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No, The Queen Isn't Being Shady About Meghan Markle And Prince Harry's Wedding

People thought something was off with the queen’s blessing of the couple’s nuptials.
Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey on March 12.
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Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey on March 12.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been engaged since November, but Queen Elizabeth II only just gave her official permission for the two to marry.

Elizabeth issued her royal declaration of consent for the nuptials during a Wednesday privy council meeting at Buckingham Palace. Since Harry is in line to the throne, he must have the consent of the queen before marrying.

Some in the media saw the queen’s declaration as shady, given that she once used especially positive language to describe the former Kate Middleton near the time of Prince William’s wedding, but merely listed Markle’s name in this declaration.

But based on documents available on the Privy Council website, the consent declaration language is fairly typical. For Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s declaration on Wednesday, the queen (using Markle’s actual first name, Rachel) proclaimed:

“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.”

Privy Council

Certain sitespointed to one of the queen’s statements made around the time of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge’s 2011 wedding, which used flowery language to describe Middleton. The queen referred to the couple as “Our Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Prince William Arthur Philip Louis of Wales, K.G. and Our Trusty and Well-beloved Catherine Elizabeth Middleton.”

But a source with knowledge of the queen’s pronouncements told HuffPost that wording was from a different statement ― not the declaration of consent ― that the queen made public a week or so before the two got married.

When Elizabeth gave her official declaration of consent for the nuptials of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at a Privy Council meeting on Feb. 9, 2011, she said:

“My lords, I declare My Consent to a Contract of Matrimony between My Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Price William Arthur Philip Louis of Wales and Catherine Elizabeth Middleton, which Consent I am causing to be signified under the Great Seal and to be entered in the Books of the Privy Council.”

Privy Council

There are a couple of months before Prince Harry and Markle’s wedding on May 19, so the queen could still issue a separate statement about the upcoming nuptials.

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