Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Are (Almost) Finally Free
The pair attended their final engagement as working members of the royal family, three weeks ahead of schedule.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are more than three weeks ahead of schedule in stepping down as senior royals. The post–working royal phase of their lives doesn’t officially start until March 31, but, in the interest of getting things over with, Meghan and Harry chose this Monday to mark their final engagement as working members of the royal family.
To be fair, Meghan and Harry haven’t exactly been slacking; Harry has been making his rounds in the U.K. since the end of February. Last week, he and Meghan headed to London, where they’ve been keeping busy, hosting the Endeavor Fund Awards and, in Meghan’s case, even livening up a high school assembly.
But as a new week begins, the pair seem to be itching to get home to their son, Archie (who, by the way, is now 10 months old and “into everything”). And so, on Monday afternoon, Meghan and Harry embraced the spotlight one last time, leading the brigade of arrivals to the Commonwealth Day festivities at Westminster Abbey.
Not ones to be outshone, the other core working royals all came through, too. (The exception, of course, being Prince Andrew.) The women in particular were unmissable, thanks to their choices of headgear. Kate Middleton went with a traditional fascinator, along with a deep red Catherine Walker coat dress. It proved quite the Christmasy complement to Meghan’s ensemble—a kelly green cape dress by Emilia Wickstead, with a kelly green beret to match.
Queen Elizabeth II, Camilla Parker Bowles, and prime minister Boris Johnson’s fiancée, Carrie Symonds, all opted for shades of blue.
Commonwealth Day traditionally draws representatives from the Commonwealth’s 54 countries, but this year’s edition in particular seemed to have much wider appeal. There was even a Spice Girl—Geri Halliwell—as well as the singer Craig David, whom Harry greeted with an elbow bump. Westminster Abbey has temporarily banned handshakes amid fears of spreading the coronavirus, hence why Prince Charles has taken to offering up namastes.
