Prince Harry proposed to Meghan Markle on a blanket surrounded by electric candles and white flowers in the walled garden of Nottingham Cottage in Kensington Palace in November 2017.
‘I wanted to do it earlier,’ he explained in their 2022 Netflix documentary Harry And Meghan. ‘Because I had to ask permission from my grandmother, I couldn’t do it outside of the UK.’
Prince Harry asked for Queen Elizabeth’s blessing to propose to his girlfriend Meghan after a day spent shooting at Sandringham.
‘Neither Charles nor Prince Phillip was present when, in the middle of a windswept Norfolk field, Harry asked his grandmother for permission to marry Meghan,’ royal biographer Ingrid Seward revealed in her book My Mother and I.
‘The Queen was picking up dead birds after the final drive with her Labradors. There were no security officers around her, so Harry realised this was his once chance to get his grandmother on her own.’
Although her reply was typically cryptic – ‘Well, then, I suppose I have to say yes’ – the late Queen Elizabeth was said to be fond of her new granddaughter-in-law Meghan.
Her Majesty first met the American actress over tea at Royal Lodge in Windsor and had ‘originally been pleased that her grandson had at last found a woman to love who appeared to be able to return his intense passions’.
Lady Elizabeth, one of the Queen’s closest confidantes whom she would call on a daily basis, said the monarch had ‘high hopes for what [Meghan] and Harry might be able to do, especially for the youth of the Commonwealth’.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce their engagement on November 27, 2017
Meghan flashes her engagement ring in The Sunken Gardens at Kensington Palace
Indeed, the Queen had such faith in Meghan that, according to Seward, she ‘continued to champion her’ despite her husband Prince Phillip’s warnings.
Seward claims Phillip was ‘one of the few wary’ of being charmed by Meghan and thought it was ‘uncanny’ how much she reminded him of Wallis Simpson – the American socialite who King Edward VIII abdicated to marry.
As such, the Prince nicknamed Meghan DOW after Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor.
When twice-divorced Wallis finally married Edward at Château de Candé in France on June 3, 1937, she followed royal tradition and opted to wear a pale blue on her wedding day instead of ‘virginal white’.
However, Meghan, who had previously been married to Hollywood producer Trevor Engelson between 2011 and 2013, wore a white gown from Givenchy and their first ever female artistic director Claire Waight Keller.
The understated dress was floor-length and featured long sleeves with a bateau neckline.
But the Queen, who was not one for voicing her opinion, made it clear to her closest confidantes that she did not approve of Meghan’s bridal attire.
Lady Elizabeth told royal author Seward that the Queen had made only one remark to her about Meghan and Harry’s wedding, which was that the bride’s Givenchy wedding gown was ‘too white’.
It is believed Harry asked his grandmother the Queen for permission to marry Meghan after a shooting day at Sandringham
Prince Phillip was ‘wary’ of Meghan and nicknamed her DOW after the Duchess of Windsor
Prince Philip said it was uncanny how much Meghan (pictured left with Prince Harry in 2018) reminded him of the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson (pictured right with Edward in 1966)
Wallis Simpson wore a pale blue dress on her wedding day at Château de Candé in France on June 3, 1937
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Seward penned: ‘In the monarch’s view, it was not appropriate for a divorcee getting remarried in church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal.’
The late monarch was also disapproving of Meghan’s choice to wear a veil with royal author Tom Bower claiming Her Majesty ‘questioned why Meghan needed a veil for the wedding, given it was to be her second marriage.’
But Meghan forwent subtlety when it came to her veil for the grand service in the historic St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
The 16ft-long piece of material was trimmed with lace depicting flora from each of the 53 Commonwealth countries.
Queen Camilla, who had previously been married to Andrew Parker Bowles between 1973 and 1995, stuck with tradition and opted not to wear a veil for her wedding to Charles in 2005.
Prince William also had reservations about Prince Harry and Meghan’s nuptials, according to royal expert Tina Brown, who was a confidante of Princess Diana and met with her in the weeks before her death.
