The Royal Family aren’t as open with their opinions as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, but it’s probably fair to say that if they were asked for their thoughts on the antics of the Duchess of Sussex they, to quote their famous ancestor, would not be amused. From what we gather, Meghan’s popularity within the family falls somewhere between animal rights activists and the trouser police.
It wasn’t always this way, though. From what we gather, Harry’s future wife caused a lot of excitement when she was first introduced to the Royals, after the pair started dated in 2016. The prince himself has admitted his relatives thought he was aiming way out of his league with the former Suits star and we’ve since learned that Prince William and Kate Middleton were initially starstruck by Harry’s new girlfriend because they were such big fans of her TV show.
Queen Elizabeth II’s thoughts on Meghan joining her family line are perhaps the most significant, however, as they really show just how far relations between Harry and Meghan and the Royal Family fell in the years after they tied the knot in 2018.
Queen Elizabeth’s honest thoughts on Meghan Markle are not what we expected
Much has been made about how Meghan was immediately viewed as an outsider when she joined the Royal clan due to, well, basically everything about her — from the fact she was a woman of color to her American nationality to her status as a divorcee (back in the day, marrying a divorced woman was enough to cause a king to abdicate). Even Meghan herself has stressed how she never fit in.
You might expect that this hostile atmosphere was started by the matriarch of the family and then trickled down, but it seems that couldn’t be further from the truth. The late queen is actually said to have been delighted by Harry’s choice of partner as King Charles’ mother was excited for the changes and modernity Meghan becoming his wife would bring.
As per Daily Mail, courtiers have revealed that Queen Elizabeth “felt Meghan would be a breath of fresh air and a great asset to the monarchy.”
This comes in sharp contrast to other recent claims that alleged the queen had some very different thoughts about Meghan, supposedly branding her as “evil” at a lunch event at Buckingham Palace. This is meant to have occurred after the Sussexes split from the U.K. in 2020, so it’s possible the queen changed her opinion later on. Alternatively, one of these reports is a right royal liar.
If Elizabeth II really was so hopeful about the future of the family with Meghan in it, though, that does make the subsequent bitter falling-out between the duke and duchess and King Charles and Prince William all the more heartbreaking. The queen might have seen Meghan as a breath of fresh air, but her arrival ended up creating a storm that tore the family apart. One consolation is that at least Harry knew that his beloved grandmother approved of his choice of life partner.