When Harry Met Meghan (Part 3)

What’s on my mind? Once upon a time, a handsome young Prince roamed the world looking for his mother. Prince Henry Charles Albert David (known as Harry) was only 12 when his mother died in 1997.  

“Mother! Mother!” called the Prince, but heard only the echo of his own voice. “Mo-ther!” The young Prince didn’t know it, but his mother was always by his side, watching over him. 

The young Prince’s older brother also missed his mother, who died when he was 15. Second in the line-of-succession to the throne, the older Prince married commoner Kate Middleton, who grew up in the village of Chapel Row, in the English county of Berkshire. Meeting in university, the couple had known one another nine years before their 2011 marriage and initial move to what has been described as a “modest beachside farmhouse.”

Kate performed the domestic duties without household help while William served as an Air Ambulance search-and-rescue pilot before turning to his royal duties. Now the mother of three, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, appears content to be beta to William’s alpha. Kate is 39; William will be 39 in June.

Harry, the young prince, also served his country, rising to Captain in the British Army over 10 years and two tours in Afghanistan. In 2011, the young prince assumed his royal duties before meeting American actress Meghan Markle in July, 2016. Commoner Markle grew up in Los Angeles. 

Everyone loves a love story: Endings are tinged with sadness. Until she met Harry, Markle was in a relationship with celebrity chef Cory Vitiello from 2014 until July 2016. Markle had formerly been in an 11-year relationship with American actor and producer Trevor Engelson. Married in Jamaica in 2011, the couple cited “irreconcilable differences” on their 2013 divorce. 

In the Nov. 30, 2017 edition of The Grazia Gazette, Markle friend Abby Wathen said the divorce “empowered” Markle. Engelson’s net worth is an estimated $12 million. 

Harry and Meghan’s May, 2019 wedding drew a worldwide TV audience of more than 29 million. The couple now has a son, Archie, and - post-Megxit - expect a daughter this summer. They live in a nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom mansion in Los Angeles on which they’re reported to hold a $10 million US mortgage.

Numbers, numbers ... Meghan and Harry’s lives always seem to come down to numbers. More about money issues in a few days.

As originally reported in The Sun’s Fabulous Magazine, when British TV presenter Lizzie Cundy heard the news of the royal romance, she immediately texted Markle: “What a catch!” Markle’s reply: “Yeah, I know!” But then, who wouldn’t be delighted to date a prince?

Has the young prince found his mother figure? Markle will be 40 in August - some than three years older than Diana, on her death. Harry will be 37 in September. Some might say Markle is the alpha to Harry’s beta, whose role within the royal family appears to have diminished and whose voice has weakened since Megxit and this month’s tittle-tattle Oprah interview criticizing the Crown. More about Markle’s charges - and others’ rebuttals - later this week.

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It’s often said history repeats itself. The story of Wallis Simpson, the divorced American socialite who became a duchess, is well known.

 In 1936, after less than a year on the throne, the weak-willed King Edward VIII abdicated to marry to his mistress, Wallis Simpson. The lengthy affair had been an open secret, beginning when he was a prince and she, a femme fatale. 

The headlines were brutal (as they’ve been for Meghan Markle ... Sexist and racist headlines she doesn’t deserve). On leaving the throne to marry Simpson, Edward became Prince Edward, the Duke of Windsor. When commoner Simpson married Edward, she became Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor. On Edward’s scandalous departure and moves to the Bahamas and to Paris, the vapid partying began.

From something bad, something good can emerge: Edward’s abdication led to the coronation of his younger brother, King George VI. George’s premature death in 1952 led to the coronation of a truly magnificent queen. Sixty-nine years later, Elizabeth II continues to hold the throne.

When Harry met Meghan, 80 years after Edward’s abdication, a similar version of history would soon repeat itself when a prince and newly minted princess spurned the Crown. Each would lose their titles of Your Royal Highness, becoming simply Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. 

In an astonishing twist of history, the Rolls-Royce that bore American socialite and divorcée Wallis Simpson to bury a King, is the very same Rolls that carried American actress and divorcée Meghan Markle to marry a Prince. 

Before this event, in the Autumn of 2018, Queen Elizabeth presented Harry and Meghan with the 10-bedroom Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor Estate. The couple’s extensive, $3 million US renovations to Frogmore delayed the move into the historic home. Slightly more than a year after moving in, and Markle’s complaints to Harry of feeling “unprotected,” the couple left Britain for a new life in Canada. When Markle felt “unprotected” there, too, they moved to Markle’s familiar stomping grounds in L.A.

It’s been reported that Markle was “deeply unhappy” in Frogmore, feeling “isolated” and “convinced there was a conspiracy against her ... This wasn’t the life she was used to and she wanted out.” 

https://www.womanandhome.com/us/life/royal-news/the-mystery-behind-prince-harry-and-meghan-markles-frogmore-cottage/

Whether Markle knew it or not, Wallis Simpson, who died in 1986, was interred in the Royal Burial Ground on the Frogmore Estate. 

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Markle took care in selecting her “look” for the Oprah interview: With her hair up and parted at the center, she wore a diamond bracelet that had belonged to Harry’s mother, Diana, as well as other jewelry rich in symbolism. 

It was Markle’s dress - an eye-catching Armani design adorned with white lotus flowers signifying rebirth - that drew murmurs of surprise. After watching the couple’s blockbusting interview, world-renowned behavior analyst Mark Bowden said Markle’s body language “just begs belief … This is an actress.” Among his comments, Bowden called Markle’s dress a “costume.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYyEx20DiKU 

Indeed: A well-known, iconic photo of Wallis Simpson shows Markle’s “look” similar to Simpson’s.

There appears to be a concerted effort among Markle-boosters to compare her much publicized unhappiness in the royal household to Diana’s - a distraction that minimizes the similarities to Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. I find the Meghan/Diana comparison off-putting. Markle may wear Diana’s jewelry, but will never generate the love and respect accorded “the people’s princess.” 

Tomorrow: Four body-language  experts, a handwriting analyst, and Meghan Markle. 

© Nicole Parton, 2021