Royal weddings are steeped in tradition-- grand affairs
that combine royalty, tradition, and old world values.
Well, that's all about to change,
because Prince Harry dances to his own tune.
Prince Charles to his son Prince William--
each chose the perfect British princess.
Prince Harry took a different route
in a very confident, independent, and drop-down
gorgeous American named Meghan Markle.
We're all very excited and delighted for them both.
William and I are absolutely thrilled,
it's such exciting news.
Well, the queen's happy about it.
If she wasn't happy, she wouldn't
have given her permission.
This relationship with Meghan Markle
was going to go all the way to the altar.
We look at Prince Harry and Meghan
and how they came together in a whirlwind romance.
It's not about protocol.
It's not about the family.
It's about the two people who are in love.
And it's just always nice when someone who seems really cool,
falls in love, and gets engaged.
Super excited for her.
Just an amazing surprise.
It was so sweet and natural and very romantic.
He got on one knee.
Through expert opinion, we show you preparations
from the royal venue to the cake and everything in between.
We will also examine past royal weddings and how they compare
to Harry and Meghan's.
We will also celebrate the big day
and discuss the future for this fairy tale match-up.
Meghan may not be from the proper bloodlines,
but no matter--
she has won over the British public
and captured the heart of a prince.
When news of Prince Harry's new love, actress Meghan Markle,
hit the internet, it rocked royal foundations
and sent the press into a tailspin.
This relationship with Meghan Markle
was going to go all the way to the altar--
that they had never seen Harry so in love, so head-turned,
and actually, so happy.
In the absence of any denials from Kensington Palace
or royal insiders, the world knew that the bachelor prince
was serious about his new love.
It's an incredible love story, isn't it?
An American actress meets Prince Charming.
An onslaught of questions began to form about the romance.
Where did they meet?
How long?
And most important, who is Miss Markle?
Meghan grew up in a family with not a lot of money.
Her parents separated when she was six years old.
Meghan is one of our own, you know.
She started as kind of a real girl from Los Angeles.
Meghan Markle is a very special, engaging woman.
She's extremely clever, she's very sincere and very eloquent,
and I think she's one of those people who everybody, when they
meet her, falls in love with.
Markle, a successful actress and philanthropist
in her own right, had no problem dealing
with the intense speculation regarding her romance.
Meghan Markle is going to be a bigger interest
factor than William's wife, Kate,
because of the connection, because
of the American connection, because
of the fact that-- the divorce, and the sort of film star
which generates so much interest.
This is somebody who has been an actress for many years,
and who has become quite a big star, and also
potentially could have become a really big Hollywood star.
As the romance grew from strength to strength,
the engagement announcement in November of 2017
was not surprising and celebrated worldwide.
Not only was everyone excited about new blood being pumped
into the royal family, but that the lovable prince
who struggled through years of emotional hardship
had finally found a home for his heart.
Once labeled the "wild royal," Prince Harry
was born and raised under the intense scrutiny
of global media.
I remember the very first day that I
went to Sandringham House in Norfolk--
which is one of the queen's palaces.
And I remember walking and being shown
into this white room, this royal room at Sandringham
by a very attentive butler, and he said,
it's Inspector Wharf, ma'am, from London.
Oh, she said.
Ken, I don't envy you looking after my children--
they can be a bloody nuisance.
At which point, Harry was de-stamen-izing
this vase of royal lilies on a small table,
and William was attempting to play the piano,
and William turned round and said, no, no.
No, we're not.
Are we, Harry?
And he sort of burbled something as a three-year-old,
fell off this table, followed by this vase of lilies
that crashed on the floor.
Of course they get up and run, like any kids do,
and Diana says, come here, both of you, come here!
And runs out of the room.
And I haven't said a word.
He performed his first royal duties as a small child,
and nearly drowned in scandal as a young adult,
all before witnessing the atrocities of war
in an active combat role while serving in the British Army.
I remember him as a three-year-old.
He was never out of khaki uniforms.
This guy was a soldier in waiting.
Luckily, he had every encouragement
from his father and his mother.
I got here on Christmas Eve.
Most of the guys were pretty bummed
that I was here, because nothing was happening
for the first few days I was here,
but things are picking up again now.
And he achieved that.
He went to the Military Academy at Sandhurst.
He sort of fought his battle in Afghanistan.
But of course he realized that this wasn't an army
life forever because of the risks involved, you know.
He himself had to be protected in Afghanistan.
And he realized that after the first tour and the second tour,
he couldn't really justify that.
And the only thing that let him down
was the fact that he was a member of the royal family.
But there is no doubt that the singular most painful event
in the young prince's life was his mother's death in 1997.
The world watched Harry, aged 12,
walk behind his mother's coffin as the funeral procession wove
through London to Westminster Abbey.
A lot of people hold Harry in particular affection, actually,
around the world.
They remember that image of Harry walking
behind his mother's coffin.
Prince Harry, now an activist for mental health,
revealed that decades of chaos followed
this life-altering loss.
Harry has come from a broken home.
Harry has admitted to having mental health issues,
having to come to terms with the death of his mother.
It actually took him 20 years to admit
that he did have these mental health issues,
and he did something about it.
He stumbled publicly, and the world got to see it all.
The Nazi costume worn to a fancy dress party,
the racial nicknames doled out to fellow Sandhurst cadets,
and strip billiards in Las Vegas with nude photos to boot.
Harry has grown up a lot in the last few years,
if we remember the kind of celebrity kind of lifestyle
he was living, and some of those parties he was going to,
and those pictures of him that were less than desirable,
as far as the queen was concerned.
We've seen Harry's struggle throughout the years, you know.
Whether it's through acting out with drugs or other things.
Harry acted out as most young adults do,
except his mistakes were public.
He's been sort of a typical teenage boy,
a typical young 20-something boy,
but he's had to do it in the public eye on the world stage.
Even apologies were critiqued and judged.
Beyond the paparazzi noise, it became clear
that this was not a usual teenage rebellion.
Harry was suffering.
