Another surprising revelation. Prince Harry claimed Prince William was “freaked” out to meet Meghan Markle for the first time — in part because he was a big fan of Suits.
The Duke of Sussex, 38, recalled his brother, 40, and Princess Kate‘s initial introduction to the former actress, 41, who hugged William upon meeting him. “[It] completely freaked him out,” Harry wrote in an excerpt from Spare exclusively obtained by Us Weekly. “He recoiled. Willy didn’t hug many strangers. Whereas Meg hugged most strangers.”
The BetterUp CIO explained that a curtsy would have been “protocol” for meeting a member of the royal family for the first time, but he didn’t think such formality was necessary for a casual audience with the Duke of Cambridge.
“When meeting my grandmother [Queen Elizabeth II], I’d made it clear — this is the queen,” Harry continued. “But when meeting my brother, it was just Willy, who loved Suits.”
The Invictus Games founder revealed that when he first told William and Kate, 40, about his romance with Meghan, the Cambridges were shocked to find out that he was dating an actress on one of their favorite shows. William, he claimed, told him it was “impossible” he could be in a relationship with the California native.
“I was baffled, until Willy and Kate explained that they were regular — nay, religious — viewers of Suits,” Harry recalled. “Great, I thought, laughing. I’ve been worrying about the wrong thing. All this time I’d thought Willy and Kate might not welcome Meg into the family, but now I had to worry about them hounding her for an autograph.”
The former military pilot told his sibling that he hoped he and Meghan could “become a foursome” and start spending more time together. “I’d said this to Willy so many times, and he’d always replied: ‘It might not happen, Harold! And you’ve got to be OK with that,'” Harry claimed. “Well, now I felt that it was going to happen and I told him so — but he still said to slow down. ‘She’s an American actress after all, Harold. Anything might happen.'”
Harry and the Bench author tied the knot in May 2018 and later welcomed son Archie, 3, and daughter Lilibet, 19 months. Since the Sussexes announced in January 2020 that they would step down as senior working royals, Harry has been open about the tension between him and William.
“The saddest part of it was this wedge created between myself and my brother, so that he’s now on the institution’s side,” the Archewell cofounder explained last month in his Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan. “Part of that I get, I understand, right, that’s his inheritance. So, to some extent, it’s already ingrained in him that part of his responsibility is the survivability and continuation of this institution.”
Spare will be released on Tuesday, January 10.
