When aspiring actress Meghan Markle had the chance of a major interview with Vanity Fair magazine, her approach was agreed beforehand. She would be cautious.
Meghan would steer clear of such controversial subjects as racial politics, Donald Trump – or her burgeoning relationship with Prince Harry…
So a cover story with the headline ‘She’s just wild about Harry!’ was decisively not in the schedule.
Within hours of the magazine’s pre-publication copies being distributed, Meghan was on the phone to her public relations firm to tell them ‘hysterically’ of the Palace’s dismay, according to author Tom Bower.
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Vanity Fair’s September 2017 edition cover, featuring Meghan Markle and the headline ‘Wild About Harry!’
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Prince Harry and Meghan during an official photocall to announce their engagement at Kensington Palace on November 27, 2017
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Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, at the Ms Foundation Women of Vision Awards in New York this year
Her unexpected openness about Harry took the Palace by surprise, Bower wrote.
‘Like a thunderclap, the interview triggered sensational reactions: Meghan had used her relationship with Harry to promote herself,’ he said.
Meghan would later suggest that she had known little about the British Royal family before meeting Prince Harry and that she had, for example, ‘never looked up her husband online’.
Others have called that apparent naivety into question, among them former childhood friend Ninaki Priddy.
Shortly before Meghan and Prince Harry’s wedding in 2018, Priddy, told the Daily Mail: ‘[Meghan] was always fascinated by the royal family. She wants to be Princess Diana 2.0.’
A picture of a 15-year-old Meghan posing in front of Buckingham Palace, with her friend Ninaki, during a European trip in 1996 had previously emerged.
Others have called that apparently into question, among them former childhood friend Ninaki Priddy.
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A 15-year-old Meghan Markle poses in front of Buckingham Palace with childhood friend Ninaki Priddy in 1996
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A young Meghan is shown at an age reaching adolescence in the trailer to her Netflix documentary, Harry and Meghan
Speaking in 2018, Ninaki, whose friendship with Meghan ended before the duchess began seeing Prince Harry, said: ‘I know the royal family was something she found fascinating.
‘She had one of Princess Diana’s books [Diana: Her True Story] on her bookshelf, and even when she was with Trevor she told me she wanted to go and stay in London for at least a month.
‘I wasn’t shocked or even surprised to hear about Prince Harry. I know she used to love The Princess Diaries — films about a commoner who becomes part of a Royal Family. She was very taken with that idea.’