The late Prince Philip reportedly gave his grandson, Prince Harry, a blunt caution about marrying an actress ahead of Harry’s 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle.
According to royal biographer Andrew Lownie, Philip told Harry after the couple became engaged in 2017, “One steps out with actresses, one doesn’t marry them.” Lownie includes the remark in his book “Entitled,” as reported by the Daily Mail.
Royal author Ingrid Seward also wrote in her 2024 book, “My Mother and I, Philip,” that Philip was “one of the very few wary” of Meghan when she began dating Harry in 2016. Philip — who died in April 2021 at age 99 — even compared Meghan to Wallis Simpson, the American divorcée for whom King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1937.
The marriage between the former Duke and Duchess of Windsor was considered scandalous at the time, especially because Simpson had been divorced twice. The couple stayed together until Edward’s death in 1972.
Representatives for Meghan, 44, and Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Philip and Queen Elizabeth II both attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding at Windsor Castle in May 2018. But according to former royal butler Grant Harrold, Philip muttered to the Queen after leaving the chapel, “Thank f–k that’s over.”
In January 2020, Harry and Meghan announced that they were stepping back from royal duties and later moved to North America, where they now live with their children: Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4.
Philip reportedly refused to take a role in advising Harry and Meghan about their decision, telling Queen Elizabeth that he would “be soon out of it.”
According to the US Sun, although Philip did not agree with the couple’s choices, he believed that “people have to lead their lives as they think best.” Royal biographer Gyles Brandreth also wrote that Philip described Harry and Meghan’s widely publicized interview with Oprah Winfrey as “madness.”
During the 2021 interview, Meghan said life within the royal family had become “almost unsurvivable.” She also revealed that she had experienced suicidal thoughts.
Additionally, Meghan told Winfrey that members of the royal family had once raised concerns about “how dark Archie’s skin might be when he was born.”