Harry, in every sense of the word,
is a carbon copy of his mother in so many ways.
You know, he has that sort of risk element attached
to his life.
He likes a joke, he gets things wrong,
you know, but he learns from his mistakes.
I know people have given him a bit
of a kicking in the past with the things
that, in some people's words, brought
discredit on the royal family, but he's
learned from his mistakes.
And in that sense, you know, that
gives him that normality, a word that Diana was using often.
You know, I just want my kids to be normal.
I want to be normal.
Who knows what the situation would be,
what the world would be like, if she was still around?
So no, there's all sorts of thoughts and emotions
that come running through, especially
the fact that I was here last in 1993, running around
with Donald Duck and all those characters with her.
And now I'm back here, at 31 years old, and trying my best
to make her proud.
Harry's transformation has been actually a remarkable one,
because we've seen his life take really many different paths.
We've seen him get into trouble for underage drinking,
for smoking cannabis, for dressing up as a Nazi
at a friend's birthday party, for ending up
without any clothes on more recently in Vegas.
And each time these things happen, the public,
I think, forgive Harry, and I think they probably
forgive him because he's got a place in all of our hearts.
I don't think anyone will ever forget
that very, very striking and heartfelt image of him walking
behind his mother's coffin.
He was 12 years old when he lost his mother.
Prince Harry found inspiration for change
through the unconditional support of his brother, Prince
William, who gave Harry a hearty dose of the candid
honesty he needed.
Amidst the turmoil of grief, adolescence, and life
as a royal, the influence of Diana's passion
for humanitarian work, and specifically HIV,
remained with Harry.
After visiting Lesotho in his gap year,
Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho
formed the Sentebale organization in 2016.
The charity started in 2006, and it was started by Prince Harry
and also Prince Seeiso of Lesotho,
and it followed a visit that Harry made in 2004.
He spent a couple of months up in the mountains in Lesotho--
it's a very remote area, and he was really
struck particularly by the plight of the children there.
There are so many vulnerable children in Lesotho--
it's a very poor country, and it has
been affected very seriously by the HIV/AIDS epidemic,
so one in three children are orphaned
as a result of the epidemic.
It's behind the scenes, up in the mountains,
where volunteer nurses are doing sort of house runs
to go and basically help these really sick people--
not just kids, but elderly people as well who
are dying of AIDS, lying in their beds
with no access to a hospital, no access to a clinic.
Sentebale means "forget me not" in Lesotho's and was
the word deliberately chosen to represent
both princes' late mothers.
The work that we do in Lesotho and Botswana,
and soon Malawi, is to provide a safe space
for children who are living with HIV, to be able to learn more
about living with HIV, be able to build confidence
and resilience about how they stay healthy.
Why Lesotho was because he was there,
and obviously he saw and witnessed himself the situation
that some of the young people were in,
and so he just responded to that.
But obviously, it does stem from interest and support
and following on-- his mother started in terms of breaking
down stigma around HIV.
I would ask friends of mine choosing
where I should go for my gap year,
and it was sort of based around what my mother had been doing,
and I wanted to carry that on.
And what better place than to do it here?
It's got a problem with AIDS, and there's lots of children.
I'm sure she knew this place, but, I don't know,
we're trying to start something slightly new.
Carrying the torch for his mother, the "People's
Princess," humanitarian work is critical in Prince Harry's role
as a royal.
Prince Harry's been very, very involved, and very actively
involved, in the charity from the very beginning,
from the very start.
He regularly attends board meetings,
he has to sign off the strategy.
In addition to that, he loves being out in the field,
and the reason for that, really, he's
got a real genuine empathy with young people, with kids.
They really are massively be attracted to him.
We've seen him with his nephew and niece.
We've seen him with children, whether it's
at Sentebale in Lesotho.
We've seen him with children in hospital,
we've seen him in nursery schools,
we've seen him at schools.
We've seen him with people at the Invictus Games.
Harry is a people person, but there is
something lacking in his life.
Harry's mischievous nature has always
won hearts, even while struggling on the inside.
The prince's rugged good looks and charming ways
attracted potential suitors.
Chelsy Davy was one such lady and became
Prince Harry's on and off girlfriend from 2004 to 2011.
Chelsy Davy was a long term, but that fizzled out.
I don't think Chelsy Davy was prepared
to go into the goldfish bowl.
Sometimes the timing just isn't right,
and this relationship was not to be.
In 2012, his casual dating came to a halt
again when his cousin, Princess Eugenie,
introduced him to Cressida Bonas.
She was an actor.
She didn't want to.
She wanted to pursue an acting career.
This relationship ended in 2014, when royal public life
became too much for Cressida.
There were points when I think most people thought
that the relationship might end with an engagement,
but actually, neither of these girlfriends
wanted the intense spotlight that comes
with being a royal girlfriend.
They didn't want that level of intrusion in their lives,
and ultimately, they weren't prepared to make the sacrifice
that they needed to make to be with Prince Harry.
Through ups and downs, Harry has been
able to find himself, and now, his soulmate, in 2016,
when a friend in Toronto introduced
Meghan Markle to a prince.
Perhaps in some way, the universe knew it was time.
I didn't know much about him, and so the only thing
that I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up
was--
I had one question.
I said, well, is he nice?
Already a successful actress and well-known humanitarian,
36-year-old Meghan Markle is accustomed to living
in the spotlight.
But in November 2017, her engagement to Prince Harry
triggered an escalation of media attention
that the royal-to-be had probably never experienced
before.
It's the stuff of fairy tales--
another fantastical royal wedding to inspire a nation--
but sadly, the joy of this pending union
has been splintered by the worst of those in the media
since the news of their courtship broke.
Harry!
The difficulty, of course, with Prince Harry finding love
with a famous actress was exactly that--
she was a famous actress.
At the time that the romance was actually
revealed in the papers, I remember
she was promoting a clothing line for Reitmans,
the Canadian department store, and she
was having to do a lot of press around that.
Well, how could you do press interviews
around a clothing line, and people not
want to talk about Prince Harry?
