PALACE REVOLUTION
A summer wedding, another royal baby and a charismatic new guard – the wind of change is blowing through the House of Windsor
MEGHAN joining The Firm marks so many firsts for the monarchy.
“A divorced, mixed-race Hollywood actress who attended a Roman Catholic school is to marry the son of the next king,” began an article in The Daily Telegraph, a conservative British newspaper. “Such a sentence could simply not have been written a generation ago.”
Queen Elizabeth’s uncle King Edward VIII was famously forced to abdicate because of his love for American divorcée Wallis Simpson.
And Meghan (36), who has a white father and an African-American mother, will be the country’s first mixed-race royal – something people of colour are rejoicing over. #blackprincess gained traction on social media, with users celebrating Meghan’s ancestry and the fact Prince Harry’s mother-in-law will be a dreadlocked black yoga teacher.
“All of a sudden the black community love the British royal family. LOL,” one user quipped. “We’ve infiltrated the royal family, y’all,” another said.
Meghan, as usual, is understated and measured on the issue. “At the end of the day I’m really just proud of who I am and where I come from,” she said in the pair’s post-engagement TV interview. “We’ve never put any focus on that.”
The Suits star’s ease in the spotlight and effortless charm are refreshing too. Even Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, wasn’t as cool, calm and collected in her first official royal interview as Markle Sparkle (to use her old high-school nickname). And Diana looked more like a deer caught in the headlights than a future princess when Prince Charles introduced her to the world.
Meghan, on the other hand, seemed even more at home than Harry. “Meghan turned in a debut performance of supreme confidence and ermine-edged poise of a type never before seen in a royal spouse-to-be of either sex,” Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir wrote. “Like ever.
“What a gal! She sure plops a creamy dollop of pure American vivacity onto the staid sundae of British royal life, even if one had to wade through the occasional treacle ripple of her CaliforMEGHAN nia speak,” she added.
Long gone also is any suggestion of “virginity testing” for women before they marry into the royal family (something poor Diana is said to have undergone). Meghan spoke happily of the nights she and Harry spent in a tent on a whirlwind romantic getaway to Botswana.
“Oh, the drenching romance of it all!” Moir continued in her ode to the brideand groom-to-be.
“We’ve watched Harry from the days of his toothy schoolboy grin in his little prep-school cap to that solemn walk behind his mother’s coffin to falling out of nightclubs with his unsuitable friends.
“All that turbulence is behind him now as he faces the future with the woman he loves by his side. It’s all too fabulous. And so is she.” (Turn over)
‘We’ve infiltrated the royal family, y’all’