Meghan Markle's barefoot first meeting with Prince William and Princess Kate is back in the conversation after a new royal memoir offered a different picture of how informal the family could be behind closed doors. Ruthie Henshall's The Showgirl and the Prince, due out on 16 July, has revived the old story and nudged Meghan's own comments from Harry & Meghan back into the spotlight.
The news came after excerpts from Henshall's book, serialised by the Mail on Sunday, described a Balmoral weekend that sounded far more relaxed than the royal machine usually looks from the outside. Henshall wrote that the Queen sat on the arm of a sofa, that dogs were everywhere, and that the atmosphere 'slightly surprised' her, which is a neat little reminder that palace life has always depended on the room, the company and the occasion.
