Prince Harry left baffled by Queen’s ‘cryptic’ reply when he asked to marry Meghan | Royal | News
As part of tradition, the first six people in the line of succession must ask the monarch for permission to become engaged. That’s why Prince Harry is the late Queen Elizabeth II. He asked Elizabeth to marry Meghan Markle but received a mysterious response.
Harry, who wrote in his best-selling memoir Spare, published in January 2023, shared the answer. In the book, Harry claims he decided to wait until the family were on a filming trip to Sandringham before bringing up the subject, hoping this would mean his grandmother was “in a good mood”.
According to Spare, he then awkwardly asked: “I was told I needed your permission before making an offer”. After a brief speech, the Queen observed a moment’s silence before responding, telling him: “Then I guess I should say yes.”
The Crown claimed to be taken aback by the response, writing: “I don’t understand. Was he being sarcastic? Ironic? Deliberately cryptic? Was he making a bit of a play on words?”
“I’ve never seen Grandma make any puns, and it would have been an extremely awkward moment for her (not to mention grossly objectionable), but perhaps she saw the chance to play with my unfortunate use of the word ‘have’ and couldn’t resist.”
In his memoir, Harry also detailed the moment Meghan first met the queen in 2016. “Everything was delightful,” Harry wrote in his first date book. “Grandma even asked Meg what she thought of Donald Trump. (This was just before the November 2016 election, so it seemed like everyone in the world was thinking and talking about the Republican candidate.)”
Harry added: “Meg thought politics was a game you couldn’t win, so she changed the subject to Canada.”
Once Harry gave his approval, it was time to design the ring and plan his perfect moment with Meghan. To create the gold ring, he took two diamonds from Princess Diana’s collection and a diamond from his beloved Botswana.
He asked the question while the couple was roasting chicken one night at their home in Kensington Palace.
Speaking about his proposal in Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, the prince said: “I popped a bottle of champagne while he was roasting a chicken and that gave the game away a bit. He said: ‘You never drink champagne, what’s the situation?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, I was just lying around.’
Harry and Meghan shared a romantic photo of the moment in the documentary series; In this photo, Harry was kneeling on a blanket, holding a ring box and a bunch of white roses on the floor in front of him.
