Prince Philip had a very blunt nickname for Meghan Markle when she was first introduced to the royal family, a biographer has claimed.
Suits actress Meghan, 44, attended the Christmas Party at Windsor Castle in 2017, shortly after she began dating Prince Harry. There, she was introduced to Harry's grandparents, the Queen and Prince Philip.
Writer and lecturer Hugo Vickers has now revealed new details about the event in his biography, Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History – including the nickname Philip once gave Meghan.
Hugo Vickers writes: "The staff at Sandringham joyfully surrounded the couple at the annual Christmas party and nicknamed the actress 'Sparkle'. Prince Philip, however, was not taken in. He referred to her as 'the American'."
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Writing about the other family members' reactions, he adds: "Nor were the Royal Family entirely happy, Prince Charles taking a Mountbatten line – have fun with her, but don’t marry her. The Queen suggested that Harry should wait a year."
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward previously claimed in her book, My Mother And I, that the then-Duke of Edinburgh had also nicknamed Meghan "DOW" – after Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. King Edward VIII had abdicated the throne to marry the divorced American socialite in 1936, and Philip was said to find their resemblance "uncanny".
Meghan and Prince Philip's relationship
Prince Philip joined Queen Elizabeth to attend Harry and Meghan's wedding at St George's Chapel on Saturday, 18 May, 2018
Philip had retired from royal duties in August 2017, aged 96, making it a rare public appearance. "It was not certain if Prince Philip would come, but at the last moment he felt up to it. He and the Queen arrived by car at the Galilee Porch," Hugo Vickers writes.
© AFP via Getty ImagesMeghan, meanwhile, made a rare comment about Prince Philip in her 2022 Netflix documentary with Prince Harry. Recalling her first Christmas with the royal family in 2017, she revealed she had been seated next to Philip at dinner.
"At dinner, I was sat next to H's grandfather and I just thought it was so wonderful and I was like, 'Oh we chatted and it was so great and I talked about this and talked about this'."
However, Prince Harry later informed her that she "had his bad ear," to which, Meghan laughed: "I was like, 'Oh - well, I thought it went really well.'"
During Meghan and Harry's interview with Oprah in 2021 – which was released as Philip was in hospital – the Duchess revealed that she had "checked in" with the Queen over the phone about his health.
Philip's warning to Harry
© Getty ImagesAuthor Andrew Lownie claims in his book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, that following news about Harry's engagement to Meghan after a year of dating, Prince Philip is said to have warned his grandson: "One steps out with actresses, one doesn't marry them."
This caution was also reported by The Sunday Times in 2019: "The Duke of Edinburgh apparently also chipped in – 'One steps out with actresses, one doesn't marry them,' he is said to have advised his grandson. Idle dinner party gossip, perhaps, although it does sound like a Prince Philip bon mot."