So I think they realized early on, particularly at the palace,
that there was a potential conflict of interest.
It's why we saw her posting less on Instagram,
it's why we saw her eventually close down her lifestyle blog,
and eventually give up her career as an actress, which is
what she's done to marry Harry.
She's going to have to be very careful of what
goes on social media now.
I mean, it's a royal rule of thumb that there's no selfies,
and we saw that in her first day out in Nottingham, when she
was taking photos with people.
She was like, no, I'm not allowed-- no selfies.
Markle is a biracial American, an actress, and a divorcee,
and while most people find this union
a beautiful and refreshing reflection on what
the 21st century should reflect, it
made Markle an immediate target for the dark media who
were quick to release bigoted, racially charged slurs.
There's a misconception that because I
have worked in the entertainment industry
that this would be something I would be familiar with.
But even though I'd been on my show for six years
at that point, and working before that,
I've never been part of tabloid culture,
I've never been in pop culture.
And Meghan certainly felt that the British press
were out to get her.
I don't think the press were out to get her as such--
I think they were out to find out as much as they
could about her.
You know, her ex-husband being doorstepped, her mother
having reporters turning up asking questions,
all of her friends being contacted.
I haven't met him, but I have spoken
to Meg a couple of times.
They're so happy and so in love, and it's so normal.
It's not a nice experience-- it's one
that Harry has spoken about and has always recognized.
It's the one experience that immediately
puts a potential girlfriend off, and of course it would do.
That line between public and private life
is almost nonexistent anymore, and we
will continue to do our best to ensure that there is the line.
I tried to warn you as much as possible,
but I think both of us were totally surprised
by the reaction.
Internet trolls pounced, and a media storm
of sexist and bigoted articles were released.
This appalling lack of decency made
it impossible not to ponder the similarities between Meghan
and Harry's late mother--
Diana, Princess of Wales, who was
the subject of such intense media scrutiny that most
believe the paparazzi caused her tragic death.
Those people that caused the accident, instead of helping,
were taking photographs of her dying on the backseat.
And then those photographs made their way back
to newsdesks in this country.
This was all pre-social media, you know.
The genuine paparazzi were the guys
with a camera round their neck, and the sort of Fleet Street
mob, you know, the national newspapers.
Now we've got this extraordinary social media,
where everybody with a smartphone
is a potential paparazzi.
I think I can very safely say, as naive as it sounds now,
having gone through this learning
curve in the past year and a half,
I did not have any understanding of just what it would be like.
Nowadays, it's not just the TV we'll be watching.
We'll be watching people social media,
we'll be going onto their Instagrams
and going onto their Twitter and their Snapchats
and their Facebooks to see what their opinion is.
You know, it's not just about-- in the olden days,
in Diana time, before then, you would
have a royal correspondent or a fashion expert
just saying their opinion.
Now you have millions of people's opinions.
Not so long ago, Kate Middleton endured similar scrutiny
and had to take legal action to protect herself.
But this is 2018--
Miss Markle is engaged to a man who,
sadly, knows too well the damage an obsessive media can inflict.
I think that Harry's probably being pretty cool
throughout this whole ride.
He's experienced that sort of back and forth
of not totally being ready for this royal family
and the living under the microscope in the way that he
has had to, and I think he's probably been a really
great coach and mentor for Meghan through this,
kind of prepare her for what she's about to experience.
It's not just of course her career.
In terms of what Meghan is going to have to learn,
she's going to have to learn who her friends are,
she's going to have to learn who she can trust,
she's going to have to get used to having a protection officer
24/7, she's going to have to get used to everything in her life,
absolutely everything, from what she wears to who she's seen
with, to where she goes for her facials,
to being photographed absolutely everywhere, in every situation.
I think you can have as many conversations as you want
and try and prepare as much as possible,
but we were totally unprepared for what happened after that.
It's funny, because Harry can relate to that.
When he was bad boy Harry, you know, three, four years ago,
he started up a fake Facebook account-- he was Spike Wells--
and that's how he met these girls in Vegas.
And you know, the palace had to shut that down.
This time, Buckingham Palace's response
was direct and swift when it came
to the defense of Meghan Markle.
They called out the dark media and put a swift end
to their trolling.
However, with Meghan having experience in Hollywood,
this sort of scrutiny was an everyday occurrence for her.
Not only could she handle negative comments
on various social sites, but she was a pro
with the paparazzi and media.
I think the reaction of Meghan is getting better in the press.
I think it was ugly to begin with.
I think the press in the UK really,
really went hard on her.
And Meghan pointed that out in her interview
that she had with Harry-- she said, you know,
I don't even read it anymore.
I think we were just hit so hard at the beginning
with a lot of mistruths that I made the choice to not read
anything, positive or negative.
I think Meghan is used to tabloid spreads.
I think the fact of the matter is, she has modeled.
She has been an up and coming actress who's done very well.
She's done probably some things she regrets in the past.
She's been married, for one, you know--
which is a big story-- she's divorced.
The headlines are already been out there for her,
so I don't think really anything can faze her.
We think that Meghan, soon to be the Duchess of Sussex,
has far more to offer the royal family than the critics are
crying about.
I think you're going to see with Meghan a bit of magic,
I think, to the royal family, that sprinkling of stardust.
Meghan Markle is the epitome of a true Californian.
Born and raised by her Emmy award-winning father
and her mother, a social worker and yoga instructor.
Meghan grew up in a family with not a lot of money.
Her parents separated when she was six years old.
Her dad actually won the lottery when she was nine,
for 750,000 US dollars, which allowed Meghan
to go to Northwestern School, just outside Chicago,
which is an amazing university.
Had that not happened, she would have never
had that opportunity, but I bet you
Meghan still would have been where she is today,
had she not gone to that university.
Meghan is one of our own, you know.
She started as kind of a real girl from Los Angeles.
She went to Northwestern, where she majored
in theater and international relations,
and then obviously, she became a TV star,
but she was still fairly below the radar
for people that didn't watch Suits,
so with Meghan, there is this sense of a real girl,
just like us, married into the royal family
and ascended to this lofty position.
