Coming from a background in acting, with a life rooted in American culture, Meghan Markle stepped into one of the oldest institutions in the world and it would have been an entirely new reality for her. Meghan had to adapt quickly to a world where nearly every move is governed by unspoken rules and centuries-old customs, which can take months to get right.
Some of Meghan’s former staff told royal author Tom Quinn of the awkwardness that took place after Meghan married into the Royal Family on May 19, 2018. One said: “It was extraordinary because she was so confident that you could see she wanted to run the meeting rather than learn about the Royal Family through the meeting.
“She was a great believer in grabbing the bull by the horns – except the Royal Family is not really a bull.”
Diana, Princess of Wales’ acquaintance, Tina Brown, wrote in the book ‘The Palace Papers’: “Harry, who had always chafed at the hierarchy himself, was the last person to want to tell her [Meghan Markle] to slow down.
“They were both now drunk on a shared fantasy of being instruments of global transformation who, once married, would operate in the celebrity stratosphere once inhabited by Princess Diana.
“Meghan couldn’t and wouldn’t bide her time to get there. She was 36. This was her big break.”
In her Netflix documentary ‘Harry & Meghan’ and speaking in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle opened up about her experience with the Royal Family in a deeply personal and candid way.
Alongside Prince Harry, she shared insights into what life was really like behind palace walls. One of the key themes Meghan spoke about was how unprepared she felt entering the royal institution. She described how little guidance she received, saying that she wasn’t given formal training.
“There were certain things that you couldn’t do,” she claimed. “But, you know, unlike what you see in the movies, there’s no class on how to speak, how to cross your legs, how to be royal. There’s none of that training. That might exist for other members of the family. That was not something that was offered to me.”
Meghan Markle‘s additional controversial claim that she didn’t know she was required to curtsy to the late Queen has now been dismissed by royal insiders.
The 43-year-old made the claim whilst speaking on the couple’s highly-anticipated Netflix docuseries, Harry and Meghan.
Speaking to Vanity Fair about the type of person that Meghan is, fashion and cultural commentator Tom Fitzgerald said: “Meghan is the type of woman who would check a menu out online before going to a restaurant to pick what she was going to eat.
“So the idea that she didn’t know she was supposed to curtsy for the [late] Queen, I just didn’t find it particularly believable, because [based on] everything she ever told us about herself, I cannot imagine that she went into meeting the Royal Family completely cold, with no research whatsoever.”
After Harry told his then-girlfriend that she would be meeting his beloved grandmother for the first time after he visit to church, Meghan recalls how she thought it was a joke when he asked if she knew how to curtsy.