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Queen Elizabeth Just Consented to the Royal Wedding & Called Meghan Markle ‘Rachel’: Here's Why

rachel meghan markle queens consent

Queen Elizabeth called Meghan Markle a completely different name when she declared her formal consent to the royal wedding, but there’s a totally valid reason behind it.

Yesterday, Queen Elizabeth released a letter to the Privy Council, a group of advisers, and announced her consent to the nuptials between her “dearly beloved grandson,” Prince Harry, and his fiancée, Meghan Markle. Although the queen is required to give her official stamp of approval, we couldn’t help but notice that she referred to Markle as “Rachel.”

The announcement read, “I declare my consent to a contract of matrimony between my most dearly beloved grandson Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales and Rachel Meghan Markle.” Rachel Meghan?

Sure, our initial thought was the queen watched one too many episodes of Suits and mistakenly called Markle by her character’s name, Rachel Zane. But as it turns out, the actress’s given first name is actually Rachel.

In fact, “Rachel” is listed as Markle’s first name on all of her legal documents (like her passport), and the queen is required to use her full name when formally declaring her consent. Same goes for Harry, who goes by his given name, Henry, during traditional royal ceremonies.

The more you know.

Queen Elizabeth II Is Planning to Give Prince Harry & Meghan Markle *This* Traditional Wedding Gift



greta

Senior Editor

Greta Heggeness is a California-based editor at PureWow and has been writing about entertainment since 2015. She covers everything from awards shows to exclusive celebrity...