Prince Harry had to get permission from his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, before he proposed to former Suits actress Meghan Markle.
The first six people in line to the throne reportedly must to ask the current monarch for permission to marry.
In his tell-all book, Spare, Harry details the exact moment he asked his grandmother for permission – and lets slip her ‘cryptic’ nine-word reply.
Harry revealed that he waited until the family were on a shooting trip in Sandringham to bring up the topic of marriage to his late grandmother.
Harry, who got engaged to Meghan in 2017, shared that he hoped the timing of the conversation would put his grandmother in a “good mood”.
Once the shoot was finished, Harry managed to get some time alone with the Queen, even admitting that his mind was racing in the moment.
Recalling his exact words, Harry said that he told her how much he loved Meghan and how he wished to marry her.
In Spare, he wrote that he asked the Queen, “I’ve been told that I have to asked your permission to propose.”
To which the Queen replied, “You have to?”, Harry then told her that that is what he had been told.
Harry then recalled a moment of silence, before she replied, “Well then, I suppose I have to say yes.”
The former royal then stated that he wasn’t sure what the Queen meant in with this reply, stating that he wasn’t sure if she was “being sarcastic” or “deliberately cryptic”.
Harry wrote: “Was she indulging in a bit of wordplay? I’d never known Granny to do any wordplay and this would be a surprisingly bizarre moment (not to mention widely inconvenient) for her to start, but maybe she just saw the chance to play off my unfortunate use of the word ‘have’ and couldn’t resist.”
He added that he then realised she was indeed saying yes to his request, before describing himself as a “muppet”.
He stated that he then thanked her, saying that it was “fabulous”.
Meghan and Harry announced their engagement in November 2017, just over a year after they first met the previous summer.
The couple wed six months later, in Windsor, and have now been married for five years.
