Meghan shares more wedding anniversary celebrations as Harry presents her with a penguin statue after they dressed up in onesies at their engagement party

Meghan Markle has shared a sweet video of Prince Harry delivering a cake and gifting her a penguin statue present as the pair celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary.

The couple wed at St George’s Chapel within the grounds of Windsor Castle in a ceremony attended by Sir David Beckham, George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey in 2018.

In a story on Instagram, Meghan showed her husband singing ‘happy anniversary’ in their kitchen and handing her a lemon elderflower cake with four candles. 

The couple’s children, Archie and Lilibet, can be heard excitedly singing in the background before shouting ‘blow it out’.

The Duke of Sussex, dressed in grey tracksuit bottoms and a blue polo shirt, helps blow out the candles, before Meghan tells him ‘I love you’.

Meghan revealed that Harry gifted her a statue showing two penguins arm in arm to mark their special day. The present is a nod to when they wore penguin costumes at their engagement party.

The former actress can be heard screeching as she unwraps the penguin statue while Harry giggles in the background.

‘Oh my God,’ Meghan reacts, before reading a card written by Harry and addressed to ‘the one and only’. 

The card reads: ‘When momma and poppa got engaged we had a party with all of our friends and we said everyone had to wear an animal onesie and we were penguins.’ 

Reacting to the card, Meghan gushes: ‘We were penguins because we are together for life.’ 

She also posted a picture of the pair kissing in their kitchen while grabbing the cake, before showcasing a selfie from their engagement party where they dressed in the penguin onesies. 

Earlier, she shared a collection of previously unseen photographs from their big day on Instagram.

‘Eight years ago today…’, she captioned the two posts, with one showing a glimpse of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s first dance at their evening reception at Frogmore House, where they shared a passionate kiss in some of the pictures.

The second post revealed snaps from Meghan and Harry’s nuptials at St George’s Chapel, which were watched by an estimated 1.9 billion people.

However, it was Sir Elton John, who performed at their special day, and Isabel May, British PR executive and a close, long-time confidante of Meghan’s, who featured in the photographs.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the rift between the Sussexes and the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Royal Family – apart from a glimpse at the back of King Charles after he had walked his daughter-in-law down the aisle – were nowhere to be seen in the wedding photos.

Instead, the only guest that Harry was pictured hugging was Ms May, while Meghan could be seen chatting with her mother, Doria Ragland, who was partly out of the frame.

The carousel of snaps from the ceremony included the newlyweds sharing a sweet moment after their nuptials together, as well as behind-the-scenes photographs of the couple having their official wedding portrait taken.

There were also images of Harry making a toast while the duchess, dressed in a bespoke gown by Givenchy’s Clare Waight Keller, proudly looked on. 

But while the glamorous and love-filled photos of their big day might inspire ‘cherished memories’, as the duchess once suggested, it appears recollections may vary.

That’s because rather than being a modern fairytale, the build-up to May 19, 2018, featured a row with Kate over bridesmaids’ dresses and the last-minute drama of the duchess’s father not attending.

Another point of contention was Meghan’s request for £130 scent diffusers to mask the ‘musty’ smell of St George’s Chapel, which raised eyebrows among royal household staff.

There were also disagreements over the tiara the duchess wished to wear with her Givenchy wedding dress, and the bride-to-be’s ‘direct approach’ with staff was called into question by the late Queen, who reportedly warned the bride: ‘In this family we don’t speak to people like that.’

The duchess’s father, Thomas Markle, suffered a heart attack weeks before the ceremony and was forced to pull out of walking his daughter down the aisle after it emerged he had staged paparazzi photos of himself.

Communication between the pair broke down, and when it became apparent that Mr Markle would not be attending the wedding, the former actress asked King Charles to walk her down the aisle, recalling on her Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan: ‘Harry’s dad is very charming.

‘And I said to him, like, “I’ve lost my dad in this”. So him, as my father-in-law, was really important to me. So I asked him to walk me down the aisle and he said yes.’ 

But Meghan’s fallout with her father wasn’t the only disagreement surrounding her special day; one of the most notorious clashes took place between the duchess and the Princess of Wales over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress.

Initial reports suggested that Meghan had made Kate cry during a disagreement over the outfits, which the Suits actress later denied.

The princess allegedly believed that the bridesmaids should wear tights, as per royal protocol, and thought the length of her daughter Charlotte’s hem was too short for the then three-year-old, according to royal author Tom Bower.

He claimed in his biography Revenge, which documented Harry and Meghan’s fallout with the Royal Family, that the duchess’s then assistant Melissa Toubati and dressmaker Clare Waight Keller said they ‘witnessed Meghan emphatically reject Kate’s observation’.

The altercation caused Kate to burst into tears, according to Kirstie Allsopp, a presenter and friend of Queen Camilla.

However, Meghan gave a different version of events in her bombshell interview with Winfrey in March 2021.

She insisted that she was the one who had become emotional in the exchange, not Prince William’s wife.

Meghan explained that Kate was upset about something but later took responsibility, apologised and even brought her flowers.

‘It wasn’t a confrontation,’ Meghan said. ‘I don’t think it’s fair to her to get into the details of that, because she apologised. What was hard to get over was being blamed for something that not only I didn’t do but that happened to me.

‘And the people who were part of our wedding were going to our comms team and saying, “I know this didn’t happen. I don’t have to tell them what actually happened”.’

At the time, royal expert Katie Nicholl claimed that Kate found it ‘mortifying’ that their disagreement had reached the press, as she never wanted it to become public knowledge.

