Royals ready to hit the brakes on Meghan
The newlyweds blended their British and American heritage at their wedding, but Meghan now faces the realities of royal life.
Harry and Meghan blended their British and American heritage at their weekend wedding but the new Duchess of Sussex will find her outspoken ways curtailed now she is a member of the royal family.
Meghan started her royal career in fine form and will be expected to do good works, particularly in raising the relevance of the Commonwealth, but the family will keep a tight control on events and utterances, seeking to avoid public missteps such as the pre-wedding controversy involving her 73-year-old father.
Meghan is no longer the free-speaking Hollywood starlet. Instead, she must be the duchess who smiles sweetly but has no political opinions. She will be expected to surround herself with a coterie of connected establishment friends rather than her wide circle of acting mates.
Royal courtiers are keen to exploit Meghan’s booming popularity, but there’s a fear the heavyweight celebrity wedding-guest list, including high-profile hosts such as Oprah Winfrey and James Corden, plus a string of television soap actors, could backfire if they breach protocol by revealing private aspects of the day.
The royal family’s Twitter account yesterday posted a message of thanks to those who followed the wedding from Britain, the Commonwealth and around the world.
Meghan expressed her outgoing personality in many symbolic ways throughout the wedding: the elderflower and lemon wedding cake; the plain Jackie O-style wedding dress; the solo walk down the aisle to the quire; the choice of music; and the sermon by Bishop Michael Curry, leader of America’s Episcopal Church, whose preaching about the resilience of faith during the era of slavery prompted some sniggers behind hats inside the church.
Meghan gave her own speech at the evening reception, and if there was any doubt about the source of her strength, one had only to look at the poise of her mother, Doria Ragland, isolated in the church as the only Markle family member present before Prince Charles tenderly moved to include her.
Charles earlier told the bride she was looking “lovely” and checked she was OK as he took her arm and walked her the final steps up the aisle.
Meghan wore an understated wedding dress — albeit in pure white, bucking protocol for a divorcee. The dress was designed by Clare Waight Keller of Givenchy, its long train topped with Queen Mary’s Art Deco diamond bandeau tiara, lent by the Queen. Australian designer duo Ralph & Russo, who had been the bookies’ favourites, had to content themselves with making the engagement dress.
St George’s Chapel reverberated to the gospel choir singing Ben E. King’s Stand By Me and the civil rights song This Little Light of Mine upon the couple’s departure from the chapel, a nod to the duchess’s social concerns.
People of colour — British and American — hailed Meghan’s bravery and were thrilled she included high-profile guests such as Oprah, tennis champion Serena Williams and actor Idris Elba.
But it was the love of the couple, so clear to the congregation and the 1.9 billion television audience, that dominated proceedings.
When Meghan joined Harry at the altar, he told her: “You look amazing. I missed you.’’ During the service, in reassuring asides, he whispered “I love you’’ and “you look cute’’.
After the service, Prince William told Prince Charles about the look of love on Prince Harry’s face when he saw his wife-to-be walk down the aisle. “He was just staring,” William told their father. “It was absolutely amazing.”
Inside the chapel were high- powered invitees such as actor George Clooney and his barrister wife Amal, film stars Tom Hardy and Carey Mulligan, and footballer David Beckham with his pop star-turned-fashion designer wife Victoria.
Several of Prince Harry’s rugby chums, including James Haskell, Sir Clive Woodward and Jonny Wilkinson, were there. On Meghan’s side there were Suits colleagues Patrick Adams, Sarah Rafferty, Gabriel Macht, Gina Torres and Silver Tree.
Bishop Curry’s dramatic preaching divided the royal fans, who lined the Windsor streets and the Long Walk 10-deep in places and watched the ceremony on big screens.
People loved the reference to Martin Luther King but thought the bishop’s enthusiastic style was over the top.
After a whirlwind relationship that began in June 2016, Meghan Markle became the first divorced American to marry a British royal since Wallis Simpson wed Edward VIII in 1937.
On the steps of St George’s Chapel, she whispered to her new husband, “do we kiss?”, and he whispered “yes” before leaning in for the big moment that was captured by some of the golden-ticket invitees representing charities on the lawn below.
Meghan responded: “Oh, that was so beautiful. So perfect. I am just so emotional.”
The open-top procession through Windsor illustrated the royal knack for pageantry and pomp at its best. In glorious sunshine, the happy couple sat in an Ascot Landau carriage, pulled by the team of Windsor grey horses. The duchess waved and smiled to the 120,000 people who lined the route, at one point remarking “wow”. Prince Harry smiled widely and said in return: “I am ready for a drink now.”
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