A new bombshell book by former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown claims that Prince William was worried about Prince Harry’s mental fragility during his whirlwind romance with American actress Meghan Markle as he feared that the younger brother wouldn’t be able to take on all of the pressures of life in the royal household.
William, Duke of Cambridge, 39, believed that Markle was ill-prepared for life as a British royal as she was so new to the U.K. and Harry was not ready to take on responsibilities for both of them.
A person close to the Duke of Cambridge told me that William thought she should have more time to build up a life in the U.K. and make friends who didn’t always have to be brought in confidence to the palace,” Brown wrote. “It had been hard enough for Kate [Middleton], but Meghan was a glamorous actress who would be the first woman of color to join the royal family, factors that would add enormously to the pressure.
Brown’s book, The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor–the Truth and the Turmoil also claims that it was someone in Prince Andrew’s household, either with or without the prince’s knowledge, who leaked the news of Harry’s relationship with Markle after the pair had been quietly dating for four months. This revelation, coupled with William’s concern for his brother, prompted Harry not to slow down the relationship but to speed it up, going from 0 to 60. According to Brown, Harry’s haste in proposing to and marrying Markle in 2018 was to afford her official security, as spouses of royals are entitled to publicly funded police protection. She goes on to say that Markle was initially a media darling who was used to adulation but learned that the British press can quickly make ferocious turn to become full-on bare-tooth barracuda swarm of hacks:
In the first round of coverage, [Meghan] was portrayed as Grace Kelly redux, an actress, humanitarian and gender equality campaigner, making it hard not to believe that the initial leak came from Meghan’s side (though a servant tip from the House of York had been fingered),” Brown wrote. “The second round, however, struck a different tone, forcing Meghan to experience the full-on bare-tooth barracuda swarm of hacks on the royal beat.
Candid conversation with Tina Brown.
…discusses the past 25 years of the British royal family in new book “The Palace Papers” – CBS News https://t.co/w9jy4JZUZb
— Arjanna (@iamarjanna) April 28, 2022
Prince William and Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, 40, had a comparatively slower courtship, meeting as students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in 2001. The pair reportedly broke up in 2007 but rekindled their romance and married in 2011 and were the subject of royal gossip hounds throughout the courtship. During the ten years they were together prior to their televised wedding, Middleton was not entitled to official police protection, and as a result ‘William reportedly arranged for a panic button to the local police station to be installed in her apartment to protect her from the constant threats of intrusion,’ Brown wrote.
Becoming a royal means living life in a fishbowl, which may be what pushed The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, to leave royal life for the sunny beaches of Southern California where they are raising their two children.
This story syndicated with permission from For the Love of News