Behind the Scenes of Tiaragate : How the Queen's Hopes for the Sussexes Unravelled Even Before the Wedding

An extract from ‘The Queen: Her Life (2022)’ by Andrew Morton, published by Michael O’Mara Books in the UK and Grand Central Publishing in the USA. Also available as e-book and audio

The diversity of race, creed and colour, which was the cornerstone of the Commonwealth, came closer to home with the warm acceptance into the Royal Family of Prince Harry’s girlfriend, Meghan Markle, a divorced, dual-heritage American actor. During the run-up to the May 2018 wedding, she thoughtfully recognised how much the Commonwealth mattered to the Queen when she came up with the idea of having the national flowers of the fifty-three nations of the organisation embroidered into her bridal veil. It was a gesture that the Sovereign much appreciated, in the same way that she was pleased by Meghan’s decision to be baptised into the national faith, the Church of England, before her wedding day.

As she watched Meghan, from a different country, colour and culture, walk down the aisle of St George’s Chapel, she was witnessing history in the making. At a stroke, their marriage made the monarchy seem more relevant and inclusive in an ever-changing world. As it transpired, however, their brief journey at the heart of the institution would ultimately test the patience of the Queen, expose her familial indulgence, and stretch and strain the bonds of blood and sinew.

At first all seemed well. A month after the wedding, the Queen invited Meghan on the royal train for a day’s engagements in Cheshire in the north-west of England. On the journey there, Her Majesty presented the Duchess of Sussex (as she had become known since her nuptials) with a beautiful pearl necklace and matching earrings. ‘I really love being in her company,’ Meghan said later, comparing the Monarch’s warmth and welcoming nature with that of her own grandmother, Jeanette.

To ensure that the duchess was properly briefed for future events, the Queen had assigned her own experienced assistant private secretary Samantha Cohen to Meghan’s office, to provide her with insight into the workings of the monarchy and the Commonwealth. She appointed Harry as a Commonwealth Youth Ambassador, while months later Meghan became patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. These appointments would give the couple an international role and leave the domestic scene largely to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. As participants in a YouGov poll in autumn 2018 voted Prince Harry the most popular member of the Royal Family, just ahead of the Queen, it seemed a shrewd strategy to ensure that the future King was not overshadowed by his younger brother.

Harry seemed determined to carve out a role very different from that of his brother, having developed a mindset that would put them on conflicting paths, but despite the distance growing between the two princes the younger man still had the ear of his grandmother. A story in The Times newspaper in November 2018, shortly after Meghan and Harry had returned from a successful first tour of Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand, gave an intimate flavour of the relationship between the prince and his Sovereign.

It revolved around the tiara, held under lock and key in the vaults of Buckingham Palace, which Her Majesty had loaned to Meghan before the wedding. The story stated that prior to the royal nuptials, Harry was angry when the precious item was not immediately made available for a hair fitting with Meghan’s hairdresser, Serge Normant, who had flown in specially from New York. The Queen’s dresser, the redoubtable Angela Kelly, who was also guardian of her private jewellery collection, explained that certain security protocols had to be adhered to in order to access the priceless piece. Harry would have none of it and angrily told staff: ‘What Meghan wants Meghan gets.’ In the end, he went to see his grandmother, who agreed to grant access to the tiara for the purpose of the fitting.

Although the media focus was on Meghan’s alleged prima-donna behaviour, the most telling takeaway from the ‘tiara tantrum’ story was the way that Harry was able to go over the head of a trusted royal aide directly to the Queen and convince her to do his bidding. In an organisation within which it can take weeks to gain an appointment with the Monarch, this access was remarkable. Family came first. It was both a strength and a flaw. As an aide later observed: ‘It has to be remembered that this is a family and a court, not a corporation.’

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