Meghan: A Hollywood Princess(52)
There was much history for Meghan to learn and absorb—much more than dragons, unicorns, and lions! Though he was instinctively protective toward her, Harry wanted Meghan to clearly understand what she was getting into and make her own choices, hopefully in his favor. He was much more the anxious supplicant, worried that the price of fame could be his future happiness. Like clambering into the unheated plunge pool at the Meno a Kweno camp, it was best if her introduction into his world was “pole, pole” (slowly, slowly).
The trick was in planning and timing. Many long-distance couples apply the twenty-one-day survival rule—to make sure that they see one another at least every three weeks. Harry and Meghan managed every fourteen days. Jet lag—not the paparazzi—became their main enemy. Meghan would often arrive in Toronto and go straight to the set of Suits and start filming. As she later recalled: “I think we were able to really have so much time just to connect and we never went longer than two weeks without seeing each other, even though we were obviously doing a long-distance relationship… we made it work.”
When they compared schedules before they parted, it was clear that if anything Meghan was the busier of the pair that fall, what with her TV filming commitments, promoting her new fashion collection on behalf of Reitmans, her blog, and humanitarian work. Even before Harry came into her life she was often up until the wee hours scouring the internet for inspiration for The Tig. Now she was going to be stretched even further.
Upon his return to London, Harry was soon back in the royal routine. After celebrating his thirty-second birthday on September 15 on the queen’s estate at Balmoral in the Scottish Highlands, he undertook engagements in Aberdeen on behalf of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, the charity set up in his mother’s name that recognizes young people who have made a difference to their communities.
Meanwhile, on the last weekend in September, Meghan traveled to Ottawa, the Canadian capital, to attend her second One Young World Summit. The nonprofit had Meghan’s resounding endorsement: “They are delegates who are speaking out against human rights violations, environmental crises, gender equality issues, discrimination and injustice. They are the change.” Meghan, who had already spoken at the Dublin conference in 2014, joined other inspirational counselors, notably Mary Robinson, the former Irish president; Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau; as well as actor Emma Watson; and fellow Kruger Cowne clients including former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, poet and activist Fatima Bhutto, and singer Cher. As a sign of her standing, she was asked by Vanity Fair photographer Jason Schmidt to pose alongside Mary Robinson, Fatima Bhutto, and Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul with the Ottawa Parliament building as a backdrop.
Inside the conference center, Meghan, speaking without notes, told a women’s equality forum about the time she had confronted the creator of Suits concerning the fact that the scriptwriters were sketching too many scenes that opened with her character, Rachel Zane, emerging naked from a shower dressed only in a towel. It was sexist, it was unnecessary, and it was stopped. Her complaint came years before the rebellion about the way women were treated by Hollywood, in the light of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and the subsequent #MeToo campaign. For all her own professional difficulties, she admitted to feeling humbled, nervous, and rather emotional when she introduced activist Luwam Estifanos, who had bravely escaped a life of slavery in Eritrea and now works to end that government-sponsored practice in her home country.
Meghan’s exposure at the conference was a reminder to Harry, if any were needed, that he was dating a very special woman. A keeper, as they say. She arrived in London shortly afterward for a reunion with the prince. As the watchword was privacy, they stayed at his modest grace and favor home on the grounds of Kensington Palace. Best remembered now as the place where thousands of people laid flowers in the summer of 1997 in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, the palace is probably the most exclusive village in Britain, home to an assortment of royals, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, courtiers, and retired staff. Like any village, it feeds on a diet of gossip and rumor, but for the most part what happens inside Kensington Palace stays inside Kensington Palace.
If Meghan was expecting to be sleeping in a palace, she was sadly disappointed. Harry’s home of Nottingham Cottage was smaller than her own place in Toronto—and with lower ceilings. It had been the home of Prince William and Kate while the capacious apartment 1a Clock Court, the former residence of the late Princess Margaret, was being renovated. Cozy and neat, the cottage, known as Notts Cott by residents, boasts two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two reception rooms, and a small garden. In summer it has the feel of being in the heart of an English country village, which perhaps explains why the first thing Harry did when he moved in was to install a hammock in the garden to laze away sunny afternoons.
It had the virtue, though, of being private and secure, the exits and entrances watched 24 hours a day by armed police. It is here, as schedules permitted, where they began living together, quietly, secretly, unobtrusively. Meghan recalled, “I don’t think that I would call it a whirlwind in terms of our relationship. Obviously there have been layers attached to how public it has become after we had a good five, six months almost with just privacy, which was amazing.”
Fortunately for Meghan, the palace also has a high walking score—places available on foot—which meant the actor was able to go jogging—mobile meditation, as she calls it—around the park or stroll on Kensington High Street to go shopping. It will doubtless have given her a kick to know that when she went into Whole Foods, the American-owned supermarket, which shares a building with journalists from the Mail newspaper group, she was operating in “enemy territory.”