The Queen Thought Meghan Markle Shouldn't Wear White for Her Wedding

Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex kisses his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex as they leave from the West Door of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Windsor, on May 19, 2018 after their wedding ceremony.

(Image credit: Photo by Danny Lawson / Getty)

published 27 September 2022

Sure, the Queen may have modernized certain aspects of the monarchy, but still, nobody was counting on her to initiate complete breaks in tradition—however benign they may appear to you and me.

As such, she wasn't mad that Meghan Markle chose to wear pure white for her wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018, but she wasn't happy about it either, apparently.

"The Queen was surprised that Meghan wore pure white on her wedding day," a source told Katie Nicholl in her new book The New Royals (via the Daily Mail). "Perhaps it's a generational thing, but she believes if you've been married before, you wear off-white on your wedding day, which is what the Duchess of Cornwall did."

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Markle had previously been married to Trevor Engelson between 2011 and 2013, though it was Prince Harry's first marriage.

Likewise, Camilla had previously been married to Andrew Parker Bowles, while Charles had been married to Princess Diana. The now-King and Queen Consort famously carried on an affair while they were still in their respective marriages.

While Queen Elizabeth felt the wedding went fairly well in the end, she had another regret: that the bride had not made up with her estranged father Thomas before the nuptials.

Ahead of the wedding, she spoke to the soon-to-be Sussexes about this, Nicholl reports.

"It was the Queen's feeling that Meghan should sort things out with her father and that Harry should have met Thomas before the wedding," a family friend told the author. "She thought the whole thing could have been better handled."

The duchess' relationship with her father broke down amid her wedding preparations, and to the best of my knowledge, they're still not speaking today.

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Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.