If you’ve been holding out for a winter engagement announcement from royal couple Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, it seems you’ll be left waiting a little longer before hitting ‘like’ on the inevitable Instagram post from Kensington Palace. Sigh.
In recent months, the drawn-out process of going public with their relationship seemed to have gathered speed for the fifth in line to the throne and the star of Suits (what with Meghan’s Vanity Fair cover interview, the couple’s public PDA at the Invictus Games and the news that Harry had introduced his girlfriend to his grandmother over afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace) but according to a source, an engagement won’t be confirmed until 2018 – spring 2018, at the very earliest.
‘There won’t be any announcement until at least after Kate has had her baby in April,’ a source ‘with excellent contacts in the palace’ told The Daily Beast.
It’s all a simple matter of scheduling. As we now find ourselves in November, the heavily choreographed royal Christmas celebrations are just around the corner, doubtless involving trips to Sandringham, church services and communal viewing of The Crown’s second season (OK, the latter is a push). Then there’s the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s third child, due in April, and the inevitable Lindo Wing reveal to the world’s media. All this leaves an increasingly narrow window for Harry and Meghan to land their happy news.
The Daily Beast notes that ‘there is, theoretically, a window over the next three weeks in which an engagement could be announced, but if there is no announcement by the end of the month there is unlikely to be one this year.’ According to the publication, Harry ‘cares deeply about not upsetting his grandmother, and would be wary of appearing to seek to upstage the carefully planned royal Christmas schedule with an announcement any time after late November.’
It’s worth noting that Harry’s older brother Prince William announced his engagement to Kate Middleton in mid-November (16th November 2010, to be precise), taking a winter ‘slot’ early enough to avoid overlapping with any planned Christmas events.
Last week, Grazia reported that Meghan is house-hunting close to Kensington Palace, ahead of a permanent move to London.
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