‘Queen would have found Meghan’s curtsy funny’: Gyles Brandreth
A friend of the late Queen Elizabeth has revealed how Her Majesty would have responded to Meghan Markle’s exaggerated curtsy in the docuseries.
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Critics have taken aim at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for “mocking” the Queen in their Netflix docuseries.
Meghan Markle recounted – and even recreated– her first curtsy to Queen Elizabeth II.
A move which has been frowned upon by many in the wake of the first three episodes dropping on Thursday.
But former politician and friend of the late Queen, Gyles Brandreth, said her majesty would have laughed at Meghan’s exaggerated curtsy in the docuseries.
“The Queen had a brilliant sense of humour, she would have found Meghan’s curtsy funny,” he said.
“She loved Harry especially because she loved his sense of humour. She welcomed Meghan warmly, and was very keen for it to work and said to Meghan ‘you’re an actress, you must carry on with your profession if you want to be part of this’.”
He said the Queen was happy Meghan had shown interest in the Commonwealth.
“[She] took her for her first trip together, to Chester constituency because the Queen saw in the programme that we‘re going to be opening a theatre, an actress opening a theatre and it was a great success,” he said.
“But the Queen also said to Meghan, you‘re new to this, you know, coming into the royal family. It’s not easy for everybody. Sophie Wessex can be a mentor as was the last one to come in. “Meghan’s didn’t want to know.”
MEGHAN’S ‘SHOCK MEETING’ WITH THE QUEEN
The Duke of Sussex described during episode two how Ms Markle met the Queen for the first time was a “shock to the system”.
“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,” he recalled.
The Duchess said: “There wasn’t like some big moment of ‘Now you’re going to meet my grandmother’. I didn’t know I was going to meet her until moments before.
“We were in the car and we were going to Royal Lodge for lunch, and he’s like ‘Oh, my grandmother’s here, we’re going to meet her after church.’ And I remember we were in the car driving up and he’s like ‘You know how to curtsy, right?’ And I just thought it was a joke.”
Prince Harry then said: “How do you explain that to people? How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother? And that you will need to curtsy. Especially to an American. That’s weird.”
She added: “Now I’m starting to realise ‘This is a big deal’. I mean, Americans will understand this… We have medieval times, dinner and tournament. It was like that.”
One of the series’ lighter moments occurred when Markle recounted - and even recreated - her first curtsy to Queen Elizabeth.
“I didn’t know I was going to meet her until moments before,” Markle said, recalling that Harry asked her: ‘You know how to curtsy, right?”
“I just thought it was a joke.”
In full actress mode, the former Suits star then performed an elaborate, and very deep curtsey while seated on the couch next to Harry.
Ms Markle said Princess Eugenie told her “You did great” after meeting the Queen, but then added: “I didn’t know I was going to meet her...”
Harry also said the family seemed very impressed at his new girlfriend.
“Maybe they were surprised a ginger could land such a beautiful woman,” he quipped.
HARRY, MEGHAN FIRST DATE REVEALED
Prince Harry revealed the first time he saw Meghan Markle was scrolling through his Instagram feed and spotting a cute video of his future wife using a Snapchat dog filter.
In the first episode of the much-anticipated Harry & Meghan documentary series, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex share intimate details of their early courtship.
“That was the first thing (and I was) ‘Who is that?” he says with Markle sitting on the couch beside him.
“H” as she refers to him throughout the doco, then asked their mutual friend in the Snapchat video to contact the then Suits actor who was on a European holiday in July 2016 with girlfriends ahead of returning to the Suits set in Canada.
The newly single Markle had been determined to enjoy her freedom before her friend sent an email because “a friend had asked about you.”
“Between you and I you might want to know this being newly single and all. I put our snapchat on Instagram and Prince Haz follows me (he’s a friend) he called me last night dying to meet you...I might just have to set you up,” the friend’s email said.
Markle said she didn’t know who “Prince Haz” was and asked her friend to show her his feed to check him out and was impressed by his “beautiful photography” of a recent trip to Africa.
The pair then exchanged phone numbers and “were constantly in touch” before finally going on their first date, with Markle telling several friends, who are interviewed in the documentary she was about to go out for drinks with the Prince.
The first episode shows the wording of texts between them ahead of their first date.
He writes: “So come on – what u doing tomorrow night? Hope you’re Having fun over there!”
Shereplies: “Heading back to soho. I have a dinner tomorrow at 8 but can do drinks tomorrow night. Would that work? Maybe 6?”
He writes back: “You’re ON!”
And he was late, frantically texting her while stuck in traffic.
“I was panicking, I was freaking out, I started sweating,” the Prince said.
Markle was unimpressed.
“I didn’t know him...(I thought) ‘Oh is this what he does?’ This, I’m not doing!’” she said, suggesting she thought he may have possessed the kind of ego which expected women “to sit around for half an hour waiting for you.”
The first episode cuts to London in July 2016 and Prince Harry can be heard saying that is when they met.
Ms Markle had plans to travel with friends. One of them, Lindsay Jill Roth, said: “In the summer of 2016 she had a few different trips planned and she was just going to be free.”
The Duchess said: “I was really intent on being single and just have fun girl-time.”
Another friend called Lucy Fraser told the documentary: “She had planned her single-girl summer and she had a lot of plans of going around Europe.”
Ms Markle then said: “I had a career. I had my life. I had my path… and then came H.
“I mean, he literally, talk about a plot twist.”
Sun journalist Harry Cole said Prince Harry said in 2017 told the BBC “It was definitely a set-up — it was a blind date. It was a blind date for sure.”
“Now they confirm to Netflix they actually met on Instagram.”
The Duke and Duchess share dozens of private photos and videos of their romantic five-day getaway to Botswana in August 2016, where they lived together in a tent, even being disturbed one night by an elephant eating leaves from the tree near their campsite.
Markle said she had a rule they had to see each other at least every two weeks with the actress making regular trips to London via commercial flights where they would stay together at Kensington Palace and take trips to Windsor Castle to explore the Frogmore gardens around the cottage they would later make their home as a married couple.
They enjoyed less than four months living in the private romantic bubble before the news of their relationship broke in October 2016.
Their final night of “fun” before the big reveal was a Halloween party they shared with Princess Eugenie and future husband Jack Brooksbank where the pair ironically dressed in camouflage costumes.
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