Meghan Markle annoyed the Queen on her wedding day by ignoring specific royal protocol, book claims
When he was about to get married, he went to see the Queen to ask permission to keep his beard on his wedding day.
Long-standing protocol in the British Army states beards are forbidden, and since Harry was going to be married in military dress uniform, his would have to go.
But in an effort to save his ginger fuzz, the prince did the only thing he could think of to get around the rules – begging his grandmother to make an exception for him.
Harry later recounted in his tell-all memoir Spare that he ‘desperately wanted to hang on’ to his beard as it had become an ‘effective check on my anxiety’.
He claimed it helped ‘therapy, and meditation, and a few other things’ to calm his nerves.
When he gave all his reasons to the Queen, which also included concerns he didn’t want Meghan to see a ‘total stranger’ at the alter, she permitted him.
Harry later recounted a conversation he had with William, who got married clean shaven, about his beard pass, writing his brother said: ‘You put her in an uncomfortable position, Harold! She had no choice but to say yes.
He replied: ‘No choice? She’s the Queen! If she didn’t want me to have a beard I think she can speak for herself.’
Meanwhile, although the Queen was concerned about Meghan’s choice of veil and white dress, perhaps the biggest pre-wedding concerns came from the tiara.