Meghan’s Four-Word Response to Prince Charles’ Offer to Walk Her Down the Aisle

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published 6 March 2022

Just before her May 2018 wedding to Prince Harry, Meghan Markle found out her father, Thomas Markle, would not be attending and, therefore, couldn’t walk her down the aisle as planned. Her soon-to-be father-in-law Prince Charles stepped in and offered to walk her down the aisle. But, in a new book, royal author Robert Hardman reveals Meghan’s exact response to the Prince of Wales’ offer, which he says showed she was “confident and independent.”

In a response to his offer that caught Charles off guard, Meghan replied with four words: “Can we meet halfway?”

The response “was an indicator that this was no blushing bride, but a confident, independent woman determined to make a grand entrance on her own,” Hardman says, via the Mirror.

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Hardman’s newest book, The Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II, details the Markle family drama surrounding the wedding. Ultimately, Meghan’s mother, Doria, was the only member of Meghan’s family in attendance and “the dynamics of her [Meghan’s] family certainly eclipsed the usual criticisms about the royal family being dysfunctional,” Hardman says.

Less than two years later, Harry and Meghan infamously stepped back as working royals in January 2020. Some around Buckingham Palace expected the Sussexes would return, but Hardman says in his book, Her Majesty knew they wouldn’t for one pivotal reason.

“She told a visitor she did not expect them to resume royal life,” the Mirror reports. “When asked about a future return for the couple, she replied: ‘Of course not. They took the dogs.’”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.