Queen Elizabeth Thought Meghan Markle's Wedding Dress Had a Flaw

Queen Elizabeth II thought Meghan Markle's wedding dress was too white for a divorced woman, according to a royal biography.

Ingrid Seward's new book, My Mother and I, about Elizabeth and King Charles III, also touches on Meghan's marriage to Prince Harry.

The couple tied the knot in a fairytale ceremony at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on May 19, 2018, in which she was walked down the aisle by King Charles III.

However, Lady Elizabeth Anson, the queen's cousin and confidante, told Seward the monarch felt the bride's dress was not quite perfect.

"Queen Elizabeth II never voiced her true opinion about Harry's wife except to her very closest confidantes, such as Lady Elizabeth Anson, or Liza as she was known to her friends," Seward wrote, in an extract serialized in the Daily Mail. "A cousin of the Queen, she used to speak on the telephone to the monarch on a daily basis.

"Lady Elizabeth told me that the Queen had made only one remark to her about Meghan and Harry's wedding, which was that the bride's Givenchy wedding gown was 'too white.'

"In the monarch's view, it was not appropriate for a divorcee getting remarried in church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal.

"Nor was the Queen comfortable with the Prince of Wales's [Charles'] decision to stand in for Meghan's father, Thomas Markle, and walk her down the aisle."

On the day she married Harry, Kensington Palace said the "pure white colour" was chosen by Meghan and designer Clare Waight Keller, of fashion house Givenchy, to "bring a fresh modernity to the dress."

Meghan was previously married to film producer Trevor Engelson but divorced two years later in August 2013.

The queen's concerns, according to Seward, also extended to a sermon by Anglican bishop Michael Curry, of The Episcopal Church, based in New York.

"Like many others in the congregation," Seward wrote. "She was startled by the impassioned outpourings of the American Archbishop Michael Curry, who spoke for more than 14 minutes.

"Both the Queen and Prince Philip, who hate long sermons, were desperate for him to finish. They must also have been aware that some of those around them were stifling their laughter.

"One can only speculate about what they thought when Curry, who admitted he didn't know either Harry or Meghan, later said he'd felt the presence of the slaves from whom he was descended in the chapel, which he felt to be a 'sign of hope.'"

At the time of the wedding, Afua Hirsch, who would later be a guest on Harry and Meghan's Netflix documentary, wrote in The Guardian that "Meghan Markle's wedding was a rousing celebration of blackness."

She added: "By allowing her wedding to be more than a pageant of tradition, Markle has started as I hope she means to go on."

And Diana Evans wrote of Curry's speech: "It was a sermon that will go down in history as a moment when the enduring seat of colonialism was brought before the Lord, and questioned in its own house.

"In the mention of slavery was the inherent accusation of white silver-spoon complicity, and that this union should not go forth without acknowledging it."

Other Royal Divorcees

The queen's children were known casually as generation divorce after three out of the four formed marriages that broke up.

King Charles and Princess Diana divorced in 1996, though when he re-married with Queen Camilla in 2005 her outfits was not white.

The bride wore a cream silk chiffon dress paired with a oyster silk coat by Antonia Robinson and Anna Valentine.

Charles and Camilla were also denied a church wedding by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, because Camilla was a divorcee with a living former spouse.

They instead got married at Windsor Guildhall, in a ceremony that Queen Elizabeth skipped, though she did attend a blessing at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, for them later in the day.

Prince Andrew divorced from Sarah Ferguson in 1996, while Princess Anne divorced her husband Mark Phillips in 1992, the same year she married Sir Timothy Laurence.

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.