Meghan today lifted the lid on what it was really like to meet the Royal Family – as she compared her first encounter with the Queen to a themed dinner at America’s ‘Medieval Times’.
The Duchess of Sussex described the pomp and ceremony of meeting senior members of the royal family as part of Netflix’s explosive documentary about Harry and Meghan, the first three episodes of which were released on Thursday.
In it, the 41-year-old describes her “incredible” first Christmas at Sandringham, where she sat next to the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip.
And she recounted the ‘intense’ moment of meeting Her Majesty for the first time over lunch at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, joking that The whole occasion felt like an antiquated banquet at Medieval Times, a family-run dinner theater in the United States featuring medieval-style games, sword fights and jousting.
The Queen was the first senior member of the Royal Family that Meghan met after she and Prince Harry announced their relationship in 2016.
“She had no idea what it was all about,” Harry tells the documentary series, as he sits with his arm around his wife. “So it was a bit of a shock to the system for her.”
Smiling, Meghan added: “I mean. it’s surreal. There wasn’t a big “Now you’re going to meet my grandma” moment.
“I didn’t know I was going to meet her until moments before. We were in the car and we were going to have lunch at the Royal Lodge, and he [Harry] was like, “Oh, my grandma is here, she’s gonna be here after church.”.
“I remember we were in the car, driving and he’s [Harry] like “You know how to curtsy, don’t you?”. And I just thought it was a joke.
The Duke continued: “How do you explain this to people?” How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother? And that you should bow, especially to an American. It’s weird.
Meghan then tells the documentary: “Now I’m starting to realize it’s a big deal.” I mean, Americans will understand that. We have a Medieval Times dinner and tournament. It was like that. Like, I curtsied like I was like… “Nice to meet you, Your Majesty.”
