Queen Elizabeth, Meghan Markle's First Meeting Reportedly Filled With 'Air Of Tension'

Meghan Markle and Queen Elizabeth II's first meeting was reportedly tense.

On Oct. 20, 2017, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had a meeting with the Queen a month before their engagement was announced. Andrew Morton claimed in his book, "Meghan: A Hollywood Princess, Mr. Morton," that the meeting was the "most important audition of Meghan's life" because there was "no rehearsal, no script no second takes. This was live and improvised." He added that it was filled with an "air of tension."

"When she was driven through the gates of Buckingham Palace on an overcast, drizzly Thursday in October in a black Ford Galaxy with darkened windows, the actress was about to give the performance of her career," the royal biographer wrote (via Express). "This was perhaps inevitable. As fifth in line to the throne, the prince had to obtain his grandmother’s formal permission to marry."

"It was by no means a foregone conclusion. She could say no. She’d done it before. Then what? Any possible uncertainly about the outcome of this meeting lay not with Meghan, but with the man she wanted to marry. He was the one who had been, if not on trial, then under close scrutiny," he continued.

According to Morton, if Prince Harry met the Queen with the same intention years earlier when he wasn't a changed man, Her Majesty would likely had said no, especially since Markle was previously married to Trevor Engelson. Apparently, the Queen gave her blessing to the couple due to her grandson's change in attitude.

"Harry’s transformation over the last few years has, together with the popular union between Prince William and Kate Middleton, secured the future of the monarchy," Morton added.

Last week, the royals attended the Remembrance Day service and celebration. Many noticed that Queen Elizabeth II, Camilla Parker Bowles and Kate Middleton stood on the same balcony. On the other hand, Markle stood in a different veranda with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s wife Elke Budenbender.

According to People, there's a reason why Markle wasn't on the same balcony as the monarch, the Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Cambridge. The royals reportedly arrange themselves in a "pecking order." Camilla and Middleton are wives of the next kings, so they stood beside the Queen in the same balcony.