The parallels between Prince Harry's mother and his wife are impossible to ignore. Here
are some of the ways history has repeated itself with Meghan Markle and Princess Diana.
Perhaps the most glaring similarity between Markle and Princess Diana is the fact that they were both
technically considered commoners. According to Time magazine, Lady Di was born into a family
of British aristocrats who rolled in royal social circles, but she only had loose blood ties to the
Crown through so-called "illegitimate unions." At the time of her engagement to Prince Charles,
Diana was working as a kindergarten teacher and living with three flatmates.
Markle's story is similar. Like Diana, she attended an all-girls school,
then went to Northwestern University, where she studied theater and international relations.
Like most struggling college students, she pieced together tuition with a mix
of scholarships, financial aid programs, and work-study, according to The Oprah Magazine.
She also joined a sorority and lived in a sorority house.
Even after making it as an actress with her breakthrough role in Suits,
Markle wasn't considered a household name until Prince Harry got down on one knee.
Despite the fact that they were raised on two sides of the Atlantic,
both Markle and Princess Diana shared a similar childhood experience. They
were children of divorce and, at different points in time, estranged from a parent.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Diana's brother Charles Spencer revealed
that the siblings were abandoned by their mother after their parents split. He said,
"Our father was a quiet and constant source of love, but our mother wasn't cut out for maternity.
Not her fault, she couldn't do it. While she was packing her stuff to leave,
she promised Diana [then aged five] she'd come back to see her. Diana
used to wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came."
Markle was a similar age when her parents, Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, divorced — but she
maintained a good relationship with both of them until she got involved with the royal family.
Unfortunately, Meghan became estranged from her father after he staged paparazzi photos
and blabbed to the press in the wake of her engagement. According to the book
Finding Freedom, the Suits star was "hurt and humiliated" when Thomas bailed on her wedding,
and as late as July 2020, he was still airing out the family business in the press.
When Markle's prince finally came, he didn't swoop in on a white horse. Rather, she and Prince
Harry were set up on a regular old blind date. Markle struggled with adjusting to royal life,
revealing in a candid ITV interview that she wasn't "doing okay." She added,
"Not many people have asked if I'm okay,
but it's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes."
"I never thought that this would be easy,
but I thought it would be fair, and that's the part that's really hard to reconcile."
Inarguably, being a royal is a lot, especially if you're thrust into the spotlight after a whirlwind
marriage. Princess Diana had a similar experience and was often spotted with her head down, dodging
cameras and earning the nickname Shy Di. In recorded interviews with reporter Andrew Morton,
the mother-of-two admitted that adjusting to life in the royal family was "too much." She said,
"I was just so frightened of the attention I was getting; it took me six years to get
comfortable in this skin and now I'm ready to go forward. One minute I was nobody,
the next minute I was Princess of Wales, mother, media toy, member of this family, you name it."
Markle and Princess Diana's difficulties adapting to royal life were exacerbated by
the fact that everything happened so fast. The royals were literally swept away by
their respective Prince Charmings in whirlwind romances. The Independent reported that Diana
claimed to have "only met Charles 12 times" prior to announcing their 1981 engagement.
They tied the knot five months later, right after Diana's 20th birthday.
Markle's wedding took slightly longer to come about — but not that much longer from the point
of engagement. According to Vogue's timeline, Markle met Harry on their blind date in July 2016.
Engagement rumors emerged a little after their first year dating anniversary,
and they finally announced their engagement in November 2017.
"It was so sweet and natural and very romantic, he got on one knee… Of course."
They tied the knot just six months later.
Both Diana and Markle also threw non-traditional elements into their wedding,
like omitting the word "obey" from their vows, according to The New York Times.
Markle took her feminist approach one step further and partially walked
herself down the aisle before Prince Charles escorted her to the altar.
According to The Cut, the press office of the royal family is notoriously quiet
about everything from rifts between family members to alleged affairs. In rare cases,
they'll flat-out deny rumors, but you'll hardly see a royal express a negative opinion.