For her book The Palace Papers: Inside The House of Windsor, Ms Brown spoke to 120 royal insiders over the course of two years, and claims most of the family – including Prince Charles and the Queen – appeared to like Meghan, but it was Prince William who had the biggest reservations.
According to Ms Brown, ‘William knew Harry all too well and feared he was heading for trouble. Every time his brother fell in love, it was an eruption of Vesuvius.
Meghan wore a white gown from Givenchy and their first ever female artistic director Claire Waight Keller
It is believed Queen Elizabeth disapproved of Meghan’s white gown and veil
Royal author Ingrid Seward penned: ‘In the monarch’s view, it was not appropriate for a divorcee getting remarried in church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal’
The late Queen was reportedly fond of her granddaughter-in-law Meghan and had ‘high hopes’ for the Sussexes
Queen Camilla, who had previously been married to Andrew Parker Bowles between 1973 and 1995, stuck with tradition and opted not to wear a veil for her wedding to Charles in 2005
‘”You do realise this is the fourth girl you’ve taken to Botswana”, he couldn’t help but remark after Harry’s starry-eyed account of the trip.’
William also had concerns Meghan would not have enough time to create a life for herself in the UK and make new friends.
Harry details his brother’s concerns in his own bombshell memoir Spare, writing: ‘It’s too fast, he’d told me. Too soon. In fact, he’d actually been pretty discouraging about my even dating Meg.
‘One day, sitting together in his garden, he’d predicted a host of difficulties I could expect if I hooked up with an “American actress”, a phrase he always managed to make sound like a “convicted felon”.
‘Are you sure about her Harold?
‘I am, Willy.
‘But do you know how difficult it is going to be?
‘What do you want me to do? Fall out of love with her?’
According to Battle of the Brothers by historian Robert Lacey, William even called in Princess Diana’s brother Earl Charles Spencer in a desperate attempt to try and get Harry to slow the relationship down.
Prince William also had reservations about Prince Harry and Meghan’s nuptials, according to royal expert Tina Brown
Harry’s older brother William had concerns Meghan would not have enough time to create a life for herself in the UK and make new friends
According to Robert Lacey, William called in Princess Diana’s brother Earl Charles Spencer in a desperate attempt to try and get Harry to slow down
Their uncle had walked with Prince Phillip, Prince William, Prince Harry and Prince Charles behind Princess Diana’s coffin at her funeral in 1997
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‘For his part, William was worried that his brother was going too fast in his courtship and he didn’t shrink from saying so when Harry started talking about getting hitched,’ Mr Lacey wrote.
‘William couldn’t understand how Harry could contemplate marrying this still unknown and untested quantity less than two years after their first meeting.’
But ‘the result of the Spencer intervention was an even more bitter explosion’, according to Mr Lacey, although Harry ‘understood why Diana’s brother should want to help’ and ‘didn’t blame his uncle’, who walked with the princes and their father behind Diana’s coffin at her funeral in 1997.
What’s more, Harry fell out with his childhood friend Tom ‘Skippy’ Inskip, who he had met at Eton, after he warned the prince against marrying Meghan.
According to the Sussex-friendly book Finding Freedom, Skippy expressed doubts about how quickly the relationship was moving and decided to warn Harry.
He is believed to have advised Harry and Meghan to live together before ‘doing anything more serious’.
A source close to Sussexes told the book’s authors that although his advice ‘came from a good place,’ Harry ‘didn’t totally see it that way’.
Some of his other friends had whispered Harry was ‘f***ing nuts’ to be dating the ‘woke’ spoilsport after she ‘reprimanded’ them over transgender and feminism jokes at a shooting weekend in November 2016, according to Mr Bower.
Meghan and Harry’s engagement interview took place on November 27, 2017
Despite the stiff opposition from friends and family, Harry proposed to Meghan in November 2018, a little more than a year after they first met and began dating.
In their candid engagement interview with BBC journalist Mishal Husain, Harry said: ‘The fact that I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly was a sort of confirmation to me that everything, all the stars were aligned.
‘Everything was just perfect. It was this beautiful woman just sort of that – she tripped and fell into my life; I fell into her life.’