Last week speculation of a royal wedding reached fever pitch, following reports that Meghan Markle was planning to move to the UK in November. Royal courtiers are said to be ear-marking dates for a summer 2018 wedding, and one bookmaker has already suspended betting on an engagement to Prince Harry this year.
But while it’s been reported that Meghan will move into Kensington Palace, where Harry occupies the two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage, Grazia can reveal that she’s started looking for her own apartment in the capital, as close to the palace as possible. While Meghan will be spending plenty of time at Kensington Palace and will eventually move in with Prince Harry, she wants her own place while she settles into her new life.
The 36-year-old is said to have met with at least one estate agent during her last trip to London, with the instruction to find her an apartment which she can work from. Having put her acting career on hold Meghan plans to throw herself into charity work and wants to forge a new career as a humanitarian campaigner, say friends.
Like Harry, she wants to use her profile to promote causes close to her heart and the couple have talked about how they can dovetail their work. Both are passionate about working in Africa, where Harry already helps the children of Lesotho and Botswana through his charity Sentebale. Meghan has discussed broadening her work with charity World Vision, for whom she has been an ambassador since early 2016. Last year she travelled to Rwanda to promote its clean water campaign and earlier this year she travelled to India to highlight the plight of young women whose education is severely affected because they are forced to stop going to school when they have their periods. Meghan wrote a powerful essay about the stigma of menstruation in Time magazine after the visit. Long before she met Harry, she was a counsellor for the international charity One Young World and plans to develop her role with the organisation.
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She is also an ambassador for the UN, and is keen to continue this work. When she addressed the UN in 2015 at the International Women’s Conference, talking about gender equality, she received a standing ovation and described it as one of the highlights of her career.
‘She’s committed to her role with World Vision Canada, but she wants to do more global work,’ said a source. ‘She and Harry have discussed it. She is looking for a place in London from where she can run her business – essentially her charity work.’
Meanwhile, pictures of the couple kissing at the Invictus Games and the recent news that Meghan has met the Queen are both strong signals that an engagement will be announced imminently.
As a divorcee, Meghan may not be able to marry in a church (it is only allowed in ‘exceptional’ circumstances), while Harry wants a smaller ceremony than the royal wedding at Westminster Abbey in 2011. He’s said to favour St George’s Chapel at Windsor where they could have a blessing after a formal registry office ceremony.
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