Why Prince Harry Sought Kate Middleton’s Approval Before Marrying Meghan Markle

Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton appear to have become closer in the last couple months, doing their first event together 11 days ago at Wimbledon. But royal reporter Katie Nicholl just revealed new details to Grazia UK on the two’s growing friendship and how before Prince Harry put a ring on it, Meghan was Kate Middleton-approved.

The two first met in November 2016, four months after Harry started dating Meghan and when he realized that things were getting serious with her. The first meeting was a “success.”

“Harry and Kate are very close, she’s been like a mentor to him and he wanted her seal of approval,” a source told Nicholl. “Kate is different to Meghan in many ways, but she has made great strides to help Meghan settle in.”

Nicholl previously reported that Kate had played matchmaker for Harry during his bachelor days. “Harry wasn’t giving up [after things ended with exes Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas], even going on blind dates organized by Kate and his cousin Princess Eugenie, who had a good track record when it came to setting Harry up,” she wrote (via E!).

Nicholl’s source described Kate and Meghan’s friendship these day as “still slowly blossoming. Kate has gone out of her way to be friendly to Meghan, and Meghan has been very grateful for that.”

Kate doesn’t feel threatened by Meghan joining the family or her popularity at events. As Nicholl writes, “Friends say that she is thrilled that the spotlight isn’t on her at a time when she wants to enjoy being with her family and remain relatively low-key.”