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    The Meghan Factor: A Royal Expert’s Insight on America's New Princess—and How She Could Change the Windsor Dynasty Forever
    The Meghan Factor: A Royal Expert’s Insight on America's New Princess—and How She Could Change the Windsor Dynasty Forever
    The Meghan Factor: A Royal Expert’s Insight on America's New Princess—and How She Could Change the Windsor Dynasty Forever
    Ebook108 pages1 hour

    The Meghan Factor: A Royal Expert’s Insight on America's New Princess—and How She Could Change the Windsor Dynasty Forever

    By Patrick Jephson

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    About this ebook

    Sixty-five years after Elizabeth II’s Coronation, and thirty-seven after Diana’s ill-fated nuptials, the House of Windsor is embarking on a momentous marital experiment.

    The imminent addition of Meghan Markle of California to the planet’s most illustrious and revered royal lineage has so far been billed as an “olde worlde” celebrity curiosity. But in truth, it’s a historic landmark for the British Crown, marking either a 21st-century renaissance or final proof that the dynasty after Elizabeth may be fated to a slow demise.

    Either way, America now has a stake in royal fortunes unprecedented since Wallis Simpson took her divisive first step onto Buckingham Palace’s red carpet.

    PATRICK JEPHSON in 2018 marks the thirtieth anniversary of his appointment to the British Royal Household. As private secretary/chief of staff to Princess Diana he witnessed the royal family in some of its least-royal moments, as well as helping to chart the course of Diana’s unique global ascendancy. Now a naturalized US citizen and New York Times bestselling author, in The Meghan Factor he runs a seasoned eye over the media hype and explains to an American readership that all is not what it seems in the world of princes, courtiers, and palace spin doctors.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPost Hill Press
    Release dateMay 24, 2018
    ISBN9781642930375
    The Meghan Factor: A Royal Expert’s Insight on America's New Princess—and How She Could Change the Windsor Dynasty Forever

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      Book preview

      The Meghan Factor - Patrick Jephson

      Meghan_Factor_cover.jpg

      A Royal Expert’s Insight on America's New Princess—

      and How She Could Change the Windsor Dynasty Forever

      Patrick Jephson

      A BOMBARDIER BOOKS BOOK

      An Imprint of Post Hill Press

      ISBN: 978-1-64293-036-8

      ISBN (eBook): 978-1-64293-037-5

      The Meghan Factor:

      A Royal Expert’s Insight on America’s New Princess—and How She Could Change the Windsor Dynasty Forever

      © 2018 by Patrick Jephson

      All Rights Reserved

      Cover Design by Cody Corcoran

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

      Post Hill Press, LLC

      New York • Nashville

      posthillpress.com

      Published in the United States of America

      For

      MARY JO

      With love and thanks

      Contents

      Prologue

      In the Shadow of Diana

      Meghan—Your Endless Audition Starts Here

      Golden Twilight—Elizabeth’s Long Autumn

      Charles—and the Many Faces of Duty

      William and Catherine and Harry…and Meghan

      Harry—Handle with Care

      The Fab Four—More than a Tribute Band

      The Meghan Factor Meets the Majesty Factor

      Epilogue

      About the Author

      Prologue

      Do you want to be a British princess?

      Meghan Markle of California, USA, has said that she does. Or, more romantically—and surely more accurately—she has said Yes to marrying Prince Harry, with the princess bit being very much a secondary part of the deal. That is the proper order of priorities, after all.

      However, there’s no getting away from it: a marriage that doesn’t just start a new life but also takes her into the heart of the House of Windsor is going to give Meghan a steep learning curve—much steeper than some of the other options that might have been open to her.

      And in its turn, the British Royal Family may have to do some adapting to the newcomer, even though that’s not a regular habit. It’s more than eighty years since the last American attached herself to its exclusive family tree—and that ended badly. Wallis Simpson’s marriage to King Edward VIII in 1936 cost him his throne and earned him a lifetime of exile. The constitutional trauma of what became known as the Abdication Crisis left deep scars in the country and in the family, whose members have famously long memories.

      Things had better be different this time around.

      But will they?