Her heritage and a relatively privileged West Coast life
seemed to have given Meghan a unique lens through which she
navigates the world.
It's plain to see that she's worked tirelessly
to carve out an incredible, successful career with grace
and elegance long before meeting her prince.
There's also no need for concern by the royal establishment
over Meghan's stamina for work.
Her resume makes us wonder where she gets her energy.
Working as a calligrapher to make
ends meet while auditioning tirelessly alongside thousands
of other acting hopefuls in LA and playing smaller
roles for years, Meghan's tenacity
paid off when she landed the role of Rachel Zane
in Suits in 2011.
There's a long list of things that
don't qualify her to be a royal bride,
but the truth is, if you delve a little bit deeper
into who Meghan is and the roles that she's had in the past,
she actually is quite a solid fit for Harry,
and I think that the fact that she was an actress on a hit TV
show has taught her a lot, and will prepare her for this role.
Miss Markle has never been the girl in the corner either.
When it comes to fighting for the right causes,
at the tender age of 11, she fought for
and won a battle against a national company
to change its sexist material.
It's about one out of every three commercials
is going to say something that's going
to hurt somebody's feelings.
Her willingness to work freely for humanitarian causes
was well documented long before meeting her prince.
I am proud to be a woman and a feminist.
A relentless advocate for women's rights,
Markle has campaigned on this issue with the United Nations
since 2015.
Women need a seat at the table.
They need an invitation to be seated there,
and in some cases, where this isn't available, well then,
you know what?
Then they need to create their own table.
Meghan's an ambassador for World Vision Canada--
we saw her go to Rwanda on a water mission--
and I think that those are things that Meghan loves and is
passionate about, and she was really
interested in those things before even having met Harry
or thought up this idea of becoming a princess.
So I think that that says a lot, is
that this is genuinely something that's in her,
and not that she's playing up to be.
I worked with Meghan on, a thing called
with the Global Gift Gala, which is a big event that we
do in London to raise awareness for many different charities.
The charity we worked with was called Caudwell Children,
which is for disabled children.
Meghan hosted it, and she got very involved in what we did,
and she wants to learn about the charity.
She wants to learn about how we benefit the children.
It appears that Meghan will fit right into life as a royal,
and bringing her grace, poise, and proven work ethic,
and a seemingly inherent desire to help others.
Both of us have passions for wanting to make change, change
for good, and with lots of young people
running around the Commonwealth, that's
where we're going to spend most of our time, I think.
And it was really one of the first things
we connected on-- it was one of the first things we started
talking about when we met, was just
the different things that we wanted to do in the world
and how passionate we are about seeing change, I think.
For anyone obsessed with the next royal romance,
the conjecture ended in October 2016,
when news of Prince Harry and American actress Meghan
Markle's relationship broke.
I received probably 15 emails and tweets kind of all
at once when the news broke.
Instead of the excitement dissipating,
the buzz of this unexpected romance broke records.
And we found out that she was a little bit older
than him-- she obviously was a famous actress
in her own right.
I immediately started googling her and I was like,
OK, this girl, she's beautiful, she's smart,
so it definitely was exciting and intriguing.
Meghan was the most googled woman in 2017.
It's what the public wanted-- it was a love story,
it was exciting.
When the beans spilled that they met
through a mutual friend, who this royal matchmaker was
became the hottest mystery in social media.
There have been many hints, but no one has confirmed
or denied cupid's identity.
Yet.
We were introduced, actually, by a mutual friend who--
we will--
We should protect her privacy.
Protect her privacy, yeah.
Not reveal too much of that.
And it was literally through her,
and then we met once and then twice back
to back, two dates in London last July.
With the story of how they met put to bed,
a new obsession took over royal fans--
is Meghan Markle actually the one?
It was I think about three, maybe four, weeks
later that I managed to persuade her to come and join me
in Botswana.
Right off the bat, he took Meghan with him
to Botswana to celebrate her birthday
and experience his glamping.
Then in 2016, it became apparent that this relationship
was significant.
According to royal watchers, when
Harry took Meghan to his best friend's wedding in Jamaica,
gossip turned into a genuine buzz.
The three-day Jamaican celebration
was the best opportunity yet for Harry
to introduce Meghan to his inner circle of friends,
and it was reported that they fell in love with her too.
The romantic occasion provided the perfect opportunity
for the pair to show their affection for one another.
We had a good five, six months almost with just privacy,
which was amazing.
Very early on, we realized we were
going to commit to each other, and we
knew we had to invest the time and the energy in whatever it
took to make that happen.
I don't think you had any idea what time
zone you've been in for the last year and a half.
No.
Coming over here four days or a week,
and then going back and then straight
into filming the next day, 4:00 AM wake-up calls on a Monday.
Yes.
Straight into set.
The media broke into a frenzy when word got out
that the couple would be making their first public appearance
together at the 2017 Invictus Games,
a major sporting event for wounded veterans initiated
in 2014 by Prince Harry.
One week ago, I told you that you needed to be ready,
but even I could not have been ready for the scale of what
we witnessed at these games.
The Invictus Games are a personal and important event
for him, so when Harry invited Meghan's mother, Doria Radlan,
to join them at the closing ceremony,
it was clear that this romance is the real deal,
and that Harry had Doria's blessing.
It's just how differently they're doing things,
whether it's that sort of very unusual show of affection
at the Invictus Games, where Harry kissed Meghan,
not just in front of his future mother-in-law,
but in front of the world.
The speculation changed course.
Now everyone wanted to know when and how a proposal would occur,
but importantly, was Meghan going
to be accepted by the royal family,
and was the queen going to permit such a union?
I think the queen's definitely excited about this.
I think if anything, she's just more excited about the fact
that Harry's finally going to now be off the market.
I think there's no reason to think
the queen wouldn't be anything other than delighted
about this marriage.
She's a devoted grandmother-- she played a critical role
in Harry's life as a young man after Diana's death.
