Meghan Markle recalls ‘amazing’ first Christmas with royal family
Duchess of Sussex spoke warmly of spending Christmas with the royals, revealing she sat next to Prince Philip at lunch and found experience ‘wonderful’
Meghan Markle has recalled her “amazing” first Christmas spent with the royal family.
On Thursday (8 December), the Duke and Duchess of Sussex released the first three episodes of their tell-all Netflix documentary series Harry and Meghan.
The couple announced their engagement in Nocember 2022, with Meghan spending her first Christmas with the royals at the Sandringham Estate the following month.
“I remember so vividly the first Christmas at Sandringham,” Meghan said. “Calling my mom, and she’s like, ‘How’s it going?’ and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s amazing. It’s just like a big family like I always wanted.’
“There was just this constant movement and energy and fun.”
Meghan then recalled being sat next to Prince Philip at Christmas dinner.
“At dinner, I was sat next to H’s grandfather and I just thought it was so wonderful. I was like, ‘Oh, we chatted and it was so great and I talked about this and talked about this.’
“[Harry] was like, ‘You had this bad ear. He couldn’t hear anything you were saying.’ I was like, ‘Oh, well I thought it went really well.’”
The episode then discussed a royal scandal that accompanied the event, after Princess Michael of Kent wore a “blackamoor brooch”, which featured a Black man, as she met Meghan for the first time.
The royal apologised shortly after as the item was called racist, with her representative saying there was “no malice” in her choice of jewellery.
Afua Hirsch explained how items such as the brooch “depict enslaved people in a way that glorifies the institution of slavery”.
“In this family, sometimes you’re part of the problem rather than part of the solution,” Harry said. “There is a huge level of unconscious bias… It’s actually no one’s fault, but once it’s been pointed out or identified within yourself, you then need to make it right.
“It’s education, it’s awareness. And it’s a constant work in progress for everybody, including me.”
Harry and Meghan is on Netflix now.