‘Complicated time’: Meghan Markle opens up on Queen Elizabeth II’s death
Duchess of Sussex uses latest interview to reflect on the ‘nice warmth’ she shared with ‘the matriarch of the family’.
Just weeks after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan Markle has reflected upon her relationship with “the matriarch of the family”, adding that her death last month “was a complicated time”.
In a glossy photo shoot for Variety magazine, Meghan, 41, referred to how she was able to support her husband Prince Harry during that time: “What’s so beautiful is to look at the legacy that his grandmother was able to leave on so many fronts. Certainly, in terms of female leadership, she is the most shining example of what that looks like. I feel deep gratitude to have been able to spend time with her and get to know her. It’s been a complicated time, but my husband, ever the optimist, said, ‘Now she’s reunited with her husband’.”
When asked if anything had “come up for you” in her relationship with the Queen since her death on September 8, Meghan said: “I’ve reflected on that first official engagement that I had with her, how special that felt. I feel fortunate. And I continue to be proud to have had a nice warmth with the matriarch of the family.”
Meghan had the one public joint engagement with the Queen, a June 2018 opening of a bridge in Widnes, Cheshire.
It was reported The Queen had invited the couple – with their young children Archie, three and one-year-old Lilibet – to Balmoral Castle during the summer break, but that the Sussexes didn’t have the time to see her.
Harry, 38, and Meghan were in London preparing for a charity appearance as part of a pseudo-royal tour when informed that the Queen was ill. Harry rushed to Balmoral, taking a private jet to Aberdeen, but arrived too late and was told of her death five minutes before the public announcement.
In the Variety article, which is published just a day after Meghan used her podcast to complain about being treated like a bimbo on an episode of Deal or No Deal, Meghan is shown draped in various expensive clothes as she claimed that “I also didn’t grow up pretty, I was the smart one”.
Meghan also expressed annoyance with a previous interview which appeared in The Cut, saying: “Part of me is just really trusting, really open – that’s how I move in the world. I have to remember that I don’t ever want to become so jaded that that piece of me goes away. So despite any of those things? Onward. I can survive it.”
Meghan said her upcoming Netflix documentary was directed by Liz Garbus. “It’s nice to be able to trust someone with our story – a seasoned director whose work I’ve long admired – even if it means it may not be the way we would have told it. But that’s not why we’re telling it. We’re trusting our story to someone else, and that means it will go through their lens.”
She added that it would focus on their “love story”.
“So much of how my husband and I see things is through our love story. I think that’s what people around the world connected to, especially with our wedding. People love love. I’m not excluded in that sentiment. And our definition of love is really expansive: Partner love, self-love, the love of community and family. We use that as the baseline of the kind of shows and documentaries we want out there.”
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