While Meghan’s interview sought to put the rumours to rest, Harry reignited the discussion in his memoir, Spare, providing new details about the dispute.

According to the duke, Kate messaged Meghan in the days leading up to the wedding, expressing concerns about the bridesmaid dresses – specifically Charlotte’s.

The duchess suggested that the princess take Charlotte to a tailor at the palace for adjustments but later, when the two women spoke in person, Kate reportedly insisted that the dress was too big and it had made the young royal cry when she tried it on.

Meghan, already overwhelmed by wedding preparations, was said to be distressed by the conversation. Harry wrote that when he returned home, he found his fiancée sobbing on the kitchen floor, overcome with stress.

However, he also noted that Kate later came to their house with a card and flowers as an apology.

Though the incident continues to be disputed, it remains one of the most talked-about moments from the lead-up to the Sussexes’ wedding – and a lingering factor in the family’s rift.

Another memorable altercation that happened before Meghan’s big day involved the tiara she wished to wear with her £100,000 wedding dress from French fashion house Givenchy.

It is customary for royal brides to pick out a dazzling tiara from the palace’s extensive collection to wear as they walk down the aisle, with the monarch having the final say on the choice of headwear.

However, this seemingly minor task blew up into a disagreement between the duchess and Angela Kelly, the late Queen Elizabeth’s personal adviser and loyal, long-time dresser.

‘Meghan alighted on a tiara sparkling with emeralds. Her choice was approved by Harry. Kelly suggested that its Russian origin made it unsuitable,’ according to Mr Bower.

The duke reportedly became angry with Kelly for going against Meghan’s request, leading to Harry receiving a dressing-down from his grandmother.

During the meeting, Harry was put ‘firmly in his place’ and warned by the late Queen that ‘Meghan cannot have whatever she wants. She gets what tiara she’s given by me,’ The Times reported.

Meghan eventually opted to wear Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau, but this was not the end of the tiara-related drama.

During wedding rehearsals, the duchess asked that the tiara be taken out of storage so her hairdresser, who had flown from New York, could work around the £2million headwear.

The request was refused on the grounds that permission was needed from Queen Elizabeth herself. Unimpressed, Harry reportedly told Kelly: ‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets.’

However, he denied in his memoirs that he angrily said that phrase to Kelly. He did admit he had been exasperated by the dresser, who ‘fixed me with a look that made me shiver’. He added: ‘I could read in her face a clear warning. This isn’t over.’

After finding herself at loggerheads with the late Queen’s dresser and then Kate, Meghan also reportedly had a tense exchange with a member of catering staff.

In her book The New Royals, author Katie Nicholl wrote: ‘On one occasion in the run-up to the wedding, Meghan went to Windsor Castle for a menu-tasting and ended up having a tense exchange with a member of staff, according to one source.

‘”Meghan was at the castle to taste some of the dishes, and told one of the caterers she could taste egg,” said the source. “She got quite upset, saying that the dish was meant to be vegan and macrobiotic.”‘

The bride-to-be’s ‘direct approach’ with the staff member allegedly came to the attention of Queen Elizabeth, who reportedly had some stern words of advice for the duchess.

‘Suddenly the Queen walked in and said: “Meghan, in this family we don’t speak to people like that.”‘

Dishes served at Harry and Meghan’s wedding included an array of canapés, including Scottish langoustines wrapped in smoked salmon with citrus crème fraiche and croquette of confit Windsor lamb, roasted vegetables and shallot jam.

Elsewhere, following the nuptials, royal sources claimed that the odour of St George’s Chapel did not find favour with Meghan, so she insisted on masking the ‘musty’ smell with £130 scent diffusers before her guests arrived.

However, according to royal biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand in their book Finding Freedom, the Diptyque Baies diffusers were provided by the brand and were approved by the palace ahead of the big day.

The signature scent used to make the chapel more fragrant smelled of roses, infused with fruity undertones of berries and currant leaves.

It was previously understood that the request to use the atomisers to create a pleasant aroma for guests specifically came from Meghan’s office at Kensington Palace.

It was thought that, although she and Harry organised the wedding themselves with an in-house team, anything to do with the chapel was a matter for the late Queen, who had to give them permission to use it.

That meant all of the arrangements needed to be passed by the Lord Chamberlain’s Office at Buckingham Palace, which is in charge of ceremonial matters.

The source said at the time: ‘Apparently, Meghan didn’t like the smell of the chapel, which, as you would expect, is a little musty. It’s not unpleasant at all, though.

‘It just smells how you would expect an old building to smell. And that’s something the Royal Family are particularly used to.

‘Meghan wanted staff to go around with these atomisers, like spritzer guns, and spray the chapel with scent before anyone arrived.

‘Royal Household staff stepped in and told her office politely, but firmly, that this was the Queen’s Chapel and it simply wasn’t appropriate.

‘I don’t believe they said no because they thought it could affect the chapel in any way. It was simply the principle of the thing.

‘This is a place that has held royal weddings, funerals and even contains the Royal Vault. I don’t believe a request of that nature had been made before.’

The source stressed at the time that there had been ‘no falling out’ between the two households, but that there was a certain amount of surprise at the request.

‘Frankly, it was all a bit ridiculous and rather over the top,’ they added.

A second source, while also confirming that atomisers had been requested, said: ‘The two households worked very well together. I don’t believe they [the atomisers] caused concern.’

Meghan’s Instagram posts come after she travelled to Geneva to warn of the dangers of social media for children in a speech outside the United Nations.