Prince Harry and Ms.
Markle’s engagement underscores recent
shifts in the
British monarchy. They are part of a new generation of royals eager to
project themselves as modern, inclusive and down-to-earth. This latest set of royals,
who include the duke and duchess of Cambridge — Prince Harry’s elder brother,
William, and his sister-in-law, Catherine — have in recent years tried to
connect better with the public.
It is a marked difference, for example, from the
queen, who has maintained a more traditionally aloof style.
Prince Harry and Ms. Markle
are expected
to be known as the duke and duchess of Sussex after they are married,
according to the British news media, although she may be known informally as
Princess Meghan. If Prince Harry were to decline the dukedom, he would remain
Prince Henry of Wales — his official name.
The pair have dated for
more than a year, and made their first official outing together in September in
Toronto at the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style competition for wounded or
sick members of the military and veterans.
Like his brother, Prince Harry grew up in the public
eye, first as a son of the heir to the throne, and then as an adolescent
struggling over the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car
accident when he was 12. His grief played out in what he described as “total chaos”
in his 20s, a period that was gleefully pounced on by the tabloids.
The relationship of Prince Harry and Ms. Markle also
has been the subject of intense scrutiny.
The announcement of their engagement ended days of
fevered speculation by the British news media, some of which, in anticipation
of the event, tried to find any royal connection with Ms. Markle. (The Daily
Telegraph breathlessly reported
an unverified study showing that Ms. Markle’s ancestor was in fact an
aristocrat who was beheaded by Henry VIII, an ancestor of Prince Harry.)
But other stories about Ms. Markle’s ethnicity and
middle-class background — her mother is a black yoga instructor and her father
is a white cinematographer — have drawn the ire of the royal family. The prince
himself issued an
unusual statement last year, denouncing
the “racial undertones” of news coverage of Ms. Markle.
Prince Harry’s reputation has changed markedly in
recent years. In his younger days, he acknowledged wanting to be a “bad
boy,” but he has emerged as possibly Britain’s most popular royal.
As a rebellious youth, he partied heavily, including
an episode in 2005, when he wore a Nazi costume with a swastika armband, just
weeks before his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, was scheduled to lead Holocaust
memorial ceremonies.
In 2009, a video emerged of him using racial slurs
during his first tour of duty in Afghanistan. In the footage, he is seen
referring to a Pakistani member of his platoon as a “our little Paki friend”
and calls another soldier a “raghead.” He later apologized.
But he has matured since
those early years, say his defenders, becoming a vocal advocate for mental health
awareness and for other charities. He has also spoken openly about the difficulties
he faced after the death of Princess Diana.
In another unusual break from palace protocol, he
divulged to a newspaper that he had suffered for years from grief after the
death of his mother, before finally getting help about three years ago at the
urging of Prince William.
In 2016, he took an H.I.V. test and broadcast it live
on the royals’ Facebook page in 2016 to promote the importance being tested for
the virus that causes AIDS.
This year, he suggested that no one in the royal
family really wanted to sit on the throne. “We are involved in modernizing the
British monarchy,” he said in an
interview with Newsweek. “We are not doing this for ourselves but for the
greater good of the people.”
Prince Harry’s public statement last year in defense
of Ms. Markle effectively confirmed their relationship, and it also took aim at
the British newspapers that have long hungered for news of the royals and their
foibles.
In
the blunt rebuke, Prince Harry, through his spokesman, excoriated “the
smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of
comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and
web article comments.”
In their first interview since the announcement, Ms.
Markle revealed that she had very little understanding of the British royal
family and its significance.
“I didn’t know much about him,” she told the BBC,
referring to her fiancé, adding that the pair had been set up on a blind date
by a friend.
“The only thing I asked her was, ‘Was he nice?’ ”
Prince Harry said he tried to prepare her for the
media scrutiny. “I tried to warn you as much as possible,” he said. Still, “we
were totally surprised by the reaction. We were totally unprepared.”
When asked about the way
she has been portrayed by some British media, Ms. Markle replied: “It’s a shame
that that is the climate in this world. At the end of the day I’m proud of who
I am and where I come from. We just focus on who we are as a couple.”
Their relationship is not the first in which a British
royal has fallen in love with an American partner who had been married before.
King Edward VIII caused a constitutional
crisis in 1936 when he abdicated to marry the American socialite Wallis
Simpson, who was divorced. The Church of England at the time opposed the
marriage, and the king chose love over his royal duties, with his brother
taking his place to become King George VI.
Harry’s parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana,
divorced in 1996.
Prince Harry served on active duty
in the British military for about a decade, rising to the rank of captain.
He served two tours in Afghanistan, where he co-piloted an Apache helicopter
and was a weapons officer.
The announcement of the engagement was quickly
followed by messages of congratulations from the queen and her husband, Prince
Philip, who recently celebrated
70 years of marriage. The couple said they were
“delighted” and wished Prince Harry and Ms. Markle “every happiness.”
Prince Charles, Harry’s father, said he was
“thrilled,” while
Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement that the engagement marked “a
time of huge celebration and excitement.”
Prince William and Catherine, who is known as Kate,
said they were “very excited for Harry and Meghan.” The date of Prince Harry and
Ms. Markle’s wedding may take place close to another royal event, the birth of
William and Kate’s third
child, due in April.
Kate’s wedding to Prince William was also unusual in
the context of the royal family because she was a commoner: Her parents had
founded a mail-order party supply company.
Ms. Markle’s parents, Doria
Ragland and Thomas Markle, said they
were “incredibly happy” for their daughter and her prince.
Ms. Markle describes
herself as biracial. She graduated from Northwestern University in Illinois
in 2003, and married in 2011, divorcing two years later.
She is best known for her roles in the television
legal drama “Suits” and in the science-fiction series “Fringe,” and she appeared
on the cover
of Vanity Fair in September. Ms. Markle is also notable for her charitable
work — she is a global ambassador for World Vision Canada — and she has worked
for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
She also shares a love of dogs with the queen, who is
known for having a collection of corgis. British tabloids reported
this month that Ms. Markle was preparing to move her two dogs, Bogart, a
Labrador-shepherd mix, and Guy, a beagle, to London.
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