Millions of royal fans tuned in from around the world as the American bride Meghan Markle walked down the aisle to say ‘I do’ to Prince Harry at their fairytale wedding in 2018.
Among the splendour, there was much to catch the eye, including the Duchess of Sussex‘s minimalist silk £200,000 Givenchy wedding gown.
But her show-stopping 16ft-long veil quickly became a problem, as it got caught when she stepped out of the Rolls-Royce that had taken her to St George’s Chapel on that beautiful day on May 19.
Her heel had become tangled and she needed a moment to fix it, but the escorting officer who opened the door offered her no help.
Royal author Tom Bower claims he was told by another officer that he remained unhelpful because of an incident during the wedding rehearsal the previous day, and that ‘no one had any feeling of goodwill towards the bride’.
He says the explanation for the officer’s actions foreshadowed what was to come.
Eventually Meghan managed to sort out the veil herself and stepped out of the car, but she refused to take the arm of a different escorting officer.
But as well as the veil episode, the car Meghan chose to ride in also raised some eyebrows among royal watchers.
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Among the splendour of Meghan’s 2018 wedding, there was much to catch the eye, including the Duchess’s minimalist silk £200,000 Givenchy wedding gown and its 16ft-long veil
Meghan Markle and her mother Doria Ragland arriving at Windsor Castle
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Queen Elizabeth II watches over Meghan during her wedding to Prince Harry at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle
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Meghan Markle arrives at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle for her royal wedding ceremony on May 19, 2018
Magnificent in its own right, the maroon-coloured Phantom IV transporting the former Suits actress and her mother Doria Ragland from the Cliveden House Hotel to the chapel had a rather unique history.
It had been used to convey another American divorcee, the Duchess of Windsor, to the funeral of her husband, the Duke, in 1972.
Was there anything significant in the choice? The Duchess of Windsor, a figure at the very heart of the abdication crisis, can hardly have been a welcome comparison as she remained a figure of controversy until her death in 1986.
The Daily Mail’s Sebastian Shakespeare asked at the time if it might be a joke in regrettably bad taste.
Only 18 Phantom IVs were built by Rolls-Royce from 1950 to 1956. Other models are in museums and public collections.
It had been built and delivered to the Queen in 1950 when she was still Princess Elizabeth.
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Magnificent in its own right, the maroon-coloured Phantom IV transporting Meghan and her mother Doria Ragland from the Cliveden House Hotel to the chapel had a rather unique history
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Meghan Markle arrives at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle for her wedding to Prince Harry
The brief reign of Edward VIII came to an end with his abdication in 1936 after being told by Stanley Baldwin’s government that he would not be allowed to marry a divorced woman and remain as King.
He made a broadcast saying he could not do the job of the king ‘without the help and support of the woman I love’ – the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson.
The pair married on June 3, 1937, at the Château de Candé in the Loire Valley but no senior members of the Royal Family attended.
His departure forced his younger brother, the Duke of York, to step up and become King George VI, creating a family wound that never healed.
Meanwhile Meghan and Harry’s royal wedding was the source of a number of other controversies, too.
It emerged that there had been a row between Harry and one of the Queen’s closest aides over the tiara the duchess wanted to wear at her wedding.
In the lead-up to the big day, the Queen had graciously offered Meghan access to her collection of tiaras during what Harry later described as an ‘extraordinary morning’.
She allowed her to try them on in front of her and her devoted dresser and friend Angela Kelly, as well as a royal jewellery expert in her private dressing room.
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Edward and Wallis Simpson pose for a portrait after their wedding at the Chateau de Cande, in Monts, France, on June 3, 1937
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Wallis (with veil) is driven to the funeral of her husband, the Duke of Windsor, in 1972
The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson in 1937
But Meghan wanted to try the tiaras on when her hairdresser was visiting as they are quite complicated to wear and require a fitting beforehand, royal expert Richard Eden claimed.
He said something went badly wrong, because when Meghan tried to arrange a fitting with Kelly, it was difficult to agree to a date, and the tone of the messages between the couple and the Palace seemed to annoy Kelly.
Eden thinks Meghan was perhaps accustomed to ordering around underlings on a television shoot and may not have been used to dealing with someone such as Kelly, who – although a servant – was also a confidante of the Queen.
Harry denied in his memoir Spare that he angrily told Kelly, ‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets.’ He did, however, admit they had been exasperated by the dresser, who ‘fixed me with a look that made me shiver’.
He added: ‘I could read in her face a clear warning. This isn’t over.’
Eden claims the tiara episode was an example of Harry feeling as though Meghan was not given the respect she deserved – setting a bad tone for her relationship with the entire Royal Family.
Meanwhile, Meghan was said to have complained about the mustiness of St George’s chapel and wanted it sprayed with air freshener before the ceremony.
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Meghan Markle arrives for her wedding to Prince Harry at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018
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Meghan and her mother, Doria Ragland, being driven along Windsor’s Long Walk in the Rolls-Royce Phantom IV
In retrospect, the royal wedding could be seen as evidence that Meghan was a young woman who was clearly not going to accept her position quietly.
There was further trouble over the bridesmaids’ dresses, which was an early sign of the great tensions to come. It was reported that Meghan had reduced Kate to tears with her manner.
However, the Duchess of Sussex later claimed in her 2021 bombshell interview with Oprah that it was actually Kate who had made her cry.
Although the awkward ‘veil-gate’ moment was captured by the cameras, looking back, it seems it was just a taste of things bubbling under the surface.