Let's be honest-- she's in her 90s,
so she wants to make sure that everything's right
before she goes, and I think she's doing it really well.
She's become much more progressive.
She's become much more relatable.
She has allowed things that potentially might not have
been allowed before to happen.
She understands too, that if the royal family
is going to carry on, that we need
to see them being modernized.
We need to feel that we can actually
be a part of their lives.
Meghan had already met Prince Harry's father, Prince Charles,
and his wife Camilla.
She was now good friends with Prince William
and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
You know, I've been seeing her for a period of time,
when I literally didn't tell anybody at all.
And then William was longing to meet her and so was Catherine.
So you know they're your neighbors.
We managed to get that in a couple of-- well,
quite a few times now.
And Catherine's been absolutely--
She's been wonderful.
Amazing, as has William, as well.
You know, fantastic support.
And then my father has already-- we had a couple of-- no,
more than that.
We've had--
A handful of teas and meetings, and--
We've just had a really nice time getting to know them
and progressively helping me feel a part of,
not just the institution, but also part
of the family, which has been really, really special.
Their breaths were held at the prospect of meeting the queen.
We didn't have to wait long.
When Harry whisked Meghan away on a birthday holiday
to Botswana, the couple returned and made a beeline
for Balmoral.
The consensus is that it was at this summer residence
of the queen that Prince Harry was
able to make a formal introduction
to the 91-year-old monarch.
It's incredible, A, to be able to meet her through his lens,
not just with his honor and respect for her as the monarch,
but the love that he has for her as his grandmother.
All of those layers have been so important for me,
so that when I met her, I had such a deep understanding,
and, of course, incredible respect
for being able to have that time with her.
And then, we've had a really--
she's an incredible woman.
As the couple's relationship blossomed,
sweeping changes were coming for Miss Markle
and her seven-year stint playing Rachel Zane,
the feisty paralegal in the hit show Suits.
The show's creator, Aaron Korsh, and his writers
carefully planned for what they saw as inevitable--
they gradually wrote Rachel Zane out of the series.
It's a new chapter, right?
And also keep in mind, I've been working
on my show for seven years, so we're very, very fortunate
to be able to have that sort of longevity on a series,
and for me, once we hit the 100th episode marker,
I thought, you know what, I have ticked this box,
and I feel really proud of the work I've done there,
and now it's time to, as you said, work as a team with you.
The anticipation of an engagement continued to build,
and finally, a formal announcement by Clarence House
was made--
Meghan Markle would become a member of the British royal
family.
And tell us, how did you propose?
[clatter of shutters]
Yeah, that will come later, yeah.
Was it romantic?
The occasion itself will generate global television
audiences, news items-- already they're planning it.
We're already, what, five months away.
It is not lost to us that a significant person is
missing from this happy event.
I spoke to a veteran royal reporter who spent years
photographing Diana who took the very first pictures of Meghan
and Harry kissing at the polo last May.
He said he hadn't taken pictures like that of the royals
since Diana.
Diana, Harry's mother, has striking similarities
with Meghan Markle, and Harry thinks they
would have been great pals.
She would be over the moon, jumping up and down, so excited
for me--
but then, as I said, would have probably
been best friends with Meghan.
Diana would have liked the way that Harry had grown up.
I mean obviously, you know he was in his early teens when
sadly, his mother died in that tragic accident in Paris,
but he survived that-- he, as a young lad,
walked behind his mother's coffin in front
of the world's media--
and he talks about it openly now.
And so in that sense, his mother would've
been exceptionally proud.
I think Diana would be thrilled to see William and Harry settle
down with two really perfect brides, actually.
Kate is so perfect for the role that she has to fulfill.
And I think Meghan's going to be a great success at home.
She's already proved to be very suitable in so many ways.
They make the princes happy, and I
think that's probably more important to Diana
than anything else.
She said she wanted them to marry for love.
Diana was a very hands-on individual, so in that sense,
would have been delighted with the way that William had found
his love, his wife, at university.
And in the same way that no pressure was
put on Harry to find his love.
Obviously not being able to meet his mom,
it's so important to me to know that she's
a part of this with us, and I think
in being able to meet just different people who
were so important to his mom and able to, in some way,
know a part of her through them, and of course through him.
But Prince Harry found a way to ensure that a part of Diana
will always be present, and designed
a ring that used two of his mother's diamonds with his own
from Botswana.
The ring is a beautiful legacy, both to their union and Diana.
The ring is obviously yellow gold,
because that's her favorite, and the main stone itself I
sourced from Botswana, and the little diamonds either side
are from my mother's jewelry collection,
to make sure that she's with us on this crazy journey together.
And--
It's beautiful, and he designed it.
It's incredible.
Meghan Markle has a special kind of sparkle.
Her bright smile and demeanor have that Hollywood glamor,
but it's her warmth and genuine openness will
win over the British people.
You can't fake that.
This is the most important thing,
in my view, that's happened to the royal family for centuries.
I think Meghan Markle is the best
thing to happen to the monarchy in years.
She's young, she understands the zeitgeist,
she understands what people want,
and she really connects with people in a way
that we also saw with Princess Diana.
And so I think that it's only a good thing
that we have Meghan in there.
She's sort of shaking off the cobwebs
and moving the royal family firmly into the 21st century.
There's no denying that Meghan Markle's elegant fashion style
turns heads wherever she goes.
Even before her engagement to Prince Harry,
Meghan's stylish appearance grabbed the attention
of the fashion world.
Since news broke of her relationship with Prince Harry,
Meghan has continued to wear her favorite labels--
Mother, Erdem, Line, and Misha Nonoo, to name a few.
When they first made their public appearance
announcing that they were engaged,
she had on a white trench coat that
was made by a Canadian company called Line.
She orders a lot of her clothes from there.
It sold out within the hour.
In her interview with Harry, chatting through the engagement
and how they met, she was wearing a dress
from an Italian company.
Same thing-- sold out within an hour.
