar to when Barack Obama was elected President, in what it might represent,” said the 58-year-old management consultant.
It’s not just Americans who have found themselves captivated for the first time by the spectacle of a royal marriage.
“I’ve never come to anything like this before,” said Sylvia Nya, 35. “I really like what they represent. Meghan is a role model for other girls. She wasn’t born into it. She’s worked her way up and people can relate to her.”
Ms Nya, who works in finance in the City and was born in London to Nigerian parents, added: “The fact she’s mixed heritage sends a powerful signal to people about equality.”
Veterans of royal weddings camped out along the route of today’s procession from St George’s Chapel are also keen to welcome the distinctly modern aspect of this marriage. Donna Pilgrim, 47, an NHS clinician from Walton on Thames, who watched the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding with her three children and has now brought them to Windsor for his brother’s, said: “Harry and William have changed the face of the monarchy. They have dragged it into the 21st century.”
The celebrations will not be restricted to Windsor, with parties taking place across Britain, and even overseas.
While the couple’s short engagement means far fewer street parties have been organised than for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, those being held are expected to be heavily attended. Parties are taking place in Ringwood, Hampshire; Liverpool and Wandsworth, south London, with others being held across Kent and Hertfordshire.
Among them is a party at Betty Blythe café, in Hammersmith, west London, where its owner, Lulu Gwynne, said: “We have attracted a global audience with some guests coming from as far as Japan. It is going to be truly splendid day.”
In Los Angeles, British pubs are staging “slumber parties” to coincide with the ceremony, while in Washington a royal wedding pop-up bar will be open with full breakfast, an interior recreating St George’s Chapel and proceeds going to Prince Harry’s Invictus Games Foundation. Parties are also being held in villages of the Mohales Hoek district of Lesotho, where Prince Harry spent his gap year and founded the Sentebale charity to support children living with HIV and Aids. By contrast the Windsor Golf Hotel and Country Club in Nairobi is charging couples £7,000 to watch the wedding on television – the equivalent of nearly seven years’ earnings for the average Kenyan.
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