Meghan: A Hollywood Princess(51)
It is run by conservationist David Dugmore, an old friend not just of Harry but also his brother and father. He and his brother Roger, who organizes mobile safaris, were guests at William and Kate’s wedding in 2011. At the forefront of dealing with the conflict between wildlife and cattle farming, Dugmore’s views have helped shape the thinking of the princes about conservation. He has a radical plan to make Botswana the biggest conservation project in the world by creating a transfrontier park in which animals can freely migrate between the Okavango and the Kalahari.
Doubtless he discussed the latest developments with the prince, while giving a conservation primer to Harry’s American girlfriend.
However, they had not come thousands of miles to learn about conservation, interested though they both were in the topic. Their days and nights under canvas in the middle of nowhere were a chance to get to know one another without any distractions. That meant, for once, the chattily effusive Meghan Markle maintained radio silence on her social media accounts, the normally prolific web maven going dark between August 21 and 28.
Conversationally, Harry, who has spoken about his ambition to be a safari guide, was on home turf, the old Africa hand well able to impress Meghan with his local knowledge of the bush and the dynamic relationship between indigenous tribes and the native flora and fauna. After all, what is there not to love about a guy who spends his holidays saving elephants and rhinos?
Though Meghan had been to Rwanda on behalf of World Vision Canada, she had never experienced anything so remote and primitive. Sipping a glass of decent red wine by the pool at Le Sirenuse in Positano simply did not compare with watching the vast herds roaming the plains, a sundowner cocktail in hand.
When the sun finally did go down, after a meal of chicken or game stew, they drank in the shimmering carapace of the stars above them. And when they retired for the night, they were lulled to sleep by the chirping of the yellow-throated sand grouse and the melancholy call of zebra at the water’s edge. At dawn they were awoken by a chattering chorus of birds, noisier than usual, as it was their mating season.
During the days, the couple was able to choose from walking tours and day-long safaris deep into the Kalahari Desert. Along the banks of the river, crocodiles are a common sight, while sharp-eyed visitors can occasionally see lions and cheetahs. After a dusty safari the couple could relax in the natural rock swimming pool overlooking the river—crocodiles excluded.
It was here, in this natural idyll, where the couple cemented their relationship, both of them realizing that they had found something special. As Harry later described: “It was absolutely amazing to get to know her as quickly as I did.”
In spite of the difficulties of distance and busy schedules, by the end of those magical six days they knew that their blossoming love affair was too precious to waste. As Meghan later told the BBC: “I think that very early on when we realized we were going to commit to each other, we knew we had to invest the time and energy and whatever it took to make that happen.”
Luckily, they had a template in Meghan’s friend, the recently married Lindsay Roth, who had managed to juggle executive producing The Real Girl’s Kitchen for the Cooking Channel in New York while dating London-based Gavin Jordan, an actuary for Ernst & Young. Their long-distance relationship had thrived and even ended in marriage—as had many others in Harry’s circle.
However, with due respect to Harry’s male friends, none of them would qualify for the position of the world’s most eligible bachelor. Harry had taken that gig—together with all that entails in terms of media, and public, fascination with his life. And as tricky as a long-distance relationship was, they had other considerations to bear in mind. Of paramount importance was secrecy. Meghan and Harry needed their romance to be private, at least long enough for the time to honestly decide if their relationship was going to succeed in the long run—or whether it was a feverish summer fling that would not endure the winter chills and inevitable absences.
They faced obstacles that just don’t occur in most relationships; Meghan had to ask herself if she was in love with the man or the position, and if she loved the man, could she cope with the position? She might be a popular actor and used to being recognized in public, but that was nothing compared to the scrutiny she would be under should she choose to go the distance with Harry. Midrange celebrity boyfriends like chef Cory Vitiello were one thing, but royalty was quite another. Could she take it? And for that matter, could her family and friends?
For his part, Harry had fallen for a (slightly) older, biracial divorcée from California. He didn’t need any reminding of the chaos and bitterness caused by the last American to marry a member of the royal family. When King Edward VIII fell for Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced woman from Baltimore, he abdicated the throne rather than give her up.
Long after Edward VIII had gone into self-imposed exile, divorce remained the great no-no inside the royal family. In the 1950s Harry’s great aunt, Princess Margaret, the queen’s sister, had agreed, after much pressure from the church and politicians, to walk away from her relationship with another divorcé, the late king’s equerry, Group Captain Peter Townsend. Her life was never really the same again.
Of course, his father, Prince Charles, had married his mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, at Windsor in 2005 after leaving a decent interval following the death of Diana and that of his disapproving grandmother, the queen mother, who died in 2002. That union signaled a permanent retreat from the moral position the royal family had clung to during the bitter run-up to the abdication.