In some ways, it seems like you get indoctrinated into the royal family by metaphorically stitching
your mouth shut, but Princess Diana was actually remarkably candid about certain gossip. In a 1995
BBC interview, she admitted that Prince Charles' affair led to the dissolution of their marriage.
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
Diana's candid demeanor opened up the doors for Markle, who isn't afraid to use her voice,
particularly now that she's hung up her royal title and signed a multi-year podcasting deal
with Spotify. In a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, the star went as far as directly
accusing the royal family of "perpetuating falsehoods" about her family. Beyond that,
Markle is using her voice for change. In 2019, the star guest-edited an issue of
British Vogue titled "Forces for Change," which was met with an onslaught of public scrutiny
as it touched on topics like climate change, LGBTQ visibility, racism, and body acceptance.
Buckingham Palace is a veritable fortress, one that conceals the real life struggles of the
royals within it. Though some reports of strife manage to leak outside of the palace's walls,
it's typically swept under the rug. Not with Princess Diana, who refused to pretend everything
was alright. The royal was ultimately the leaker behind some of her most heart-breaking headlines.
In a series of confessional tapes, which Diana leaked to royal reporter Andrew Morton,
the people's princess blew the lid on her own eating disorder. According to Vogue, she admitted,
"The bulimia started the week after we got engaged and would take nearly
a decade to overcome. My husband put his hand on my waistline and said:
'Oh, a bit chubby here, aren't we?' and that triggered off something in me."
Markle has been similarly candid about her struggles with mental health. The
former actor appeared on the Teenager Therapy podcast, where she revealed that being, quote,
"the most trolled person in the entire world" took a toll on her mental health. She admitted,
"It's almost unsurvivable. If people are saying things about you that aren't true,
what that does to your mental and emotional health is damaging."
Markle was also similarly as candid about her miscarriage,
which she disclosed in a heartbreaking op-ed for The New York Times, titled "The Losses We Share."
Prince William and Prince Harry may have been raised as royalty, but Princess Diana tried to
give them a normal childhood — at least, as much as you possibly can with the paparazzi chasing
your every move and enough generational wealth to realistically retire before you even get your
first job. According to Good Housekeeping, this included letting the boys partake in
normal childhood activities and enrolling them in public school. According to Hello!, Prince
William was the first heir to the throne that was "entirely educated in the public school system."
Markle wants the same for her children, which is part of the reason why she and Harry gave
up their royal titles. An alleged insider that spoke to People magazine revealed that
the couple "hope to give Archie as normal a life as possible," which they're doing as they split
their time between North America and the U.K. As of early 2021, it looks like they've settled
in Markle's native home of California, where they can be close to her mother,
who still works as a social worker and yoga instructor, as they await their second baby.
It's no secret that the press was vicious to Lady Di, especially in the events surrounding
her tragic passing. Though her 1997 crash in Paris initially appeared to be an accident,
it was later found that she was, quote, "unlawfully killed" by "gross negligence,"
according to the BBC. Both the driver, who was under the influence, and the paparazzi,
who were chasing her car on motorbikes, were at fault. This understandably rattled Prince Harry,
who was 12 years old at the time. In a 2017 BBC documentary, he revealed,
"I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with, is the fact
that, the people that chased her into the tunnel,
were the same people taking photographs of her dying on the backseat of the car."
"I will not be bullied into playing a game that killed my mum."
Though paparazzi don't chase Markle in the same way, the tabloids are equally as vicious. Stylist
magazine managed to find 30 different tabloid stories, some of which had racist undertones,
criticizing the star for claims as audacious as her altering her son's birth certificate.
The Sussexes even took the extraordinary step of taking the tabloids to court — and they
actually won — but the unending onslaught of false and negative coverage ultimately
led them to quit the royal family. Harry told James Corden in a rare interview,
"I did what any husband and what any father would do. I need to get my family out of here."
"My life is public service so wherever I am in the world it's going to be the same thing."
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