Prince Harry told his wife Meghan Markle not to take a photo in front of the Taj Mahal as he did not want people to think she was mimicking his mother.
In 1992, Diana, Princess of Wales was pictured sitting alone at the famous landmark on a tour of India, in an image considered symbolic of the state of her relationship with King Charles III.
Writing in his memoir Spare, Prince Harry says he and Meghan laughed about the advice he gave her ahead of a trip she was taking to India.
“Do not take a photo in front of the Taj Mahal. She’d asked why and I’d said: My mum,” he wrote.
“I’d explained that my mother had posed for a photo there, and it had become iconic, and I didn’t want anyone thinking Meg was trying to mimic my mother.
“Meg had never heard of this photo, and found the whole thing baffling, and I loved her for being baffled.”
Meghan went to India with World Vision, working on menstrual health management and education access for young girls, according to the memoir.
She then took her mother Doria Ragland on a yoga retreat in Goa to celebrate her 60th birthday.
Elsewhere in the book, which hit the shops on Tuesday (10 January), Prince Harry reveals it was Meghan who sent the first message at the beginning of their romance.
A mutual friend helped to connect the pair after the duke spotted Meghan on a friend’s Instagram account.
The friend, called Violet, asked Prince Harry if it would be fine to give Meghan his Instagram handle, to which he agreed.
He received a message from Meghan complimenting his Instagram page which he said was mostly photos of Africa.
He says they exchanged phone numbers and began texting “late into the night”, adding that this began on 1 July 2016 – his mother’s 55th birthday.
Later in the book, the Duke of Sussex reveals he would “roll a joint” at night when he and his family were staying at US actor Tyler Perry’s house in Los Angeles in 2020, after they left Canada.
“Late at night, with everyone asleep, I’d walk the house, checking the doors and windows,” he writes.
“Then I’d sit on the balcony or the edge of the garden and roll a joint.”
Prince Harry also reflects on sharing a “spliff” with friends in his Eton days in “a tiny upstairs bathroom, wherein we’d implement a surprisingly thoughtful, orderly assembly line”.
He writes in the book: “I knew this was bad behaviour. I knew it was wrong. My mates knew too. We talked about it often, while stoned, how stupid we were to be wasting an Eton education.”
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Additional reporting from agencies
