‘Loved up’ Harry, Meghan give fans a treat
Arm in arm or holding hands, Prince Harry and his royal bride-to-be, Meghan Markle, made their first appearance of the new year Tuesday, meeting a crowd of excited fans on a visit to the Brixton neighborhood of London.
The couple, set to marry May 19 at Windsor Castle, looked distinctly “loved up,” as the British tabloids put it, dressed warmly and smiling warmly at well-wishers as they dropped in at a formerly underground radio station, Reprezent 107.3 FM, to see its program training young people in broadcasting.
Hundreds of people lined the streets of the vibrant neighborhood and cheered when they arrived, according to the Associated Press. Station founder Shane Carey said news of their visit had caused “massive excitement.”
The radio station, housed inside shipping containers in the south London district, is supported by the charitable foundation of Prince Harry, Prince William and Duchess Kate of Cambridge. Markle will join the foundation after she marries Harry.
“Training hundreds of young people every year to develop useful skills and help progress to further education and employment opportunities, over 4,000 young people have been through the Reprezent programme,” Kensington Palace tweeted.
It was Harry and Meghan’s second public event together since they announced their engagement in November.
Brixton is a multiethnic district of London, home to Britons of African and Caribbean descent and where conflicts between police and residents broke out in the 1980s and 1990s.
The two made a point of reaching out to greet and shake hands with wellwishers at the security lines. Already in royal training, Markle, 36, accepted gifts of flowers from the crowd.
Meanwhile, Markle’s once robust social media presence shrank again Tuesday: Her Instagram and Twitter accounts were shut down. This comes after she shut down The Tig, her delectable lifestyle blog, back in April.
As an actress, foodie, humanitarian and animal lover, Markle used social media to promote her career and causes and to post pictures of her friends and travels, and most especially of her two dogs: Bogart, who is living with a friend in the USA, and Guy, a beagle who has joined her at the couple’s Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace.
But generally, royals don’t tweet, blog or post pictures on Instagram; palace press officials handle their social media output. In 2014, Harry said “I really hate Twitter” while talking to teens who signed up to promote his Invictus Games on Twitter. He said he resented the invasion of his privacy made possible by social media platforms.