A ROYAL HONEYMOON IN JASPER?
Harry, Meghan could honeymoon in Alberta cabin
If Meghan Markle and Prince Harry do decide to honeymoon at Jasper National Park, as rumoured, they will enjoy sweeping vistas, cool mountain spring water and the possibility that they’ll be sharing a bed that once held the groom’s elderly grandparents.
A report by TMZ Monday announced that the newlyweds would be spending their honeymoon in the ultraluxurious Outlook Cabin at Alberta’s Jasper Park Lodge.
However, Fairmont Hotels, which runs the lodge, denied the report. “Though Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge has a longstanding history of serving as a royal retreat, we can confirm that the couple is not currently booked for a stay,” it said in a statement.
Royal honeymoons are usually kept secret to ensure the couple’s privacy. Details of the 2011 Seychelles honeymoon of Prince William and Kate Middleton, for instance, were strictly guarded until the trip’s conclusion.
Nicknamed the “Royal Retreat,” Jasper Park Lodge’s Outlook Cabin hosted Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 2005, when the pair came to Alberta to celebrate the province’s centenary.
The cabin is also an exact copy of a structure that hosted Harry’s great grandparents in 1939. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stayed in Jasper during a tour intended to gin up Canadian support for the looming Second World War.
That particular cabin burned to the ground in 2000; it was swiftly rebuilt based on the original architectural drawings.
The cabin is 6,000 square feet and has six bedrooms, a dining room and a fully equipped kitchen. While rates vary, an off-season reservation clocks in at $3,450 per night.
In a detail that no doubt enhances its appeal as a royal romantic getaway, the cabin is decorated with photographs and memorabilia bearing the stern portraits of Harry’s grandparents and great-grandparents.
The decision to honeymoon in Canada, if true, appears to be a sudden one. As late as last week, media reports held that Markle and Harry would be honeymooning in the southern African country of Namibia.
The possible switch to Canada may be motivated by security concerns. It’s obviously much easier to keep royals safe in Western Canada, where every Mountie has already sworn a solemn oath to “bear true allegiance” to Harry’s family.
Markle and Harry may also have more fondness for Canada than most royals.
It’s believed that the couple met in Toronto in 2016. At the time, Markle was living in the city while starring in the TV legal drama Suits. Harry, meanwhile, was visiting to promote the Invictus Games.
Harry has also spent extended stays in Alberta while training at CFB Suffield, a British army training facility.
The choice appears to have baffled some embittered American royal watchers.
Jasper was provocatively dubbed “the world’s most boring place” by the New York Post’s online gossip column PageSix.com.