Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have definitely had an eventful past year of marriage.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have definitely had an eventful past year of marriage.
The couple is celebrating their two-year wedding anniversary Tuesday, and life looks a lot different for the pair not only since they tied the knot in a fairy-tale wedding at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018, but even from their celebration just a year ago. Meghan and Harry have since stepped down as senior members of the royal family and have relocated to Los Angeles with their 1-year-old son, Archie, and like the rest of the world, are also now dealing with how life has changed due to the coronavirus pandemic. ET recently spoke to royal expert Katie Nicholl, who shared that their anniversary celebration this year will be low-key given the times.
"Well, it is their second wedding anniversary, but coming in the middle of a lockdown as you might expect, it will be a quite quiet affair," Nicholl says. "I'm told it will be a family day. Perhaps a moment for a bit of reflection on what has been a pretty momentous past year. No big gathering. They certainly won't be going out. They can't go out."
Nicholl says Meghan and Harry's celebration will be similar to the intimate way they marked Archie's first birthday on May 6. Sources previously told ET that Meghan made Archie's strawberries-and-cream birthday cake herself and that Harry helped with decorations and blew up balloons, while Archie had Zoom meetings with godparents, friends and family.
"I would say a small and intimate family gathering over anything that has been specially planned for the day," Nicholl tells ET of the couple's anniversary plans. "I'm told by sources close to the couple that they just want to enjoy each other’s company, spend the day together. They will probably go offline, and they are working really hard at the moment, so I think it will be a day for perhaps switching their computers off, not having too much screen time and just enjoying being a family together."
Meghan and Harry have stayed busy in L.A. -- where they've continued to support the charities that are important to them, as well as volunteered to personally deliver meals amid the global health emergency -- but Nicholl says that the two are also now taking time to reflect as they quarantine together.
"One of the things I was told by a friend of the couple's is that they actually are enjoying the slightly slower pace," she says. "They are busy and they are doing quite a lot behind the scenes, but you know, this is a couple that tends to operate 100 miles per hour. I think they're enjoying the lockdown and the fact that they've been able to take a bit of a breather. It's been a very, very busy year for them, and I think this is a moment to just take a breath, reflect, and I think that's what they'll be doing on their anniversary."
"They've done a lot in the past year, and I think it might be a very good time for them to have this moment to reflect and to really make sure that when we are open for business and they start to broker these commercial deals -- when we start to see more of them working independently from the royal family and going it alone -- that their plan is really well considered and thought out, so this is probably quite crucial time for them," she adds.
But one thing that hasn't changed is 38-year-old Meghan and 35-year-old Harry's love for each other.
"Two years in, they're still very much in love," Nicholl says. "As they approach their second wedding anniversary, they can reflect on a pretty epic year. So much has happened for Meghan and Harry, but I'm told by a source very close to them that all of the experiences, the challenges, the obstacles of 2019 and 2020, have really made them even closer."
"They've always been a great team and a partnership and you've seen that when you're with them," she continues. "But they were described as hand in glove, and that idea that really one just fits the other beautifully and they complement each other, they work well together, and I think looking back on what's clearly been a challenging and a testing year, the one thing that just hasn't faltered is their commitment to each other and their love for one another. They've done this together as a couple and I think it's important to remember that."
Nicholl also told ET that Harry has recently been back in touch with his older brother, Prince William, after his dramatic royal exit caused some tension between them. Watch the video below for more:
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