When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle revealed their engagement after just 18 months of courtship in November 2018, Prince Philip reportedly had a surprising response to the couple’s news. On November 27, 2018, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their engagement in a comprehensive interview, during which Meghan displayed her stunning £120,000 diamond engagement ring.
However, despite an elated response from royal enthusiasts and commentators, there was one individual who was apparently far from impressed with the announcement and issued a caution to Harry before the wedding – his grandfather. According to royal biographer Andrew Lownie, Prince Philip reportedly cautioned his grandson: “One steps out with actresses, one doesn’t marry them.”
“The Duke of Edinburgh apparently also chipped in – ‘One steps out with actresses, one doesn’t marry them,’ he is said to have advised his grandson. Idle dinner party gossip, perhaps, although it does sound like a Prince Philip bon mot,” Mr Lownie said.
However, despite these reported reservations, the late Prince Philip attended the couple’s wedding ceremony alongside Queen Elizabeth at St George’s Chapel in Windsor on May 19, 2018. Royal biographer Ingrid Seward has also revealed that Philip was far from enamoured with Meghan.
In her book, My Mother and I, Harry’s grandfather was described as “one of the very few wary” of the Duchess from the early stages of the couple’s romance. Philip even gave her what he considered a witty nickname, comparing her to Wallis Simpson.
The Duchess of Windsor was an American socialite whom King Edward VIII gave up the throne to wed, prompting Philip to dub Meghan “DOW”.
Prince Philip’s reservations about Meghan only deepened after the Sussexes stepped back from their royal duties in 2020 and moved to California. Ingrid Seward disclosed that Harry’s grandfather struggled to comprehend why Meghan would not follow his lead, given that upon becoming the Duke of Edinburgh, Philip had relinquished his birth citizenship, his naval career and his surname.
In a 2020 interview with Sky News, the royal expert said: “I think he’s very, very disappointed because I think he feels he gave up his naval career in order to stand by the Queen and help the monarchy.
In his own autobiography, Spare, Harry revealed that his brother, Prince William, had similar reservations and was “nervous” about his marriage to Meghan. He wrote: “‘It’s too fast’, he’d told me. ‘Too soon’. In fact, he’d actually been pretty discouraging about me even dating Meg.”