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Despite the number of royal guests at Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding, the Duchess’s anniversary throwback photos only featured one of them. King Charles can be seen standing in St George’s Chapel to the left of Meghan in the third of the daytime pictures taken by photographer Chris Allerton.
As he wasn’t the main focus of the snap, you could easily think this was a coincidence but royal expert and author Ingrid Seward believes otherwise. She thinks Meghan’s choice speaks volumes about how she’s feeling about her father-in-law and her and Harry’s place in the Royal Family.
“Meghan doesn’t do anything without purpose, so she’s sending a message, isn’t she?,” Ingrid claimed to The Mirror. “The message is, ‘We’re still very much part of your family.'”
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She continued, “That’s what Harry and Meghan need because I don’t think they knew when they cut themselves off – with Harry’s book and the Oprah interview – just how alienated they were going to be.”
King Charles is the head of the family and he and Prince Harry met face-to-face last year for tea at Clarence House, which some hoped could be the start of a tentative reconciliation. Meghan’s relationship with her father-in-law isn’t scrutinised as often as his bond with his sons, but Ingrid described the King as “very caring towards her”.
According to the royal expert, the pair’s relationship at the beginning “meant a lot to Meghan”. This was reflected in his special role at the Sussexes’ wedding, where he partially walked his daughter-in-law down the aisle instead of her father Thomas.
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She walked down the first half of the aisle alone before King Charles joined her from the Quire until she reached her husband-to-be at the altar. In her and Harry’s Netflix series, Harry & Meghan, the Duchess described how this came about.
“Harry’s dad is very charming and I said to him, ‘I’ve lost my dad in this’,” Meghan shared. “Him as my father-in-law is very important to me, so I asked him to walk me down the aisle.”
Meanwhile, Harry said in the documentary, Prince, Son And Heir: Charles at 70, that his dad “immediately” said “I’ll do whatever Meghan needs and I’m here to support you”. So much has happened since then and she and Charles last saw each other in person at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral which was both a very sad and very public occasion.
Credit: Photo by Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images
Writing in the latest issue of Woman, Royal Editor Emily Andrews says that since Harry’s tea at Clarence House, she’s told father and son “speak on the phone every so often”.
“The King also occasionally speaks to and video-calls his Sussex grandchildren Archie, seven, and Lili, four, whom he has only met a couple of times,” Emily claims.
Duchess Meghan’s public “message” that they’re still part of the family is particularly interesting given how open Harry’s been about wanting to reconcile with the royals. It’s a subtle detail that could actually be very significant, hinting she’s aligned with her husband on building bridges with King Charles.
