Harry’s royal awakening changed everything
When Meghan Markle married Harry in 2018, the world saw it as a modern fairytale: a Hollywood actress becoming a duchess and stepping into royal life. But according to former palace staff, the reality behind the palace walls was nothing like the fantasy.
Grant Harrold, a former butler to King Charles who once worked closely with both Prince William and Harry, said Meghan quickly discovered that royal life wasn’t what she imagined. While promoting his book The Royal Butler, Harrold explained, “I think the problem with The Duchess is that she went into the organization and assumed, after watching all the Disney princesses, that it was going to be like that.”
Harrold said joining the royal family comes with a rigid set of rules and traditions that leave little room for personal freedom. “When you join the royal family, you are given rules and protocols to follow,” he said, contrasting Meghan’s Hollywood background with the strict world of royal duty. He also suggested that Harry’s own discontent grew during this time, saying, “It could be that Harry had his own awakening and suddenly decided he didn’t like the organization, but the problem is that Markle was with him when it happened. The biggest change in Harry’s life is Markle.”
Their whirlwind romance turned into marriage in less than two years, but their time as working royals lasted only 18 months before they stepped back from official duties. Harrold believes this period revealed Meghan’s growing disillusionment and Harry’s mounting frustration with the institution he was born into.
Adding a lighter touch, Harrold recalled a story about Prince Philip after the Sussex wedding. According to him, the late Duke of Edinburgh quietly quipped to the Queen, “Thank f**k that’s over.” Harrold said, “It was very funny. I think he was speaking for the majority of people, but he was the man who actually said it.”
