When Meghan Markle announced her engagement to Prince Harry, she stated that she knew very little about the British royal family or Prince Harry. “I’m from the States, you don’t grow up with the same understanding of the royal family,” Harry’s then-fiancée explained in their first joint interview. So, while I now understand that there is a global interest in [the prince], I didn’t know much about him.” However, there have been reports that she knew a lot more about Harry’s family than she let on, particularly about his mother, Princess Diana.
Here’s more on what Meghan didn’t say about her mother-in-law during the Sussexes’ first interview, from her behavior since she and her husband have been together to what Meghan’s friends said about who she looked up to as a role model.
Meghan has been dubbed ‘obsessed’ after being accused of ‘copying’ Princess Diana.
Meghan, like Princess Diana, is committed to a number of humanitarian causes. And, like the princess, the Duchess of Sussex decided to defy some of the monarchy’s long-established rules. Furthermore, just as the Princess of Wales did two decades ago, Harry’s wife admitted that she struggled with some aspects of royal life during an explosive televised interview.
8 Times Meghan Markle Channeled Princess Diana’s Style pic.twitter.com/aHvG9NjMRa
— ELLE Decor (@ELLEDECOR) October 31, 2021
Similarly to Kate Middleton, the retired TV star has paid tribute to Harry’s mother with her jewelry and outfit choices. Meghan, on the other hand, who hasn’t been in the family as long, appears to dress more like Diana than her sister-in-law. Meghan’s behavior has been described as “creepy” and “obsessed” by some because she does it so frequently.
Meghan’s friends say Meghan looks up to Harry’s mother as a ‘role model,’ and she aspires to be ‘Princess Diana 2.0.’
Some of Meghan’s friends have revealed evidence that is more damning and has many people convinced that Meghan had an obsession to be like Princess Diana before she met her son.
Ninaki Priddy grew up with Meghan and described them as “inseparable” and “sisters” for the majority of their lives. Meghan asked Priddy to be her maid of honor when she married her first husband, Trevor Engelson.
“She was always fascinated by the royal family,” Priddy said in response to her former pal’s claim that she didn’t know who Harry and his family were. She aspires to be a reincarnation of Princess Diana. She had one of Princess Diana’s books on her bookshelf, and she told me she wanted to go to London for at least a month even when she was with Trevor… When I heard about Prince Harry, I wasn’t shocked or even surprised. I knew she liked the Princess Diaries movies about a commoner who becomes a member of the royal family. She was enamored with the concept.”
It’s not just Priddy, though. Andrew Morton, who wrote the late princess’s explosive biography Diana: Her True Story, also wrote Meghan: A Hollywood Princess about her daughter-in-law, and was told that Meghan, Harry’s future bride, cried as she watched the Princess of Wales’ funeral. “Tears streamed down their cheeks at the heartbreaking moment when cameras zoomed in on an envelope with the word ‘Mummy’ written on it, placed next to the coffin,” Morton said. Prince Harry, who was 12 years old at the time, was the one who wrote that letter.
Suzy Ardakani, another friend, told Morton that she and Meghan used to watch old videos of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding because Meghan was enamored with Harry’s mother. Others have referred to Diana as her “role model.”
“[Meghan] was intrigued by Diana, not just for her style, but for her independent humanitarian mission, seeing her as a role model,” Morton wrote.
If the duchess’s former friends are correct, it’s difficult not to conclude that Meghan didn’t want to be like the royal she’d never met.