      In this book, longtime royal insider and bestselling author Patrick Jephson draws upon his unique experience as Princess Diana’s first (and only) private secretary/chief of staff to give an expert assessment of the momentous marital gamble the House of Windsor is about to take.

      As a naturalized American citizen, he brings a special insight to the transatlantic dimension the new princess adds to the royal line-up. He’s also able to analyze with a practiced eye the challenges faced by Meghan as she transitions to life in a palace—and the impact she’ll have on the world’s most famous monarchy.

      Meghan’s arrival could be a well-timed boost for a dynasty that faces big challenges in the coming years. But he doesn’t skip the hard reality that survival as a royal newcomer takes more than a winning smile and a stylish curtsy. Meghan is committing to a path of duty and sacrifice that will last to the end of her days. Happily, with Prince Harry at her side, there’s every chance of fun and fulfillment along the way—and a legacy that leaves her very personal mark on the House of Windsor forever.

      Like Wallis, Meghan is a divorcee and already a mature woman with a lifetime’s worth of valuable experience to her name. Also like Wallis, she’s slim, brunette, and something of a fashion plate.

      Luckily, the similarities between the women seem to end there. Nor are there many similarities between the royal world of today and the court of the 1930s. Modern princes are free to marry—and re-marry—pretty much as they please, perhaps in hopes of improving the odds of long-term marital success. The statistics for top-level royal marriages during Queen Elizabeth’s reign are enough to make any potential royal bride think twice: out of six starters, only two are still running: Edward and William, unlike divorcees Margaret, Anne, Andrew, and Charles.

      Meghan may quite rightly have decided that she and Harry need fear nothing from the past in making their own marriage a beacon of stability, longevity, and happiness. But there are plenty of good examples from recent royal history that could give her some valuable tips for success—and quite a few cautionary tales too.

      Forget Wallis Simpson. The real point of comparison is a much more familiar figure: Harry’s much-missed mother. Meghan has already attracted hundreds of comparisons with Princess Diana, an iconic figure who will probably be a frequent presence throughout Meghan’s princess career.

      Diana’s example of how to use the royal cachet to benefit good causes is one her sons are already following to universal praise. Fortunately they have not needed to follow her other, sadder path in which Diana learned that her own unhappiness created a powerful affinity with some of the world’s most excluded and stigmatized people.

      Diana’s experience of separation and divorce has perhaps surprising resonance for Meghan in explaining some of the pressures and challenges of royal marriage management. Getting the balance right between public duty and private happiness might turn out to be her greatest achievement.

      Meanwhile, other crucial balances must be struck, such as: tradition versus innovation, regal restraint versus passionate campaigning, privacy versus publicity, and spontaneity versus dogged persistence. It’s a long list, and in tackling it Meghan will depend crucially on empathy with the ordinary citizens of her adopted country and on her own internal judgement. As she may already have guessed, as a real royal highness she’ll have access to an infinite supply of advice, but in the end, only she can decide how to take control of the extraordinary destiny providence has placed in her hands.

      Then there are the in-laws. A royal newcomer could ask for no better role model than Elizabeth II, whose lifetime of dedicated public service sets a standard unlikely to be bettered in the whole history of the British Crown. Eventually, and many pray it will be far off, Elizabeth’s place on the throne will be taken by Meghan’s father-in-law, Prince Charles. He and his controversial second wife, Camilla, offer her a mixed buffet of how-to-be-royal experience. And of course, when she needs counsel from somebody her own age, William and Catherine will be her neighbors in Kensington Palace.

      Not the least of Meghan’s challenges will be the speed with which she’ll have to assimilate the constitutional instincts that her new position in the British hierarchy will demand. Being American is an attractive novelty—for now. How she retains the best of her native heritage and combines it with the distinctive qualities of Britishness will be a process under constant review. Against a backdrop of transatlantic cultural complexity, this may sometimes make the ocean feel very wide.

      The best news for her, for Harry, and for an expectant British public is that if she gets it right, the reward will be the secure evolution of the great institution that has welcomed her—and two lives made complete by their service to humanity.

      Chapter One

      In the Shadow of Diana

      I don’t go by the rule book; I lead from the heart, not the head.

      —Princess Diana

      Midwinter in Manhattan. From the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side

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