In Harry & Meghan, the Couple Opens Up About Meghan’s Early Meetings With the Royal Family

Early Thursday morning, Netflix released the first three episodes of Harry & Meghan, the long-awaited documentary series that tells the story of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in their own words. Though the episodes focus on their own perspectives of their early relationship, Meghan does talk about what it was like to meet the rest of the royal family for the first time.

Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank were the first members of the family that Meghan was introduced to, and in the show’s second episode, Meghan tells the story of a raucous Halloween party the night before the Express made news of her relationship with Harry public. 

Later on, the couple was going to visit with Eugenie, Jack, and Eugenie’s mother, Sarah Ferguson, at Royal Lodge at Windsor, when Harry learned that Queen Elizabeth II would be joining after church. “You do know how to curtsy, right?” Harry asked his girlfriend. (In the Oprah interview, Meghan said that Fergie helpfully taught her how to do the move correctly.) 

In the show, Meghan describes how strange it was to curtsy for the first time. “For Americans, you’ll get this, it’s like going to a Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament,” she said, before entering into a humorous, exaggerated curtsy while sitting on a couch. “Eugenie, Jack, and Fergie were like ‘You did great!’” 

Meghan’s first meeting with Prince William and Kate Middleton wasn’t quite as warm. She discussed a dinner party between the two couples at Harry’s modest Nottingham Cottage home. “When Will and Kate came over for the first time, I was barefoot and in ripped jeans,” Meghan said. “I was a hugger—I’ve always been a hugger—and I didn’t realize that it was jarring for a lot of Brits. I guess I started to understand that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside.” 

Meghan also talked about sitting next to Prince Philip over Christmas at Sandringham in 2017. She thought the meeting went well and they had a great conversation. But according to Meghan, Harry later pointed out that she wasn’t sitting on his good side. “H told me, “You had his bad ear. He couldn’t hear a thing you said,’” she said with a laugh.

In the first three episodes of Harry & Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are scrupulously kind to the individual members of the royal family, but they do still find a way to let the audience in on the behind-the-scenes moments.

Listen to Vanity Fair’s DYNASTY podcast now.