Meghan, Duchess of Sussex mistook Prince Andrew for Queen Elizabeth’s assistant the first time they met.
Prince Harry, 38, revealed in his new memoir ‘Spare’, out worldwide from Tuesday (10.01.23), how unprepared the former ‘Suits’ actress, 41, was when she was first introduced to his family.
He said in the book about Meghan’s meeting with the Queen at the Royal Lodge in 2016: “After a moment Meg asked me something about the Queen’s assistant. I asked who she was talking about.
“‘That man holding the purse. That man who walked her to the door. That wasn’t her assistant? Who was it?’”
Harry said he replied: “That was her second son. Andrew,” and added about Meghan: “She definitely hadn’t googled us.”
Meghan told in her and Harry’s Netflix docuseries how her experience of curtseying to the Queen was “surreal”.
She was seen in the six-part ‘Harry and Meghan’ show giggling as she recreated the exaggerated bow she said she gave the late Queen, who died aged 96 on September 8 at her Balmoral estate.
Meghan also compared her first encounter with Her Majesty to a royal-themed dinner at America’s ‘Medieval Times’ restaurant, but said it was an “intense” moment.
Meghan added about her 2016 meeting with the Queen: “I mean, it’s surreal. There wasn’t like some big moment (with Harry) of, ‘Now you’re gonna meet my grandmother’.
“I didn’t know I was going to meet her until moments before. We were in the car and we were going to the Royal Lodge for lunch, and (Harry) was like, ‘Oh, my grandmother is here, she’s gonna be there after church’.
“I remember we were in the car, driving and (Harry is) like, ‘You know how to curtsy, right?’. And I just thought it was a joke.”
“Now I’m starting to realise this is a big deal. I mean, Americans will understand this. We have ‘Medieval Times’ dinner and tournament. It was like that. Like, I curtsied as though I was like, ‘Pleasure to meet you your Majesty’.
“It was so intense... I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Harry said in the show about Meghan’s ignorance of royal life: “She had no idea what it all consisted of, so it was a bit of a shock to the system for her… how do you explain that to people? How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother? And that you would need to curtsy, especially to an American. That’s weird.”
