Prince Harry’s CRUCIAL words of advice to Meghan Markle just before she met the Queen for the very first time (and how his future wife mistook Prince Andrew for a servant!)

It was, as Prince Harry himself put it, one of the most profound moments of his life: the day that future wife Meghan Markle met the late queen, his grandmother.

Not that Meghan seemed discouraged, reacting to news of the meeting with the words “Nice! I love grandmas.”

Of course, there could be a little more to it than that, as the prince explains in his blockbuster memoir Spare.

And there was one pitfall in particular that he urged Meghan to avoid.

The meeting took place at the Royal Lodge, Prince Andrew’s home in Windsor Great Park

Meghan Markle was seen bowing to the Queen at Sandringham on Christmas Day 2017

According to Harry, the meeting came about in October 2016, not long after their budding relationship went public.

The prince and Meghan had planned to visit Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park – the home she still shares with former husband Prince Andrew – but were surprised to learn that his grandmother there would be too. visit on the way back from church.

When they arrived, Harry writes, Sarah Ferguson demonstrated how to bow before Meghan met the queen.

Harry explained that when first speaking, she should be addressed as ‘Your Majesty’, then ‘Madam’, and then rhymed with ‘ham’.

But what really mattered was this, as the Prince and Sarah told her at the same time: “Whatever you do, don’t talk over her” – a rarely discussed sensitivity perhaps, but important enough to be at the forefront of the minds of her grandson to stand. .

Needless to say, Meghan didn’t talk about the Queen and, according to Harry, gave a beautiful bow – something she demonstrated in their Netflix documentary.

“Everyone complimented Meg on her bow. Awesome!’ Harry writes in Spare. ‘So deep!’

Duke and Duchess of Sussex sit with Prince Andrew during the Commonwealth Day Service. She initially thought Prince Andrew was the Queen’s assistant

As the end drew near, there was another memorable aspect of the 20-minute encounter, as he explains:

‘After a moment, Meg asked me about the Queen’s assistant.

‘That man holding the bag. The man who brought her to the door.”

‘That wasn’t her assistant. That was her second son, Andrew.

“She definitely didn’t Google us,” he writes – an apparent reference to claims that his future wife had done thorough research on the royal family before meeting the prince (claims, she denies).