Meghan Markle: What to know
Everything you need to know about Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle and her new life as part of the British royal family.
Queen Elizabeth II has made “a particular effort” to make Meghan Markle feel incredibly welcomed as a member of the British royal family, Duncan Larcombe claims.
The award-winning British journalist and author told Fabulous on Tuesday that the reigning monarch is extending an invite to the 38-year-old on an array of royal engagements. The move is said to be an effort to ensure Markle doesn’t feel like an outsider as her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana, felt when she joined the family.
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“Meghan seems to have forged a particularly close relationship with the queen if you compare that to when other people have married into the royal family,” said according to Larcombe, who has spent more than 10 years working as a royal editor for The Sun newspaper in London.
Queen Elizabeth and the Duchess of Sussex stepped out together on June 14, 2018. (AP)
Larcombe added it is an effort that “wasn’t afforded to Kate [Middleton],” when the Duchess of Cambridge married Prince William in 2011.
Markle, formerly an American actress, officially became a member of the British royal family when she married Diana’s son and William's younger brother, Prince Harry, in May 2018. The couple welcomed a son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, in May of this year.
Larcombe specifically pointed out Markle’s joint engagement with Elizabeth, 93, to open the new Mersey Gateway Bridge in Cheshire last June.
An official wedding photo of Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, center, in Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, Saturday, May 19, 2018. (Alexi Lubomirski/Kensington Palace via AP)
“The queen, last year in the first few months of Meghan’s entry into the royal family, made a particular and slightly unusual effort to welcome her in,” Larcombe told the outlet. “Unusual in the context of the trip on the royal train to do a royal engagement. I am 99 percent sure she’s never afforded that offer to Kate.”
Larcombe explained this surprising move is likely stemmed from “lessons of the past” when Diana “pretty much felt like an outsider in the royal family.”
The claims come after reports insisted the monarch invited Markle to celebrate her 38th birthday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland over the weekend. The trip would have been Markle and Archie’s first trip to the Scottish castle and an invite from her grandmother-in-law was said to be a “great honor.”
According to the outlet, Elizabeth has spent every summer at Balmoral Castle since her childhood and it is said to be her favorite home.
Queen Elizabeth II tours Queen Mother Square on October 27, 2016, in Poundbury, Dorset. (Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage) (Samir Hussein/WireImage)
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Back in April of this year, royal expert Katie Nicholl told Fox News that the one person Markle quickly bonded with was the queen herself.
“I think what was most surprising, and refreshingly so, was how warmly included and accepted Meghan was,” royal expert Katie Nicholl told Fox News. “It was very important, I was told, to [Prince] Harry that he had the seal of approval from his father (Prince Charles), from his brother and his sister-in-law, but also from Her Majesty the Queen.”
According to Nicholl, it was crucial for Harry to get the queen's approval not just because of her status within the family, but because he developed a loving bond with his grandmother after he lost his mother in 1997.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles on their wedding day in 1981. (Reuters)
“Harry has a very close relationship with his grandmother,” explained Nicholl. “He wanted the queen’s approval. It’s why he took Meghan to spend time in Windsor and a lot of their courtship was conducted in Windsor. It’s why he took Meghan to meet the queen at Buckingham Palace. I have been pleasantly surprised by how readily the queen, particularly, has welcomed Meghan into the royal family.”
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While some critics have questioned whether Markle would be a welcoming addition to the family, Nicholl insisted Elizabeth has given the former “Suits” leading lady her official stamp of approval.
“I’ve been quite impressed by how much responsibility the queen has given Meghan,” Nicholl explained. “The queen likes Meghan. She recognizes how happy Meghan makes Harry, but she also sees how capable Meghan is as a royal. She showed them how much she thought of Meghan in the early days before they were actually married when she invited Meghan to be a part of the Commonwealth Day service. Quite an important event in the royal calendar. And there was Meghan before she was actually married into the royal family.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry greet the press as they debut Baby Sussex. The couple met reporters at Windsor Castle, where they also met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. (Getty)
Nicholl claimed Elizabeth is so fond of Markle she did more than invite her to personal, intimate family gatherings leading up to the marriage — she put her to work as a future duchess.
“The queen put Meghan on that world stage before she was even a member of the royal family,” said Nicholl. "I remember being really struck by that, surprised and impressed. The way Meghan has been fast-tracked into the royal family has been quite unique.”
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Perhaps Elizabeth could sense that her grandson was deeply concerned about what the future held for him before he met Markle through a mutual friend.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. (Getty)
“Harry, at one point, was genuinely worried that he was going to be left on the shelf,” Nicholl previously told Fox News. “His brother was happily married with children. Many of his friends, who up until that point had been eternal bachelors, were getting engaged, getting married. I think Harry genuinely worried about that, and one of the reasons he worried about that was because he wanted to find his life partner, and he wanted to be a dad. Harry wanted children for a very long time.”
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