Prince Harry recalls having to ask the Queen’s permission to marry Meghan Markle

It was a moment Prince Harry had been dreading, and one where the Queen’s “cryptic” response to his new partner surprised him.

Prince Harry has described how he had to resist hugging his grandmother after she granted permission for him to propose to Meghan.

He appeared surprised when his friends advised him that he needed to speak to the Queen before popping the question, and then feared he could be “doomed to be the next Margaret”, who was once denied permission to marry the divorced RAF officer Peter Townsend.

Prince Harry decided to raise the matter during a shooting trip, which “always put Granny in a good mood”.

“I’ve decided that I would like to ask her to marry me, and I’ve been told that, er, that I have to ask your permission before I can propose,” he said to the Queen.

Queen Elizabeth’s family were not allowed to hug her, even in private.

She replied: “Well then, I suppose I have to say yes.”

Prince Harry wrote that he was unsure if she was being sarcastic, ironic or “deliberately cryptic”, before telling himself to “take yes for an answer”.

“I wanted to hug her. I longed to hug her. I didn’t hug her,” the Prince wrote.

The Duke of Sussex has shone a torch on how unwritten protocol forbids family from hugging the Queen - even in private - revealing he had to stifle the urge to hug his grandmother as he watched her tap her feet to music at her Golden Jubilee concert.

Prince Harry had to ask the Queen if he could marry Meghan Markle.

In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry said he was forced to quell the desire to hug Queen Elizabeth II as she hummed and swayed merrily to great musical artists of the century Paul McCartney and Queen guitarist Brian May, in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, knowing “it was out of the question”.

Not even her son, the now King Charles, has ever received an embrace from the former monarch who would return from long trips abroad to greet him with a distant handshake.

“When he (Charles) was five or six, Granny left him, went off on a royal tour lasting several months, and when she returned, she offered him a firm handshake. Which may be more than she ever got from Grandpa,” he writes.

“Indeed, Grandpa was so aloof, always travelling and working, he barely saw Pa for the first several years of his life,” Prince Harry writes.

Of the jubilee concert in the grounds of Buckingham Palace to mark 70 years of the monarch’s reign, he writes, “Sitting directly behind her, I couldn’t help thinking, to see her tapping her feet and swinging time, I wanted to hug her, though of course I didn’t. Out of the question.

The Duke continues, “I never had done and couldn’t imagine any circumstances under which such an act might be sanctioned.

“There was a famous story about Mummy trying to hug Granny. It was actually more a lunge than a hug, if witnesses can be believed.

The Queen gave a “cryptic” answer when Prince Harry asked for permission to marry.

“Granny swerved to avoid contact and the whole thing ended very awkwardly, with inverted eyes and mumbled apologies.

“As the concert went on, I began to feel tired from the loud music and the stress of last few weeks. Granny, however, showed no signs of fading. Still tapping and swaying.

“I looked closer and noticed something in her ears, something gold. Yes. Yellow ear plugs. I looked into my lap and smiled. I lifted my head again.

“I watched as Granny kept time to music she couldn’t hear, she had found a clever and subtle way of distancing. Controlling.

“More than ever I wanted to give granny a hug.”

HARRY ‘WET PANTS’ BEFORE MEGHAN DATE

Prince Harry’s first date with Ms Markle was preceded by a pants-wetting incident at sea and followed by a bag of weed, the renegade royal has revealed in Spare.

The third part of the memoir picks up at the point where Harry sees Meghan for the first time on Instagram, and is instantly smitten. The two immediately begin messaging each other.

But it’s not all smooth sailing - literally. The day before Harry and Meghan’s first date at Soho House, he competes in a sailing race around the Needles, off the Isle of Wight, but is caught out when nature calls.

“I held it in for as long as I could, until I had no choice,” Harry writes. “I swung my body over the side in the tossing seas…. And still couldn’t pee, mainly thanks to stage fright. The whole crew looking. Finally I went back to my post, sheepishly hung from the ropes, and peed my pants. Wow, I thought, if Ms Markle could see me now.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on their wedding day. Picture: Netflix

But the date itself is a smashing success, with Harry ending the night calling in on a friend, where the two smoke weed, drink tequila and watch the animated children’s movie Inside Out.

Harry is deep in his bachelor phase as the relationship with Meghan begins to bloom; the couple’s romantic first trip to Botswana is followed, for him, by an epic three-part lads’ adventure in Africa, complete with jetskiing, boozing and the consumption of what he refers to as “certain controlled substances”.

Meghan picks up on his heavy bachelor lifestyle during her first visit to his home at Nott Cott, saying “something about a frat house” when she first enters the modest dwelling.

“She wasn’t far off,” Harry writes. “Union Jack in the corner… Old rifle on the TV stand… Xbox console.”

“I’d never noticed until then just how shabby the furniture was. Brown sofa, browner beanbag chair. Meg paused before the beanbag.”

Harry goes on to detail his first attempt at introducing Ms Markle to a member of his family, with a dinner party at Nott Cott to which he invites Princess Eugenie, her partner Jack Brooksbank, and Harry’s friend Charlie.

The event is a big success, with “Euge hugging Meg, as if they were sisters,” dancing and games, but the night comes to a disastrous end when Meghan gets food poisoning.

While she vomits into the toilet, Harry writes that she tells him “Please tell me you’re not having to hold back my hair while I’m vomiting.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Princess Beatrice's cottage. Picture: Netflix

Meghan next meets Fergie, Prince Andrew (whom she does not recognise) and the Queen during an impromptu visit to Fergie’s place.

Ms Markle recounted the moment in last year’s Netflix series, and even recreated the over-the-top curtsy she gave to Queen Elizabeth upon their first meeting.

But according to Harry’s account in Spare the curtsy was “deep and flawless”, and prompted subsequent compliments from those who saw it.

Harry also reveals that the Queen asked Ms Markle her opinion of Donald Trump during their first meeting, but the actress deflected the question.

“Meg thought politics a no-win game, so she changed the subject to Canada,” he writes.