Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may not be on “speaking terms” with the Prince and Princess of Wales but that wasn’t always the case.
The two couples used to be dubbed the “Fab Four” long before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down as senior working royals and moved to the US in 2020.
Harry and Meghan started dating sometime in 2016 and it wasn’t long before the duke introduced his future wife to his family, including his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth and his older brother, Prince William and his wife Princess Kate.
According to Finding Freedom, a book written by authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, their first encounter was a sweet one, with the future King welcoming Meghan into the fold.
The book claimed William said: “I was looking forward to meeting the girl who has put that silly grin on my brother’s face.
Meanwhile, Meghan’s recollection of the first time she met the Princess of Wales wasn’t as heartwarming.
Speaking on her and Harry’s eponymous Netflix docuseries, the duchess said: “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.
“I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits. 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.”
However, it was an even senior royal who met Meghan first – the late Queen herself.
In the same show, Harry spoke of his wife’s first time meeting his late grandmother.
He recalled: “My grandmother was the first senior member of the family that Meghan met.
“She had no idea what it all consisted of. So it was a bit of a shock to the system for her.”
Meghan added: “I mean, it’s surreal. There wasn’t, like, some big moment of, ‘Now you’re gonna meet my grandmother.’ I didn’t know I was gonna meet her until moments before.
“We were in the car and we were going to Royal Lodge for lunch, and he was like, ‘Oh, my grandmother is here! She’s gonna be there after church.’ We were in the car, driving and he’s like, ‘You know how to curtsy, right?’ And I just thought it was a joke.”
Harry followed up: “How do you explain that to people? How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother? And that you would need to curtsy, especially to an American. Like, that’s weird.
Meghan then spoke of her “intense” meeting with Elizabeth: “It was so intense. When she left, [Princess] Eugenie and Jack [Brooksbank] and Fergie [the Duchess of York] said, ‘You did great!’ Thanks? I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Elsewhere, the duke said: “I remember my family first meeting her and being incredibly impressed. Some of them didn’t quite know what to do with themselves…They were surprised. Maybe surprised that a ginger could land such a beautiful woman, and such an intelligent woman.
