When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their engagement in 2018, there was one person in the Royal Family who was less than impressed with the couple’s news
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle revealed their engagement, Harry’s grandfather Prince Philip had a rather surprising response to the couple’s joyous announcement.
After only 18 months of courtship, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex declared they were engaged on 27 November 2018, revealing the news in a comprehensive interview during which Meghan displayed her stunning diamond ring. Despite the thrilled response from royal enthusiasts and commentators, there was one individual who was far from impressed with the announcement and issued a caution to Harry before the wedding: his grandfather Prince Philip.
According to royal biographer Andrew Lownie, Prince Philip is reported to have cautioned his grandson: “One steps out with actresses, one doesn’t marry them.”
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The royal expert wrote: “The Duke of Edinburgh apparently also chipped in – ‘One steps out with actresses, one doesn’t marry them,’ he is said to have advised his grandson. Idle dinner party gossip, perhaps, although it does sound like a Prince Philip bon mot.”
Despite his supposed reservations, the late Prince Philip attended the couple’s wedding ceremony alongside Queen Elizabeth at St George’s Chapel in Windsor on 19 May 2018. Royal biographer Ingrid Seward has also revealed that Philip was far from enamoured with Meghan Markle.
In her book, My Mother and I, Harry’s grandfather was described as “one of the very few wary” of the Duchess from the early stages of the couple’s romance. Philip even gave what he considered a witty nickname to Meghan, drawing a comparison to Wallis Simpson.
The Duchess of Windsor was an American socialite whom King Edward VIII gave up the throne to wed, prompting Philip to dub Meghan “DOW”.
Prince Philip’s misgivings about Meghan only deepened after the Sussexes stepped back from their royal duties in 2020 and upped sticks to California. Ingrid Seward disclosed that Harry’s grandfather struggled to comprehend why Meghan wouldn’t follow his lead, given that upon becoming the Duke of Edinburgh, Philip had relinquished his birth citizenship, his naval career and his surname.
In a 2020 interview with Sky News, the royal expert said: “I think he’s very, very disappointed because I think he feels he gave up his naval career in order to stand by the Queen and help the monarchy.
“And why can’t Meghan just give up her acting career, support her husband and support the monarchy? He just cannot understand why she couldn’t support Harry and help him rather than wanting to have her voice.” Prince Philip was reportedly not alone in his concerns about the pace of Harry and Meghan’s engagement. In his memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex revealed that his brother Prince William harboured similar reservations and was “nervous” about their union.
In his autobiography, Harry wrote: “‘It’s too fast’, he’d told me. ‘Too soon’. In fact, he’d actually been pretty discouraging about me even dating Meg.”