Inherently, Markle has already shown
that her love for fashion and attention-grabbing style
can boost her humanitarian work, just like her fiance's
late mother, Diana.
I love Meghan.
I think that it's amazing that she
is very different from the British mold.
I think that she's a breath of fresh air
that's very necessary in the royal family.
We've seen it with her in terms of how
she dresses, how she wears pants to events,
how she does her hair--
you know, unlike say, Kate Middleton
or some of the other royals who always look very perfectly
coiffed.
Meghan's style is frequently compared
to her future sister-in-law.
Princess Kate is quintessentially English.
You know, everything that she wore
from when she was at university was very twin set and pearls,
very sort of Chelsea girl.
That kind of feeling that it's very, you know,
what you expect to read when you open up
Horse & Hound or Tatler.
But you'd never see her in sweatshirts and sweatpants
and some Uggs.
Whereas someone like Meghan has been brought up
on Uggs and sweatpants, because, obviously, she's
been on set so many times.
So she's gone from looking quite off-set, when
you are quite dowdy, and you don't really
care about everything, to being on-set,
where she's ultra-glamorous.
And you know she's been at numerous award ceremonies.
And she's also somebody who's modeled for magazines
and modeled in fashion spreads.
With Kate over the years, we've seen her come into her own--
she's wearing these very expensive outfits--
whereas with Meghan, we've seen her wear jeans,
we've seen her wear ripped jeans.
We've seen her looking very normal and accessible when
going to high profile events, unlike Kate,
who always looks very perfect.
The Duchess of Cambridge is also famous
for her classic, modern style.
There are many similarities-- both
have the ability to influence sales with the Kate
Effect and the Meghan Sparkle.
One thing that we've noticed with the style,
first starting with Princess Diana, and then Kate,
and now Meghan, is that all of these bits of clothing
and these staple accessories and tops and dresses,
they're so accessible, right?
I mean, you can really quickly get online and find out,
where is that top from?
There'll be a link to buy right then and there.
I definitely think that Meghan, like Kate, has an effect when
it comes to selling clothing.
You want to get the so-called Markle Sparkle.
We've seen it when she wears something, immediately.
There are now style blogs devoted to Kate,
there are now Twitter accounts devoted to Meghan.
They've already made headlines at a joint event
with their elegant style.
Kate portrays something that people want.
Meghan portrays something that is much more approachable
that people can get right away.
Some were concerned that a rivalry could be in the works,
but it seems the two will have a close relationship, much
like another royal wife-y pairing.
I think it's impossible to not compare Kate and Meghan
with Diana and Sarah.
In the case of Diana, she was married to the heir,
and then you have Sarah Ferguson--
she's this breath of fresh air.
She's always in the news for doing silly or dramatic things,
she has a great sense of humor.
And you really do see that comparison between Kate
and Meghan, where Kate is a little more buttoned up,
she has more restrictions-- whereas Meghan
is kind of the playful one.
She's the new bright young shiny thing.
We think Meghan meshes her own relaxed Californian fashion
style beautifully with her new British role,
and this is something uniquely hers.
We also love that her fashion choices are
diverse and inclusive, and touch on a desire
to experience new trajectories.
Meghan Markle wears a lot more ready-wear type of clothing,
and so what you're going to have is fashion designers that
are making ready-wear attire where they can
go ahead and produce it quickly, sell it,
and then as soon as that inventory sells out,
Meghan Markle will go ahead and put her Markle spin on it
again, and then it will start a whole new trend of clothing
along that "ready to wear" business attire.
Meghan portrays something that people can get right away,
and so it's something that people can find at their local
department store, whether it's Nordstrom's or Macy's.
Oh, do I love to online shop.
Of course, especially with our hours, too.
So easy.
Right?
It's like, if I have downtime in my trailer.
Speaking of trying new things, Meghan is a huge fan of wine.
Her favorite, a Tignanello, led Meghan to name her former
blog The Tig.
The namesake is from a wine called Tignanello,
but in the States, we sort of bastardized the name
and say Tig-na-nello, and it was my first sip of wine where I
said, oh my god, what is this?
So I said to the bartender, what am I drinking?
He's like, just call it The Tig.
This moment revealed to Meghan that to live
is to be curious and insatiable in living one's life.
From then on, all "a-ha" moments became a Tig moment for Meghan.
You know, someone always asks me about-- fans especially,
once the show started-- travel advice,
or food, restaurant advice, fashion of course.
And I said, let me create a hub where
I can have all of that stuff there
that's really aspirational but attainable.
Meghan has remarked that the best
part of discovering great wine is the adventure taken
to find it--
meeting the wine makers.
However, Tig-na-nello is not her only favorite.
Anything red, as she calls it, opening
the door for the popular Central Coast pinot noir as well.
So Meghan, being from California,
I can see her bringing Harry on an adventure
up here through the central coast.
Winding roads-- it's beautiful scenery.
So I can see them coming, kind of finding the different spots
that they like.
Pinot noir is a varietal.
And it is one of those grapes that is very engaging,
and captures your--
It's not surprising that's one of her favorite wines.
And cool climate pinot noirs tend to just be so beautiful.
They have such pretty notes and cherries, cherry blossoms,
some hints of raspberries, some red currants.
It would definitely be something that I see Meghan and Prince
Harry enjoying together.
Meghan is also a self-proclaimed foodie.
Her philosophies on food and eating
had the potential to become an incredibly positive influence
on young people.
Meghan advocates lifestyle eating over dieting,
and is open about her years of teenage angst
about weight and beauty.
We love that she's such a fantastic role model,
but is also not afraid to burst out the treats now and then.
Markle's instinctive humanitarian side
led to her adoption of Bogart and Guy,
her two canine companions.
I have two dogs that I've had for quite a long time--
both my rescue pups--
and one is now staying with very close friends,
and my other little guy is, yes, he's in the UK.
He's been here for a while.
They say that dogs have the innate ability
to judge good and bad, and even the royal corgis,
usually the toughest audience of all according to Prince Harry,
have embraced Meghan into the royal family.
For the last 33 years, been barked at.
