Charles, Prince of Wales, had welcomed Meghan Markle into the family fold “like a daughter" after Prince Harry and the ex-Suits actress tied the knot in May 2018, according to a royal commentator.
“Charles famously adored Meghan… She was welcomed as a daughter, even more so than Kate Middleton was at the very beginning,” royal commentator Ashley Pearson claimed in Channel 5’s recent documentary, ‘Harry & Meghan Vs The Monarchy’.
Mention here is made of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, born Catherine Middleton, whose husband, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, is second in the line of succession to the British throne.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, younger son of Prince Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, first met in the summer of 2016 and were engaged by November 2017. A month later, she became the first royal fiancée to spend Christmas with the Royal Family at Sandringham, says former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond, who weighed in on Meghan Markle’s first meeting with Prince Charles in the same documentary.
“Meeting your in-laws is always a bit of an ordeal, isn’t it? And meeting your in-laws, when one is going to be a future king, meeting Prince Charles, must have been quite tough for Meghan or a little bit daunting, but she is a strong woman.”
According to Bond, the California born and raised divorcee “probably marched in there and just got on famously because she’s a woman with lots of opinions, lots of views and a confident woman.” “And those are the kind of attributes that Charles likes,” she added.
Furthermore, when Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, was unable to attend the wedding ceremony, the Prince of Wales offered to walk her down the aisle.
However, according to the royal commentators, in a “declaration of independence”, Meghan Markle asked Charles if they could meet halfway down the aisle. She eventually entered St. George's Chapel and walked most of the route solo. Prince Charles accompanied Meghan in her final steps to the altar.
The remarks by the royal commentators weigh in on the scandal surrounding allegations made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their bombshell interview with US television host Oprah Winfrey. At the time, the couple, which had dramatically stepped down from their roles as working royals in 2020 to pursue a life of independence, suggested that Meghan had not been treated well by the royal fold.
During the tell-all, the Sussexes dished such scandalous titbits as Meghan Markle’s near “suicidal” state during her first pregnancy, and allegations that an unnamed senior royal had voiced “concerns” about the skin colour of their son Archie, about to be born at that time.
Meghan Markle identifies as being mixed race, saying in interviews that “My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white."
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, left, and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex speak at Global Citizen Live in Central Park on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, in New York.
© AP Photo / Evan Agostini
Off camera, Prince Harry had clarified that it was not his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, or his grandfather, Prince Philip, who purportedly raised those concerns, but at least one family member, whom he refused to identify, did.
The former American actress married the sixth in the line of succession to the British throne on 19 May 2018 and became known as the Duchess of Sussex.
However, in 2020, the pair stepped back as senior members of the royal family, explaining the bombshell move as ostensibly prompted by the overwhelmingly intrusive and racist attitudes of the British media.
They later settled in Meghan Markle’s native California and now have two children, Archie, 2, and nine months old Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor.
Following the couple’s departure from the Firm (the unofficial nickname for the British royal family) and their truth-bombs in interviews, there had been reports of a growing rift between them and senior members of the Royal Family.
However, in January, a source was cited as saying by the Daily Mirror that Prince Charles had invited the Sussexes to stay with him and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, the next time they visited in the UK. If this were to happen, it would be the first time the family was reunited since Meghan Markle and Prince Harry broke with the royal the Sussexes quit their royal duties.