LONDON - When US actress Meghan Markle marries Britain's Prince Harry at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle next Saturday, her career and right to privacy will be just two of the things she will have to give up.
The daughter of a yoga teacher and an award-winning Hollywood lighting director, Californian Markle is about to plunge headfirst into the world of rules and constraints of Britain's royal family.
NO 'PRINCESS MEGHAN'
Markle will give up her acting career in order to live out her fairy tale.
However, she will not become "Princess Meghan" because only women born into the royal family can carry the title followed by their name.
Her official title will instead likely be "Her Royal Highness Princess Henry of Wales." But if Queen Elizabeth II offers Harry a duchy on his wedding day, Meghan will become a duchess.
Among the titles available, the Duke of Sussex or the Duke of Clarence are the favorites.
Markle has also had to dilute her US identity by taking on British citizenship and has been baptized into the Church of England out of respect for Queen Elizabeth II's role as head of the denomination.
STIFF UPPER LIP
As unelected representatives of the state, members of the royal family are heavily discouraged from expressing political opinions in public.
This will require Markle to curb her vocal advocacy and disengage from social media.
The self-proclaimed feminist had already begun to lay low before the engagement was announced, closing her blog "The Tig" and the Instagram account on which she posted photos of herself.
"She's allowed herself to be completely co-opted by the royal machinery," said republican campaigner Graham Smith.
She will now have to concentrate on the more mundane charitable activities of the royal family, and will become a patron of the Royal Foundation, alongside her husband, Prince William and his wife Kate.
The foundation is focused mainly on veterans, young people, the environment and mental health.
Despite these constraints, her biographer Andrew Morton believes that Meghan and Harry "are going to be a power couple".
"You're going to see them as far more activist than perhaps previous royal couples," he said.
ROYAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES
Markle's relaxed Californian existence will be replaced by one of protocol and unwritten rules, such as not removing one's coat in public.
She will also swap her "relatively quiet life" for one of paparazzi intrusion.
"Even though I've been on my show for... six years and working before that, I've never been part of tabloid culture," she said in a television interview aired in November.
All her movements will now have to be approved and she will live under the constant gaze of police protection.
The Queen recently appointed Harry as a youth ambassador for the Commonwealth, meaning Markle will travel widely as she also learns more about her adopted homeland.
To help her navigate life in what the royals privately refer to as "The Firm," however, the 36-year-old will have an army of staff to help her, including a hairdresser, a dresser and a driver.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES - As Prince Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle inches closer, public hunger for all things royal will get its dessert as decades-old slices of cake from British royal weddings - including those of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and Prince William and Kate Middleton - go up for auction.
The five cake slices from royal weddings are expected to fetch hundreds and perhaps thousands of dollars each next month as memorabilia at the sale in Las Vegas, Julien's Auctions said.
But for those looking to play royal taster, there is a word of caution.
"They're not edible," Darren Julien, the Los Angeles-based auction house's chief executive, said ahead of the June 23 sale.
A slice from Charles and Diana's wedding, presented in a white box with "CD Buckingham Palace 29th July 1981" in silver printing and wrapped in a paper doily, is estimated to fetch $800-$1,200, the auction house said.
"These come from people who attended the wedding and kept them in the freezer the entire time," Julien said of all the cake slices, adding they have not been preserved by other means.
More than 600 guests have been invited to Harry and Meghan's May 19 wedding, which will take place at Windsor Castle's St. George's Chapel, with a further 200 being invited for the reception.
The fruit cake made for Prince William and Kate Middleton's 2011 wedding comes in a tin presented to guests with an enclosure card saluting attendees that said: "With best wishes from TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall in celebration of the wedding of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge."
It is pegged to sell for $600-$800. Julien's sold a slice of William and Kate's cake for $7,500 in 2014.
Other cake slices include Charles' 2005 wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson's 1986 nuptials, which each are estimated to fetch $600-$800.
The piece of royal cake from Princess Anne's 1973 marriage to her first husband, Captain Mark Philips, is expected to sell for $300-$500.
"It's kind of hard to throw something out that has been given to you by the royals," Julien said. (Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LONDON - Some 600 people have been invited to the wedding of Britain's Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle, Kensington Palace announced Thursday.
The invitations were posted earlier this week, Harry's official residence said -- without revealing who had made the guest list.
Harry and his US actress fiancee are set to tie the knot at Windsor Castle, west of London, on May 19.
The 600 invitees will attend the service in the castle's St George's Chapel, followed by the lunchtime reception hosted by Harry's grandmother Queen Elizabeth II at St George's Hall.
Later, around 200 guests are being invited to a private reception at Frogmore House given by Harry's father Prince Charles, the heir to the throne.
The venue for the evening party, in the park outside Windsor Castle, is where Harry and Markle posed for their official engagement photos.
The invitations, issued in Charles's name, were on thick white card gilded along the edge, which were die-stamped in gold and then burnished.
The invitations read: "His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales... requests the pleasure of the company of... at the marriage of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales with Ms Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on Saturday 19th May, 2018 at 12 Noon followed by a reception at Windsor Castle."
The names of the invited guests were added in later by a calligraphy printer.
UNIFORMS, ELDERFLOWER CAKE
The invites indicated that the dress code is uniform, morning coat or lounge suit, or day dress with a hat.
Harry, a former soldier who also holds ceremonial military roles, is therefore likely to be wearing his highest-ranking uniform for the wedding.
The prince and his bride-to-be have been increasingly busy this month in the build-up to the big day.
On Tuesday, the couple announced they had chosen London-based US pastry chef Claire Ptak to make a lemon elderflower wedding cake, to be covered with buttercream and decorated with flowers.
Queen Elizabeth published her formal consent to the marriage on March 15.
By law, the monarch must give consent for the marriage of the first 6 people in line to inherit the throne.
Harry, 33, is fifth in line after his father Charles, brother Prince William and William's children Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
He will be bumped down to sixth place when William's wife Kate gives birth next month.
On March 12, Markle took part in her first official event with Queen Elizabeth, accompanying Harry to a Commonwealth Day service at London's Westminster Abbey.
Markle, 36, was baptized by the leader of the Church of England earlier this month out of respect for the sovereign's role as head of the denomination.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