This one walks in-- absolutely nothing.
Just laying on my feet during tea.
Just wagging tails.
It was very sweet.
And I was just like, ugh.
That definitely scored a few points with the queen.
Boom.
However, it hasn't all been smooth sailing
for royal romances.
Many eyebrows were raised when it
was revealed that Meghan Markle was not only American,
but a divorcee.
This royal union is a case of love
comes first, as it was with King Edward, whose actions
may have helped pave the way for this love story to unfold.
The inevitable comparison between Meghan and Wallis
Simpson has, of course, been made in the press,
because Meghan Markle will become
the first American divorcee to marry into the royal family
in 80 years.
Fact-- times have changed.
Of course, for some people, you know,
that immediately creates parallels,
because they think of the last time an American wanted
to marry into the royal family, which
of course was Wallis Simpson.
And people draw parallels and say, oh,
but isn't it amazing how far we've moved on?
And actually, I mean, yes we have--
but Edward VIII was king at the time
that he wanted to marry Wallis Simpson.
His Royal Highness King Edward VIII marriage
to American divorcee Wallis Simpson in 1937
is one of the most significant romantic scandals
in British history.
So great was the monarch's love for Wallis Simpson
that Edward abdicated the throne to marry her.
Edward was direct in line to the throne.
He gave up his throne because he wasn't prepared to be king
without, as he put it, the help and support of the woman
he loved, so he abdicated.
And they went off to Paris and got
married and they lived happily ever after from then on.
There are striking similarities between King Edward VIII's
marriage to Wallis Simpson and Harry's pending
nuptials to Meghan Markle.
Wallace was American, as is Markle,
but there are interesting distinctions too.
Harry is fifth, soon to be sixth, in line to the throne,
so it's far less significant, the fact that he's marrying
an American actress, a mixed race actress, a woman who's 36
and been married before.
Meghan is a very different person.
She's been married before-- she's a divorcee.
Charles was married before--
Camilla was married before--
both divorced, they got married.
For Edward and Wallis, marriage to a two-time divorcee
was at the time immoral.
And with World War II looming, the British people
needed a strong monarch.
Harry, unlike his predecessor Edward,
is not heir to the throne-- he's not king.
And in fact, because there are now several heirs with William,
he never will be king.
When Edward wanted to marry Wallis Simpson,
it was literally a constitutional crisis.
It was absolutely unfathomable to the people.
In terms of Harry wanting to marry Meghan, you know,
he's fifth or sixth in line for the throne,
he's way down the line.
There isn't really the worry that we'll
have an American queen on the throne,
so I think that Harry has a lot of flexibility and freedom
in being able to marry for love instead of having
to have a eye toward duty.
A lot of comparisons have been floated about Edward VIII
and Wallis Simpson.
Well, of course, that was in the 1930's, 1936.
We're looking at a totally different royal family then.
You know, this was a non-starter.
But then, Wallis Simpson was a divorcee,
and there was some interesting history around the time,
but the royal family have progressed
following his abdication.
The responsibility of the monarch
was to the Church of England, and the church
had no time for a divorcee as future queen.
It was a stigma.
You talked about it in hushed tones.
If somebody was divorced, you thought, ooh,
I'm not terribly sure I can socialize with that person.
It's no longer a stigma.
It's a fact of life.
You know, people get married.
They don't like each other anymore.
They get divorced.
We've moved a long way from the days,
in the 1930's, when divorce was frowned
upon by the Church of England.
Britain's royal past is intimately bound with religion.
Even Meghan Markle, in 21st-century Britain,
was baptized before her wedding day.
But no other union rocked a nation to its spiritual core
than that of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in the 1500's.
King Henry, already married to Queen Catherine of Aragon,
decided Anne would be his, and plotted
to have his marriage to Queen Catherine made void.
Rebelling against the pope's intense opposition,
King Henry married Boleyn in a secret ceremony.
This marriage changed the religious culture of England
forever.
The Church of England came under the stewardship
of the monarchy, and Roman Catholicism lost its footing.
And Anne Boleyn of course was ultimately
charged with adultery, incest, and witchcraft,
and then burned--
oh, or had her head chopped off, rather.
Since the ill-fated marriage of Anne Boleyn and King Henry,
times have changed, and one need look no further
than Prince Harry's very own brother, Prince William's
modern day romance with his college sweetheart,
Kate Middleton.
In fact, Harry could be thanking his older brother William
for laying the foundation for a modern-day royal union.
It was actually Diana who told William and Harry to marry
for love.
When they married, it should be for love.
And I think that that's exactly what they've
done-- it's certainly what William's done,
and it's what Harry is doing too.
William and Harry have learned from the past royal wedding.
They saw their mom unhappy in her wedding,
and they didn't want that for themselves.
I think that they've realized that they can be happy,
and it's up to them to make themselves happy,
and I think actually Queen Elizabeth has
recognized that also, and that's why
she's been so understanding.
You have to look at the choices that William and Harry have
made and the women that they are with.
Kate, a commoner, not a blueblood, not perhaps the
aristocrat that we might have picked for Prince William,
but that marriage and that relationship
is and has been hugely successful for 10 years.
Now England's beloved Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge,
the paparazzi incessantly reported
on Kate's lineage of coal miners, blue collar workers,
and the lack of any aristocracy.
From what I've seen of Meghan so far, if you're
going to compare her to anyone, I
wouldn't be comparing her to Kate,
because I think they're two very different women.
Yes, they're the same age--
yes, they've fallen in love with princes--
but actually, that's where the similarities end.
The American press is bound and determined
to sort of pit Kate against Meghan,
but the fact is they're are very different people.
Meghan marries into the royal family,
a famous actress in her own right, a divorcee,
she's got history--
you know, there's a whole background to her.
Whereas Kate married in--
I almost say a blank canvas.
Her longest-term relationship of 10 years
was with Prince William.
She didn't have a full-time job as such.
Kate is a mother, soon to be a mother of three.
