Will the Duchess of Sussex soon become just Meghan Markle again? For the past few days, the Anglo-Saxon tabloids have been panicking at the idea that there could be water in the gas between the former actress and Prince Harry. While Angela Levin claimed on GB News that the youngest son of Charles III had "left the family home", Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's former butler, told Sky News Australia that his marriage was not holding up. more than thanks to his children. But in the event of divorce, was their union ensured by a prenuptial agreement, as has long been the tradition in large families?
According to a Daily Mail article published in March 2018, two months before Harry and Meghan's wedding in Windsor, the prince would have "refused" to ask his future wife to sign such a contract. Yet it is common knowledge that a union within the British monarchy is synonymous with fortune. That of Prince William's brother would be between 25 and 40 million dollars. But as a great romantic, the father of Archie and Lilibet Diana had let it be known that he was convinced that his marriage “would last”.
No princely couple has signed a prenuptial agreement
However, this decision is far from shocking: according to two connoisseurs of royal traditions interviewed by Town and Country magazine in May 2018, prenuptial contracts have not been practiced in royal families for a long time. "It's common practice at celebrity weddings, but it's not a celebrity wedding, it's a royal wedding," noted writer Katie Nicholl, author of Harry: Life, Loss, and Love, which recalls that Kate Middleton and Prince William did not have to sign a marriage contract either. The Crown has however witnessed the failure of several unions during the reign of Elizabeth II: that of Princess Anne, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew.
But as Town and Country noted in 2018, Meghan Markle also has a small fortune to her name. When she played in the series that made her famous, Suits, the young woman earned around 50,000 dollars per episode. Having interpreted the character of Rachel Zane for seven seasons – 108 episodes in total – the actress would have pocketed close to 5 and a half million dollars.
