Prince Harry remembers the “death silence” after a joke by Meghan in the first Trooping the Color

Prince Harry reflected on the awkward silence that followed a joke Meghan Markle made after attending her first Trooping the Colour, the official celebration of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday.

The Duke of Sussex recalled the incident in his memoirs Sparedescribing how he and the Duchess of Sussex attended the Queen’s official June birthday celebration for the first time together in 2018, shortly after their wedding.

As Harry noted, the couple had just returned to the UK from their 10-day honeymoon in the Mediterranean and would be making one of their “first public appearances as newlyweds” at the ceremony.

For the occasion, the Duchess wore a baby pink off-the-shoulder outfit by Carolina Herrera, which she paired with a matching pink headpiece, while Prince Harry wore his full military uniform.

During the royal event, the couple traveled in a carriage, before joining the rest of the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to greet the crowd of supporters.

In photos of the occasion, the royal family appeared in high spirits, with Meghan beaming as she stood between her husband and sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales.

However, according to Prince Harry, who confirmed that “everyone present was in a good, upbeat mood” during Trooping the Colour, the festive mood reportedly changed after Meghan responded with a joke about the event to Kate, after she she asked Meghan what she thought of the celebration.

“But then: Kate asked Meg what she thought of her first Trooping the Colour. And Meg joked: Colorful”, Harry wrote. “And a deathly silence threatened to invade us all.”

In the extract, Harry noted that the awkward exchange was followed by Meghan’s first royal trip with the Queen.. According to Harry, despite being nervous, the duchess and the monarch “got along wonderfully” and felt “bonded by their love of dogs.”

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The duo also talked about motherhood, Harry revealed, and the duke recalled how Meghan had told him about her conversation with the queen and how she had shared her desire to be a mother. In response, the monarch shared a tip for inducing labor.

Reflecting on the successful exit, Harry wrote that both he and Meghan had thought “things are going to change now.”

However, he noted that the press coverage of the trip did not reflect reality, as he recalled how newspapers had “declared the trip an absolute disaster.”

“Meg was portrayed as pushy, conceited, ignorant of royal etiquette, because she had made the unthinkable mistake of getting into a car before Grandma did,” Harry wrote, adding: “In truth, she had done exactly what Grandma had told her to do. The grandmother told him to come in; She entered”.

Despite the mild awkwardness that followed the Duchess’s joke in 2018, the couple also attended Trooping the Color in 2019 and, more recently, in 2022, when they reunited with the royal family during their first trip back to England since who left office as members of royalty.

Spare has broken records since its release on January 10. The memoir became the best-selling nonfiction book in history.

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