I think that Kate has had an extraordinary burden being
the only sort of young visible royal in the spotlight,
and now that Meghan is coming into the picture,
there's room for Kate to kind of take a step back, hopefully
to breathe a little.
We are delighted that Meghan Markle's fairy tale romance is
a reflection of how far royal traditions have evolved,
and we can't wait to see her sparkle on her wedding day.
Once the Cambridge's third baby arrives,
Harry will move down the order of the succession,
and he will become sixth in line to the throne.
And because of that, it's incredibly unlikely
that he is going to be king, so he has a very different role
from William.
So I think Meghan and Harry will be a different couple
to William and Kate-- they have different roles,
different purposes.
Nonetheless, both are meaningful.
Harry and Meghan have that freedom,
I think, to perhaps push royal boundaries a little bit more
than William and Kate would be able to do.
In a monarchy were the very queen herself in her 93rd year,
her husband, 96.
Yeah, they have a great longevity,
but no one lives forever.
So in the next decade, there are going to be huge changes,
and Meghan and Harry will be front runners in that change.
Whether they go second to William, who might become king,
or whether his father decides he doesn't want to be king.
Whether the Americans get fed up with--
I don't know.
There are so many different options open at the moment
that this new group of royalty, of which Meghan is now part of,
is going to be instrumental in the changes that lie ahead.
This engagement is definitely a sign of modernization
in the royal family.
It's really shown them to be progressive.
It's shown the queen actually thinking, OK,
I want my grandchildren to be happy.
This is about happiness rather than protocol.
It's just a very different time for the monarchy,
and William and Harry are unwilling to let
these sort of old gray men at the palace
tell them what to do.
Princess Diana wanted William and Harry
to grow up as normal boys.
Well, normal boys will, you know,
travel the world, in the early 2000's, and go to Vegas,
and be in Canada, and meet women from around the world.
With Meghan going to the royal family,
it helps out the royals become a lot more approachable to,
not just the British, but the Americans,
and so it almost makes the royals one of us, a little bit
closer to becoming one of us.
After the excitement of the engagement announcement,
the wedding day promises to deliver the stuff
that fairy tales are made of.
This is a massive deal, and it's not just the day-- you know,
it's a really big run up from everything.
It's a massive marketing platform for the UK.
This is much more than just a wedding--
it's a cultural shift.
Courtiers have said that they want
to be one of joy and happiness, and for the public to be
as much a part of it as possible, and they will be.
We know it's going to be televised.
For William's and Kate's wedding,
all the royal pomp and circumstance was on display.
Grand carriages, women in big hats,
and a tiara for the princess-to-be.
Harry and Meghan's big day will be equally as impressive.
She's going to be seen by billions of people.
The whole world is going to take a picture of her and watch her,
so it's very important to make sure
that you look perfect, so she will rehearse her look probably
two or three times before she actually gets to the day
before the wedding.
You know, how life changing is?
Well, it's a huge life changer.
Because suddenly, one minute you're
Meghan Markle the actress in whatever, going anywhere.
Next thing, you're a princess of the realm of the United
Kingdom.
You know, you've got to think about her--
she's going to be seen from every angle--
it's 360 Meghan Markle, you know--
it's not just one angle.
Meghan, how are you feeling?
So happy.
She has to think about everything,
and that-- what's great about her
is having that TV background.
She understands that, having that red carpet readiness--
she understands she has to look great from every angle.
So having chosen a quote, "smaller venue,"
Windsor Castle, as opposed to Westminster Abbey,
the amount of spectators and A-list guests
will be out in droves.
It's going to be very interesting,
because their royal wedding won't be in London,
first of all-- is going to be in Windsor,
which is a beautiful place.
But I think what's going to be very interesting is,
first of all, how are the massive, massive crowds going
to be managed?
Because that whole place is going
to be full of so many tourists, so many people from London
coming up and wanting to see or get
a glimpse of the royal family.
For Meghan, there has been a great deal of speculation
as to the designer of her special wedding gown
and who exactly is on her guest list.
She is known to have quite the A-list of friends and work
associates.
I doubt whether she'd be wearing that dress
that she wore in Suits, but I do think she'll be--
I think you know also there's a lot of--
she's got to live up to what Princess Kate wore,
which is a most amazing dress by Sarah Burton,
you know-- fantastic.
And again, even with Pippa Middleton,
that dress was talked about for years afterwards.
So I think there's a lot of pressure on her,
and I think also she has to look traditionally English,
but also as we've just said she's American.
So American style is a little bit different from the UK
style, so I suspect they'll be a bit
of a fusion between the two, and hopefully
the queen will be happy.
She'll probably tear a page out of Kate's book, actually.
Lace is still very much in and she's
simple-- it's a May wedding, so spring.
But I don't think she'll get away with being too revealing.
I think she'll probably still go for something long-sleeved.
The guest list of course is going
to be much speculated upon in the months leading up
to the wedding.
I'm told that the queen has told the couple
that they are to draw up the list of who
they want to be there.
It's going to be a smaller wedding than William
and Kate's-- they had 2000 people at Westminster Abbey.
Meghan and Harry will have 800, which is still
a sizable wedding, and of course is
going to be fascinating to see who turns up.
Meghan will bring that sort of injection of Hollywood,
you know--
I'm sure we will see some of her costars
from Suits and actor friends from the years
that she's worked in Hollywood.
Of course she's got very famous friends--
she's close to Serena Williams, she's close to Boris Becker.
Harry's got famous friends--
Elton John is incredibly close to Prince Harry.
I suspect Obama will be at the wedding, which
will be quite interesting because he will be there,
and Trump won't be there.
Harry and Meghan are also causing a few headaches
for the royal guard.
I expect to see a few detours from the traditional wedding
dos and don'ts.
The rumor on the street is that Meghan
is going to be giving a speech at her own wedding, which
is a big protocol no-no.
Regardless of what it took to arrive at this point in Harry
and Meghan's relationship, one thing is for certain--
that on May 19th, 2018, a Disney fairytale
will come to life as a prince turns a lovely young lady
into a real life princess.