Prince Harry Apparently Loves This Insecurity of Meghan Markle’s

(Image credit: Getty)

published 20 May 2023

Unbelievably, yesterday marked five years since the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (and the anniversary was largely overlooked because of the couple’s involvement in a car chase in New York City earlier this week). One unforgettable moment from the royal wedding on May 19, 2018—and there were many—was Meghan’s sheer makeup look, which Hello reports “started a huge wedding beauty trend, with brides leaning towards a fresh-faced look, rather than a fully made-up complexion.”

And on that day, rather than cover up her freckles with foundation, Meghan let them shine through—and, though once an insecurity of Meghan’s, it’s a part of her that Harry loves.

He said as much in an excerpt from his tell-all, Spare, released earlier this year, where he remembered the night after their first date, Meghan video called him after taking off all of her makeup: “She’d washed her face,” Harry wrote. “I said, ‘God, I love your freckles.’”

Meghan “took a quick breath,” Harry wrote. “[She told me] every time she was photographed, they airbrushed out her freckles.” Harry called that “insane” and called her freckles beautiful.

Despite being an actress at the time, Harry wrote that his new girlfriend was surprisingly low maintenance, including on a trip to Botswana early on in their romance. “She opened her small suitcase—she needed to get something,” he wrote. “Here it comes, I thought. The mirror, the hairdryer, the makeup kit, the fluffy duvet, the dozen pairs of shoes. I was shamefully stereotyping: American actress equals diva. To my shock, and delight, there was nothing in that suitcase but bare essentials. Shorts, ripped jeans, and snacks. And a yoga mat.”

And Meghan paying homage to her husband’s love of her freckles on her wedding day wasn’t the only time she did so. On her Vanity Fair cover in 2017—where she proudly proclaimed that she and Harry were in love—they were on full display, as well.

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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.