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There are many people in royal circles who look back on the hopeful days<\/a> when Meghan Markle joined the palace, as everything seemed to start on the right foot.<\/p>\n A new royal book only available in the U.K., Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History<\/em>, written by Hugo Vickers, revealed that at a 2017 Windsor Castle Christmas party, the staff were enamored of her. They gave her the nickname \u201cSparkle\u201d because she brought a sense of hope to the palace, per Page Six.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n More from SheKnows<\/strong><\/p>\n Meghan was touted as a \u201cbreath of fresh air\u201d during that era by celebrity.land<\/a> because she brought new life into an aging monarchy, but not everyone in the family saw it that way. Vickers reported in his book that a generational war<\/a> was underway ahead of the Sussexes\u2019 wedding.<\/p>\n \u201cPrince Harry would never have been allowed to marry such a girl at an earlier time in the reign for obvious reasons, but the union was welcomed by a younger, more tolerant generation<\/a>,\u201d wrote Vickers.<\/p>\n \u201cPrince Philip was not taken in. He referred to her as \u2018The American.\u2019 Nor were the Royal Family entirely happy, Prince Charles taking a Mountbatten line \u2013 have fun with her, but don\u2019t marry her. The Queen suggested that Harry should wait a year,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n RELATED: Meghan Markle\u2019s Kids Archie & Lilibet Are Mom\u2019s \u2018Little Helpers\u2019 In Rare Instagram\u00a0Video<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n After their wedding, the royal relations quickly fell apart with accusations of racism, dueling duchesses<\/a>, and hogging the spotlight. It ultimately ended with Prince Harry and Meghan exited the palace and planting firm roots in California to raise their children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4.<\/p>\n Meghan\u2019s time with the royal family may have dulled her \u201csparkle,\u201d and she opened up about the situation in August 2025. In a segment with The Circuit<\/em>\u2018s Emily Chang<\/a>, the Duchess of Sussex talked about living inauthentically while she was a senior royal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was different several years ago, I couldn\u2019t be as vocal,\u201d she explained while revealing the \u201cnude pantyhose\u201d rule \u201cwas not very myself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat felt a little bit inauthentic, but that\u2019s a silly example, but that\u2019s an example of when you\u2019re able to dress the way you want to dress, you\u2019re able to say the things that are true and you\u2019re able to show up in a space really organically and authentically, that\u2019s being comfortable in your own skin,\u201d she continued. \u201cRight now, I don\u2019t feel I need to prove anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Prince Harry and Meghan are still estranged from the royal family, who are enmeshed in their own scandal<\/a>, thanks to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson. The palace probably won\u2019t ever be as united again, but it\u2019s a reminder of what could have been had the royal family embraced the modern era that Meghan represented.<\/p>\n More on the royal family:<\/strong><\/p>\n Before you go, click here<\/a> to see more of Meghan Markle & Prince Harry\u2019s milestones since leaving the royal family.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n Best of SheKnows<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for SheKnows’ Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are many people in royal circles who look back on the hopeful days when Meghan Markle joined the palace, as everything seemed to start on the right foot. A new royal book only available in the U.K., Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History, written by Hugo Vickers, revealed that at a 2017 Windsor Castle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2346907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[378446,23067,21730,22730,22982,239417,24515,353691],"class_list":["post-2354484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-hugo-vickers","tag-meghan-markle","tag-prince-charles","tag-prince-harry","tag-prince-philip","tag-sheknows","tag-the-royal-family","tag-windsor-castle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Why-a-Limited-Role-Deal-for-Prince-Harry-Meghan.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2354484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2354485,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354484\/revisions\/2354485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2346907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2354484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2354484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2354484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}