Meghan Markle received an unprecedented offer from Queen Elizabeth II in a bid to welcome her into the Royal Family and ensure she would feel happy in her new role, it has been claimed.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry began dating in the summer of 2016 before her future husband introduced her to his grandmother in October.
The late monarch was reportedly impressed by her grandson’s new girlfriend, who had been a successful actress in hit US legal drama Suits for several years and a long-time charity campaigner before she met Harry.
In fact, she was so taken with Meghan that she made the former actress an unprecedented offer in a bid to make her life in the Royal Family as happy as possible.
Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell told Daily Mirror US: “The Queen was very gracious and very kind to Meghan. She even said to Meghan, ‘You can continue acting if you like, continue your career.'”
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But Meghan did not take her grandmother-in-law up on the offer and instead chose to focus on her new duties as a working member of the Royal Family.
During her and Harry’s engagement interview, she explained her decision by saying: “I don’t see it as giving anything up, I just see it as a change.”
Meghan continued: “It’s a new chapter. And also keep in mind I [have] been working on my show for seven years, so we’re very, very fortunate to be able to have that sort of longevity on a series.
“For me, once we hit the 100-episode marker, I thought, ‘You know what, I have I have ticked this box, and I feel really proud of the work I’ve done there, and now it’s time to, as [Harry] said, ‘work as a team with him’.”
Meghan was only a working royal for a short time before she and Harry stepped away from their duties in early 2020 to relate from the UK to the US in a move famously branded “Megxit”.
But she made a big impression in that time and a few months after she married Harry in May 2018, her first royal patronages were announced, with each of them focussing on an area she had already expressed a passion for.
The first two – The National Theatre and The Association of Commonwealth Universities – were handed to her by the Queen herself.
Meghan also opted for charities Smart Works and Mayhew, which represented her long-time and strong feminist views, as well as her love for animals.
Burrell is convinced it was comments like the one from the Queen and the unprecedented offer she made to Meghan that proved how much the monarch wanted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to be working members of the Royal Family.
He believes that’s why it was a “particular blow” to the Queen when the Sussexes made their decision to step away from their duties, and that she “tried her hardest to persuade them to stay.”
The former royal butler said: “It’s mind-boggling the amount of goodwill which Meghan and Harry have thrown away. I think that’s why it came as a particular blow to the Queen when Harry left the Royal Family because she didn’t want him to.
“She wanted him to stay, and she tried her hardest to persuade them to stay.”
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