Eager to hear her thoughts? Queen Elizabeth II once asked Meghan Markle about her feelings about former President Donald Trump, according to Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare.
In an excerpt exclusively obtained by Us Weekly, Harry, 38, recalled his now-wife’s initial meeting with his grandmother, who died in September 2022. “It was all very pleasant,” the Duke of Sussex wrote, noting that his “Granny” wanted to know Meghan’s thoughts about Trump’s first U.S. presidential campaign.
The BetterUp CIO — who began dating Meghan, 41, in July 2016 — brought the “Archetypes” podcast host to meet the queen at her Royal Lodge estate in Windsor, England. The outing occurred shortly before the November 2016 presidential election, in which Trump, 76, defeated opponent Hillary Clinton. Since “everyone in the world” had been thinking about the impending political race, Harry could understand why Elizabeth would want an American’s perspective.
However, the Suits alum thought a political conversation with Her Majesty was a “no-win game,” and Harry claimed she changed the subject to instead discuss Canada. Meghan resided in Toronto, where she filmed Suits, during her early romance with Harry.
“Granny looked pleased. ‘Commonwealth. Good, fine,’” the Invictus Games cofounder — who married the former actress in May 2018 — recalled in his memoir, before revealing that the queen announced 20 minutes later that “she had to be going.”
Prince Andrew — Elizabeth and the late Prince Philip’s second son — had escorted the queen from the room as his daughter Princess Eugenie followed suit. “Before reaching the door, Granny looked back to say goodbye to Jack [Brooksbank], and to Fergie’s friend,” Harry remembered, referring to Eugenie’s husband, whom she married in October 2018, and her mother, Sarah Ferguson. “She locked eyes with Meg, gave a wave and a warm smile. ‘Bye.’”
Meghan — who shares children Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 19 months, with the duke — has often spoken about special bond with the late queen.
“There wasn’t some big moment of like, ‘And now you’re going to meet my grandmother,’” the former Tig blogger explained in the couple’s Harry & Meghan docuseries, which premiered on Netflix last month. “I remember being in the car and [Harry] was like, ‘You know how to curtsey right?’ and I just thought it was a joke.”
She added: “Americans will understand this, we have Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament. [My first curtsey] was like that. Like, I curtsied as if I was [bowing down to the floor].”
Meghan — who demonstrated her first bow in the documentary — also told the queen, “Pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty.” However, in her head, she wondered whether her curtsy was satisfactory.
To the California native’s relief, Eugenie, 32, Brooksbank, 36, and Ferguson, 63, all informed her that she “did great” after the lunch’s conclusion.
Elizabeth died last September at the age of 96, with both Harry and Meghan attending her official state funeral later that month alongside the rest of the royal family. The Bench author even wore a pair of pearl earrings to the service that had been gifted by the queen.
