When Meghan Markle started her walk to the altar alone to marry Prince Harry, it was clear she was a unique royal bride.
Reporting on the 2018 wedding I wrote that, as her long lace veil swept the ancient floor of St George’s Chapel “it felt as if she was brushing away the cobwebs from the dusty old House of Windsor.”
Princess Diana broke the mould in 1981 but, I predicted “the new Duchess of Sussex looks set to smash it – and help rebuild the monarchy for our modern, multi-racial times.”
Well, I got the first bit right.
And I still think it’s a crying shame that Meghan and Harry didn’t have the gumption or guts to work towards that vision within The Firm.
It all looked so promising. Harry was the Queen’s Commonwealth Youth Ambassador and Meghan showed her commitment to the “family of nations” by having the flowers of all 54 countries sewn into that veil.
The pair were then made President and Vice-President of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, and retained their posts even when they quit royal duties in January.
Because the Queen believed her cherished Commonwealth had two passionate new champions to “promote prosperity, democracy and peace and amplify the voice of small states.”
Sadly for Her Majesty, it’s clear from a bizarre video call this week the only voices Meghan and Harry want to amplify are their own.
The hollow, hypocritical voices spouting woke psychobabble which lecture others about equality and privilege from a £15million borrowed mansion in Hollywood.
The rehearsed words of a man who appears subsumed by his wife’s belief system but is still having difficulty getting his head round it.
They dropped in on a virtual meeting of young leaders discussing the Black Lives Matters movement.
But Harry said the Commonwealth needed to atone for its past – seemingly confusing it with, erm, the British Empire.
Then Meg weighed in saying: “We all have to be a little uncomfortable now” to “reach the place where a high tide raises all ships”.
I suspect the Queen felt pretty uncomfortable as they slagged off her beloved Commonwealth after she trusted them with it.
And I bet she wishes she could draw a veil over the sanctimonious mould-smashing Sussexes for good.
