Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex will have been married a year come May 19, 2019. The royal family fever continues with the arrival of Baby Sussex in late April.
We know when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle told the royal family they were expecting Baby Sussex. But when did they tell them they were engaged to be married? Keep reading to find out.
When did Kate Middleton and Prince William announce their engagement?
To answer this question, we have to go back to when Prince William and Kate Middleton got engaged. William proposed to Kate while they were on a trip to Kenya in October of 2010. Per royal protocol, any royal sixth in line to the throne or closer must be granted permission to marry from Queen Elizabeth II.
One might think the royal family finds out when one of their own gets engaged much earlier than the public but that is not always the case. With William and Kate, the queen didn’t find out they were engaged until mere hours before they made their public announcement on November 10, 2010.
Baby Sussex announcement
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were expecting a child on October 15, 2018. They reportedly told the royal family their happy news three days earlier at the wedding of Harry’s cousin, Princess Eugenie.
When did Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tell the royal family they were engaged?
Based on when Queen Elizabeth II learned of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s engagement, and how Prince Harry and Meghan Markle told the royal family they were expecting a baby, we can assume the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told the royal family anywhere from a few hours to a few days before they made the public announcement in October 2018.
When did the queen approve the marriages?
As we mentioned earlier, the queen has to approve of marriages involving the six royals in line to the throne. That means she had to approve of both Prince William and Prince Harry’s marriages to Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle.
What is customary in marriage approvals is for the queen to release a letter of consent. She did just that a little more than two months before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex married in May 2018.
The letter read, “My Lords, I declare My Consent to a Contract of Matrimony between My Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales and Rachel Meghan Markle, which Consent I am causing to be signified under the Great Seal and to be entered in the Books of the Privy Council.”
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s letter of consent from the queen had different wording which some royal watchers thought was her way of throwing shade at Markle.
Turns out, the wording was because of royal protocol. The queen wrote referred to Middleton as “Our Trusty and Well-beloved Catherine Elizabeth Middleton,” in her and Prince William’s marriage consent letter.
“That term is only used for citizens of Britain or the Queen’s overseas Realms. Meghan is not yet a British citizen,” Emily Nash, a royal reporter tweeted, according to Town & Country.
