Sweet Intentions, Sour Reactions: King Charles' Gesture to Meghan Markle on Her Wedding Day Didn't Sit Well With Late Queen Elizabeth

In the lead-up to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in May 2018, the atmosphere was marked by intensity and drama.

According to the new book My Mother and I by royal author Ingrid Seward, even the late Queen Elizabeth II couldn't escape the turmoil.

Seward revealed that Her Majesty felt "uneasy" about several aspects of the wedding ceremony.

"The Queen was not comfortable with the Prince of Wales standing in for Meghan's father, Thomas Markle, and was similarly concerned about a 96-year-old Prince Philip walking down the aisle without a stick, having had a hip replacement only five weeks before," the scribe shared.

Harry and Meghan's much-hyped nuptials were the "last major royal wedding" Elizabeth II and her long-serving consort attended. The late monarch and Prince Philip were both said "to be delighted" by the union at the time, but Seward's book further reveals how Philip thought of Meghan as "the new Wallis Simpson."

Some analysts in 2018 even claimed that the then-Prince Charles was also initially "uncomfortable" about giving Meghan away, but relented.

"I asked him to, and I think he knew it was coming, and he immediately said, 'Yes, of course, I’ll do whatever Meghan needs, and I’m here to support you,'" the Duke of Sussex said later that year in the documentary, Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70.

Meghan seemed to be all for ditching her dad, who suffered a heart attack shortly before the wedding and left Thomas claiming that he and his royal rebel daughter haven't spoken since. However, the HRH-to-be did have one request of her own regarding the future king giving her away.

"The reply, according to one friend, was not quite what he [Charles] was expecting: 'Can we meet halfway?' Here was an indicator that this was no blushing bride, but a confident, independent woman determined to make a grand entrance on her own," author Robert Hardman wrote in his book Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II.

Apparently, Elizabeth II also felt that the dress was "too white" to adorn a divorcee in a church wedding.

The monarch, who reigned over Britain and the Commonwealth for 70.5 years, also felt uncomfortable with the aesthetics and tone of the wedding, including the "long sermon" from American Archbishop, Michael Curry, which became one of the praised standouts of the "modern royal wedding."

Elizabeth II and the Duchess of Sussex would go on to attend their sole joint engagement with one another on June 14, 2018. Her Majesty would be left "severely disappointed" when Harry and Meghan decided to ditch the monarchy and Britain in early 2020. After the Queen's death on September 8, 2022, and the automatic accession of King Charles III, the former actress would go on to chide her late grandmother-in-law with a mock curtsey in the late 2022 Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan.

Daily Express reported on Seward's book.