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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Jennifer Newton

Meghan Markle had surprise royal lesson before she met Queen and it came from Fergie

When Meghan Markle first started dating Prince Harry, she quickly had to learn the traditions of royal life.

And one surprise royal lesson for Meghan came just minutes before she was due to meet the Queen for the first time - and it was delivered by Fergie.

According to Meghan, she didn't do any research into the Royal Family when she first started seeing Harry and "didn't fully understand what the job was".

In her controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey, she remarked: "I went into it naively because I didn't grow up knowing much about the royal family. I didn't fully understand what the job was."

Meghan Markle with the Queen in 2018 (Getty Images)

This meant that when Meghan was first taken by Harry to meet his grandmother the Queen at Windsor Castle - she had no idea she would be expected to curtsy to the monarch.

Talking in the Oprah interview about how she met the Queen, Meghan said she and Harry were going to lunch at the Royal Lodge, home of Prince Andrew and his former wife Fergie, when she discovered the Queen would be there.

Fergie and Princess Beatrice curtsy for the Queen (Getty Images)
Meghan's curtsy to the Queen on Christmas Day 2017 (AFP/Getty Images)

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Meghan recounted: "And I remember Harry and I are in the car and he says, ‘okay, well, my, my grandmother's there. So you're going to meet her.'"

But she was surprised when Harry asked if she knew how to curtsy.

Meghan said: “I thought that was part of the fanfare. I don't think that's what happens inside. And I said, but it's your grandmother. He goes, it's the Queen.”

Harry and Meghan at the Invictus Games together over the weekend (Getty Images)

She then had to learn "very quickly", recalled: ‘Right in front of the house we practised and ran in.

"Fergie ran out and said, “Do you know how to curtsy?”... Apparently, I did a very deep curtsy, I don’t remember it, and then we sat there and we chatted."

Last week Meghan had her latest meeting with the Queen when she and Harry made a secret trip to the UK on their way to the Invictus Games in the Netherlands.

It was the first time in two years she had come face-to-face with the monarch and Prince Charles after quitting as a working royal in early 2020.

Earlier this week, Harry talked about the meeting in a TV interview saying: "Being with her, it was great.

"It was just so nice to see her. She’s on great form. She's always got a great sense of humour with me and I'm just making sure she's protected and got the right people around her."

The duke did not elaborate on whether he was referring to royal aides or members of his own family, but his comments are likely to have deepened his rift with his father the Prince of Wales and his brother and perplexed palace officials.

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