Remember Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance? AKA: the Lifetime movie homage to story of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's relationship that we all (secretly) quite enjoyed? Well, love it or loathe it - it's getting a sequel!
This week screenwriter Scarlett Lacey and actress Tiffany Smith confirmed in a Vanity Fair interview that a follow-up entitled Becoming Royal is imminent (and yes, 'closed door' imagined conversations with Kate Middleton riffing on the reported 'feud' between the two duchesses will apparently feature - scandalous). Obviously the teen Meg Cabot-reading romantics in us are absolutely stoked. But what if you've yet to see the original film?
We’ve long argued that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s love story has some not-so-subtle parallels with the teen movies we grew up with. Commoner falls in love with tearaway Prince? It’s a storyline straight out of The Prince and Me. Californian learns the ins-and-outs of a stuffy European monarchy? Paging Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries…it was hardly a surprise, then, to learn that the Lifetime Channel – the spiritual home of schmaltzy, based-on-a-true-story fare – turned the Prince and the Suits star’s courtship into TV movie.
The film originally aired in 2018 on the day of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's wedding. And let's just say, if William & Kate: The Movie took some liberties with the truth, Harry & Meghan steps things up a notch. From Princess Diana disguised as a symbolic lion, Meghan reciting catchphrases from her own interviews and near-constant references to The Crown - we watched it so that you don't have to. Here are the (many) thoughts we had on it...
Will you be watching the (real) royal wedding on May 19th? Here's our timeline of how events will play out on the day...
what will happen at the royal wedding - Grazia
1 of 99:30am: Wedding guests begin to arrive
Wedding guests will begin to arrive – by coach, no less – from 9.30am until 11am, and will walk over to the South Door of St George's Chapel. Prepare to spot assorted Suits stars, Priyanka Chopra, Jessica Mulroney and the Beckhams.
2 of 911:20am: The royal family arrive in Windsor
Keep your eyes peeled from 11.20am as members of the Royal Family start to arrive at the Chapel, some on foot, others by car.
3 of 911:45am: Harry and William will arrive together
Prince Harry will arrive at St George's Chapel by foot, accompanied by his best man the Duke of Cambridge, and will enter via the West Steps. Here, they'll take the time to greet the members of the public gathered in the Castle precinct, including the charity representatives positioned at the Horseshoe Cloister (just outside the Chapel).
4 of 911:50am: Meghan will travel to Windsor Castle with her mother
At around the same time, Meghan and her mother, Doria, will leave their overnight location and travel to the Castle by car, passing through the Long Walk where members of the public are expected to gather. They'll briefly stop at the Castle, allowing Doria to travel on to the Chapel while Meghan is joined by bridesmaids and page boys ahead of her big entrance to the Chapel.
5 of 912pm: Meghan walks down the aisle
After Thomas Markle confirmed that he would no longer be walking his daughter down the aisle, having suffered a heart attack last week, it's assumed that Doria will accompany her daughter.
6 of 912pm: The wedding service begins
The wedding service itself will take about an hour, with a full order of service set to be unveiled to the public on Saturday morning. We already know that Lady Jane Fellowes, Harry's aunt and the elder sister of the late Princess of Wales will give the reading. All three of Diana's siblings will attend the ceremony, and Harry and Meghan have expressed happiness that they'll be able to celebrate her memory on the day.
7 of 91pm: The couple will greet charity representatives
Once they've officially tied the knot, the first thing that Harry and Meghan will do is to greet the 200 representatives from Prince Harry's chosen charities, who'll be gathered in the Horseshoe Cloister. In doing so, the couple are acknowledging how important these organisations will be in their future work; according to the Palace, they are 'delighted that these people who will be such an important part of their official work in the years to come will be the first people they see after the wedding.'
8 of 91:05pm: The carriage procession
Then, close family members will gather on the Chapel's steps to wave the couple off, as it's time for Harry and Meghan to step into their carriage (that's the same Ascot Landau that Pippa Middleton rode in at Will and Kate's wedding, in case you needed a refresher) and embark on a 25-minute procession around the castle and town. Hopefully neither of them have previous history with RSI, because all that royal waving could get very tiring. Meghan and Harry's guests will then file out of the church to catch the start of the carriage procession, before heading on to St George's Hall for the reception.
9 of 97pm: The couple head to Frogmore House
For all the national excitement, the wedding is a private event, and after the carriage procession, there won't be much left for us to see. The last thing that we'll be able to catch will be the moment that the bride and groom leave the Castle for Frogmore House, where the evening reception will take place.