Meghan Markle is infamously persona non grata in the Royal Family these days, but at the beginning it sounds like things were quite different.
Prince Harry‘s relatives were initially so awed by how “intelligent” and “beautiful” she was that they thought she was way out of his league. Plus King Charles had a hand in the conception of the couple’s first child (which is somehow even weirder than it sounds).
Even Prince William and Kate Middleton, whose relationship with the Sussexes has now been completely severed, were initially much warmer towards their future sister-in-law than all the later unpleasantness would have you believe. In fact, their unexpected reaction when Harry first imparted the news that he was dating the Suits star resulted in him fearing what would happen when they first met ⏤ not because they would react negatively, but in case they embarrassed him too much by acting like overeager fans.
Harry feared William and Kate would ‘hound’ Meghan when they first met after they made an unexpected admission
In his memoir Spare, which just rereleased in paperback form, Prince Harry recalls the surprising revelation that the now Prince and Princess of Wales made when he first told them that he was in a relationship with Meghan. For context, this would’ve been back in 2016, when Meghan was five seasons deep into hit USA Network seres Suits, which was then at the peak of its popularity.
And it turned out that William and Kate were among the legal drama’s most devoted followers (much more so than him, in fact). “All this time I’d thought Willy and Kate might not welcome Meg into the family,” Harry recollected, before admitting that he was stunned to find out the pair were “regular – nay, religious – viewers of Suits.” Suddenly, Harry had a very different concern about what would happen when they met. “Now I had to worry about them hounding her for an autograph,” he joked.
As it happened, as per Meghan’s memory of the fateful first meeting, she immediately started things on the wrong foot with her in-laws. Speaking to Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Meghan admitted that her lack of proper decorum — she was dressed in ripped jeans, was barefoot, and immediately embraced them in a big hug — was something William and Kate found “really jarring.” Who knows, though, maybe they were internally squeeing at the fact that Rachel Zane off the telly was hugging them in the flesh.
This is such a wholesome start to Harry introducing Meghan that it’s a shame things had to turn out they way they did. I’m guessing that William and Kate’s Suits obsession soon died on the vine once they got to know Meghan off the screen and things turned sour between them. Don’t count on the couple being among the millions who binged the show on Netflix during its surprise resurgence last year. The prince and princess are very much Disney Plus sort of people these days, anyway.