Meghan Markle met Queen Elizabeth II shortly after her romance with Prince Harry began. But as the Netflix docu-series Harry & Meghan tells, it didn’t go as planned.
The first three episodes of Harry & Meghan documentary series were unveiled on Netflix. And the least we can say is that they are rich in anecdotes about the star couple, such as their almost missed first date, or even the little nickname that Meghan gives to Harry. The documentary series is built chronologically, so after a first episode devoted to their meeting and their secret meetings, the 2nd looks at the beginnings of their relationship and the integration of Meghan Markle into the royal family. Meghan Markle remembers with great humor her first meeting with Queen Elizabeth II. A meeting that Prince Harry had not prepared at all as he should have.
Meghan Markle was indeed caught in the act. “It’s surreal. There wasn’t a big ‘You’re gonna meet my grandma’ moment. I only found out a few minutes before. We were in the car on our way to lunch at the Royal Lodge and he said to me ‘Oh my grandmother will be there, she’s coming after mass. You know how to curtsey, huh?’ And I thought it was a joke. Then I started to understand that it was important. So I thought back to the medieval gatherings that we often have in America, in costumes and all. And I curtsied, so slowly. And I said ‘Nice to meet you your majesty’ twitching, smiling”. It was amazing. Eugenie, Jack and Fergie congratulated me, but I had no idea what I was doing.”
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Meghan Markle and the rigor of Crown protocol
The American actress was completely unaware of the protocol in force within the royal family. “Meghan met my grandmother before anyone else prominent in the Crown. She didn’t know anything about how the meeting went, so she was very surprised at the system..” explains Prince Harry.
The young woman thought, as she explained, that in the private circle, the protocol was erased. “ I understood very quickly that the external formalism was also private. That there is a way of being in front of others, period. I thought it was otherwise ‘you close the door and you say great we’re going to relax’. But this formalism actually exists on both sides of the door. And that surprised me a lot”. The spontaneity of the beginnings, Meghan Markle welcoming Kate and William barefoot and in ripped jeans for their first dinner, therefore quickly ceased. Meghan Markle had to learn quickly and a little brutally what it meant to belong to the royal family. Constraints that the young woman did not support over time and which, added to the media pressure and the violence of the tabloids, led Prince Harry to make the decision to leave the royal family. The last 3 episodes of the documentary series which tackle this period of rupture promise to be explosive.