Princess Diana is the “third wheel” in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ’s marriage, a royal expert has claimed, and her “ghost” looms over the couple’s lives and defines their view of the world.
For both Harry and Meghan, “all roads lead back to Diana” and “every camera click and whirr” reminds them of their “terrible fate”, the biographer has said.
Andrew Morton, author of the bombshell biography Diana: In Her Own Words, said: “Today for Harry, and increasingly for his wife, all roads lead back to Diana.”
The author claims the late Princess of Wales’s cause-driven life and her tragic death has shaped Harry’s relationship with the rest of his family as well as with the wider public.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Morton added: “As the Sussexes embarked on their own journey together through Royal life, not a day went by without a reference, a memory or a decision that related in some way to Harry’s late mother. Diana was the third wheel in their marriage.”
Mr Morton, who has also written a biography of the Duchess of Sussex, claims family friends of Meghan have said she “wants to be Princess Diana 2.0” and, aged 16, was deeply moved while watching Diana’s funeral with tears “coursing” down her cheeks.
According to one childhood friend, Suzy Ardakani, Meghan would watch old videos of the 1981 wedding of Diana to Prince Charles and the two girls – inspired by Diana’s humanitarian missions – collected clothes and toys for less privileged children.
Suzy’s mother Sonia even gifted Meghan a copy of Diana’s biography and it reportedly stood on her bookshelves for several years.
When the couple announced their engagement on 27 November 2017, Harry paid tribute to his mother.
Meghan’s ring included small diamonds from Diana’s jewellery collection so that she would be there to “join us on this crazy journey”.
Although she was initially seen as bridge between the monarchy’s past and future, Meghan “came to realise, as Diana had done, that everything was not as it seemed in this looking-glass world”, claims Mr Morton.
Harry and Meghan stepped down from royal duties in March 2020 and moved to California with their son Archie.
They welcomed their daughter Lilibet Diana this summer and named her in honour of both the Queen and the Princess of Wales.
