Prince Harry
Queen Elizabeth’s approval of his marriage left him speechless
Queen Elizabeth, Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry
© Max Mumby / Getty Images
Prince Harry reveals a very private moment between him and Queen Elizabeth in his memoir “Spare”: When he asked permission to marry Meghan, she answered extremely cryptically.
Prince Harry, 38, reveals all sorts of details about members of the British royal family in his memoir “Spare”, which will be officially released on January 10, 2023. So also about Queen Elizabeth, † 96. In one chapter, the Duke of Sussex recalls the moment he asked his grandmother if he could marry Duchess Meghan, 41. Her answer surprised him for several reasons.
Queen Elizabeth’s cryptic answer to marriage question confused Prince Harry
In an excerpt of his memoir, already available to The Telegraph, Harry tells how he worked up the courage to ask the Queen about marrying Meghan. He admits he was “scared” and always nervous around the monarch. In October 2017 he decided to ask her out during a family outing in Sandringham. Queen Elizabeth was out in a field to pick up dead birds after hunting. Harry helped her and finally said, “Grandma, you know I love Meg very much and I decided to ask her to marry me and they told me that… well… I must get your permission before I ask for her hand in marriage.”
After the then-Queen asked if her grandson actually needed her consent, Harry replied, “Yes. Your people said that, and so did mine.” To which Elizabeth is said to have replied with an impenetrable expression on her face: “Well, I guess I have to say ‘yes’ then.”
“I did not understand it”
Prince Harry is now speculating whether the monarch only agreed at the time because she felt she had no other choice, or whether she actually wanted to deny it. Either way, he was confused by his grandmother’s reaction. “I didn’t get it. Was it meant to be sarcastic? Ironic? Deliberately cryptic? Did she allow herself a little pun? I don’t remember my grandmother being a fan of puns and this would have been the weirdest time to come up with it to start (not to mention that it’s egregiously inappropriate).”
“Strict rules” before the engagement, Prince Harry found absurd
Before turning to Queen Elizabeth, he confided his engagement plans to his private secretary Ed Lane Fox and Jason Knauf. Then Harry was told that there were “strict rules” about such things and that he had to ask his grandmother first. This surprised the 38-year-old very much: “It didn’t make any sense. A grown man asking his grandmother for permission to marry.” In this context, however, the Duke of Sussex remembers the “absurdity” that his father, then 56 years old, had to ask in advance for consent to marry Camilla, 75.
Source used: telegraph.co.uk