It’s safe to say that the much-anticipated wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, now just two months away, is a game-changer for the royal family. The prince, who as a boy was thrust into the spotlight as he mourned the death of his mother 20 years ago, has finally met a woman he can spend the rest of his life with, while simultaneously erasing the heartbreak of his past.
His unconventional choice, a previously married US actress, is proof that the era of a predictable monarchy is well and truly over. As Meghan and Harry sat side by side in a broadcast interview to describe how they fell in love, we witnessed the beginning of a revolutionary new chapter. The last time a British royal picked an American divorcee as a partner it caused a constitutional crisis and almost brought down the family.
In an exclusive cover story, The Australian Women’s Weekly looks at the surprising love story between Harry and Meghan and how it has already started to change the royal family.
Meghan’s initiation into one of the most famous clans in the world marks the beginning of a Hollywood makeover for the centuries-old institution. Not only is she confident and headstrong, but she also possesses an ingredient that so far seems to have been missing from the DNA of most new royal additions: an ability to handle the intense spotlight.
It’s a skill even Princes William and Harry, two heirs who have been media trained since their very first photo shoots as toddlers, have found elusive.
With just 11 weeks till Harry and Meghan exchange vows at St George’s Chapel, we begin the royal countdown and look at why this wedding – which could have expected to be more low-key than that of William and Kate’s in 2011 – has become such a major global affair.
Read the full story in The Australian Women’s Weekly, out now.
