Queen Elizabeth felt that Meghan Markle’s Givenchy wedding dress was “too white” for a divorced woman, according to a new book by royal author Ingrid Seward.
Meghan married Prince Harry in Windsor on May 19 2018. However, it was the former actress’s second wedding, because she was married to Hollywood producer Trevor Engelson from 2011 to 2013.
Ever since the couple became engaged in 2017, Meghan has attracted comparison to Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee whose relationship with Edward VIII led to him abdicating the throne in 1936.
Ms Simpson was far less popular among the Royal Family than Meghan was, as Ms Seward claimed that the late Queen liked the Duchess of Sussex very much initially. However, the late monarch’s husband, Prince Philip, warned that she should be “cautious”.
He claimed the similarities between Meghan and Edward’s wife were “uncanny”, even though Ms Simpson did not opt to wear white when she married Edward in 1937, instead choosing pale blue.
The late Queen may have held Meghan in much high favour, however according to one of her closest confidantes, Lady Elizabeth Anson, the only comment Her late Majesty made about Meghan’s dress was that it was “too white”.
Ms Seward wrote in her book My Mother And I: “In the monarch’s view, it was not appropriate for a divorcee getting remarried in church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal.”
It was also decided before the ceremony that the Duchess of Sussex would be accompanied by then-Prince Charles for part of her walk down the aisle, as her own father Thomas Markle was unable to attend.
However, Ms Seward claimed the late Queen was not entirely comfortable with this decision. She also expressed concern about her husband walking down the aisle without a stick just five weeks after having his hip replaced.
While the late Queen never stopped loving her grandson, she was saddened by his choice to leave the Firm and move to the US, later attacking the institution in his interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The author wrote: “At that point the Queen decided there was no longer any point in worrying about Harry as he wasn’t going to take notice of anyone but his wife. Whether she ever came to view Meghan as a 21st century Wallis Simpson will probably never be known. It may have crossed her mind, however, that Philip wasn’t that far off the mark.”
