Meghan Markle and Harry’s time as a senior royal family member didn’t exactly go to plan. A few years after she and Prince Harry tied the knot, the couple decided enough was enough and left the royal family.
The fact that the Sussexes did leave royal life was one thing, as several of the Firm’s members were hurt and shocked by their decision. However, what they did after, revealing all sorts of things about the royals, created a situation that has been terrible since.
Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the royal family is destroyed today, and no one knows if they will make amends. The Duchess had to stand in Kate Middleton’s shadow, and according to one royal expert, that was not what she expected. A new claim suggests that Meghan didn’t only think she’d be in the spotlight – but even becoming the UK’s new Princess Diana.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship began with a brief, one-hour date in London in 2016. The then Suits star described how she was in London for the Wimbledon tennis tournament when she and Harry made plans to meet.
Meghan Markle – journey towards royal life
They scheduled a dinner, though things could have gotten off to a better start. Harry and Meghan were to meet at the Soho House in London, but the actress was forced to wait on her date for 30 minutes as Harry was running late.
“I couldn’t understand why he would be late,” Meghan said in the series. “But he kept texting. He was like, ‘I’m in traffic. I’m so sorry.’”
“I was panicking, I was freaking out,” Harry added. “I was, like, sweating.”
Meghan revealed that because she didn’t know Harry, she wondered if he was usually late.
“I was like, ‘Oh, is this what he does?’ Got it. Like this, I’m not doing. I’m not gonna sit…..”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Harry interfered.
“Like you’re one of those guys who have so much of an ego that any girl would sit waiting for a half hour for you,” Meghan continued. “I was just not interested in that.”
Once Harry walked into the restaurant, though, Meghan quickly realized that his being late wasn’t part of any strategy or plan.
“I was a hot, sweaty, red ball of mess,” Harry recalled.
“You were just so sweet,” Meghan added. “You were genuinely so embarrassed and late.”
“We just met but I think she’s the one”
The first date, which Meghan said was “refreshingly fun,” lasted about an hour. The next day, the couple met again – coincidentally, Meghan was five minutes late.
“I was like, ‘You can be as late as you want cause I ain’t moving,’” Harry reminisced.
He added: “That was when it just hit me like, this woman is amazing. She is everything that I’ve been looking for.”
Harry was over the moon when he started dating Meghan. It didn’t take long for the couple to begin a serious relationship.
A friend who appeared in the couple’s documentary explained how happy and excited the Prince was.
“Guys, I met a girl,” the friend recalled Harry saying. “We just met, but I think she’s the one.”
Meghan, meanwhile, explained how she and Harry shared a special connection from the beginning. Though their relationship was initially long-distance – and a secret to the world – it never stopped them.
“Everything was text and FaceTime, we’d talk for hours. It felt exciting but not in the way people would assume it would be,” Meghan said. “It was just relaxed and easy.”
In 2018, the two tied the knot in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor. At that stage, many believed the couple would be a vital part of the Royal Family’s future. Of course, we now know just how wrong those predictions were.
Meghan Markle’s short stint as a royal family member
Barely two years later, Harry and Meghan left the royal family for good. On January 8, 2020, the couple released a statement explaining that they no longer wished to be working royal family members.
“After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution,” they said.
“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen. It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment. We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages.”
“This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.”
Harry and Meghan concluded, “We look forward to sharing the full details of this exciting next step in due course, as we continue to collaborate with Her Majesty The Queen, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Cambridge and all relevant parties. Until then, please accept our deepest thanks for your continued support.”
The BBC reported that neither Queen Elizabeth nor Prince William had been consulted before the statement was made public. Buckingham Palace was said to be “disappointed” and senior royals “hurt.”
Meghan Markle & Kate Middleton didn’t get along
It didn’t take long for the feelings of hurt to turn into rage as Harry and Meghan moved on to reveal details about the royal life and the experiences they had been through. They revealed many personal things about the royal members and accused them of all sorts of things.
When Meghan Markel first came into the royal family, she appeared to fit in perfectly. She and Kate Middleton seemed to be friends, appearing on royal duty together, but things were very different behind the scenes.
During their first meeting, Meghan felt the two weren’t on the same side.
“When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans, and I was barefoot,” Meghan recalled in the couple’s Netflix series.
“I was a hugger. I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.”
She continued, “I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside. There is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door and go ‘You can relax now’, but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”
Authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand claim in their book Finding Freedom that the two women weren’t precisely feuding from the start; rather, the two royals didn’t know each other well enough.
Meghan was “disappointed” with Kate for not guiding her into royal life
Scobie has been known to have close ties to Harry and Meghan, considering himself somewhat of their friend.
“Meghan would agree with the assessment that the duchesses were not the best of friends,” they wrote. “Their relationship hadn’t progressed much since [Markle] was Harry’s girlfriend.”
Moreover, Durand and Scobie added that Kate didn’t make a significant effort to welcome Markle into the family, at least not in the way people might have expected.
Meghan had hoped that Kate would take her under her wing and guide her through all the new things that someone coming from “outside to the Firm” should know. However, the authors claim that never happened.
“Meghan was disappointed that she and Kate hadn’t bonded over the position they shared, but she wasn’t losing sleep over it,” Durand and Scobie wrote in Finding Freedom, adding that “Meghan would far rather have had Kate check in on her during the most difficult times with the press.”
As Kate Middleton was to become the future queen, it was inevitable that she would be graded “more important,” just like Harry felt that he was the “spare” to his brother, William, who one day was to become king.
Meghan saw herself as “the royal family’s new Diana,” royal expert claims
Even so, Harry and Meghan went on royal tours, the first of which was to Australia. In his new book House of Beckham, which focuses on David and Victoria Beckham’s relationship, royal expert Tom Bower says that Meghan Markel saw herself as “the royal family’s new Diana” after arriving home from the successful royal tour of Australia, The Sun reported.
At the same time, she was discontent that “in the royal hierarchy she was subservient to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and the future Queen.”
However, the celebrity biographer claims Meghan was discontent that “in the royal hierarchy she was subservient to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and the future Queen.”
Despite her and Charles’ divorce and her exit from royal life, Princess Diana continued to be one of the biggest celebrities before her tragic death in 1997. And it appears Meghan Markle wanted to walk the same celebrity path as her husband’s late mother.
While the Duchess rose to fame worldwide during her time within the royal sphere, when she and Harry left, she planned to become even more popular and reach a different level of celebrity status.
Meghan wanted to become a “superstar” after leaving the royal family
According. to royal commentator Jane Barr, Meghan Markle wanted to become a “superstar.”
“[Meghan] would not have been happy with the ultimately quiet or truly independent/non-royal lives that William and Harry’s cousins actually live,” Barr wrote in her From Berkshire to Buckingham newsletter, as per the NY Post.
Barr continued, “Meghan wanted to take her HRH and her title and be a superstar in her own sphere on the international stage,” adding that it would be “wholly separate from the control of the crown.”
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