The Queen Liked Meghan Markle As Soon As She Met Her

• Meghan Markle and the Queen got on swimmingly as soon as they met, royal biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand write in new Sussex biography Finding Freedom.
• Their first meeting ran over schedule by 10 minutes—a huge deal for the famously punctual Queen.
• "The conversation flowed naturally" between the future Duchess and the monarch, Scobie and Durand write. 

Meghan Markle and the Queen's close relationship has been widely reported on, so it's little surprise that their first official meeting was a roaring success, according to royal biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand in new book Finding Freedom. In fact, they got on so well that the meeting ran 10 minutes over schedule, a rarity for the Queen.

As Hello! reports, Scobie and Durand reveal that the future Duchess of Sussex officially met the Queen on October 12, 2017 (though they'd had a fleeting encounter earlier that year, when Meghan and Harry "literally bumped into her"). The meeting took place in the Queen's private apartments in Buckingham Palace. "Harry and Meghan rode the Queen's elevator—a stunning wrought-iron lift from the previous century—up to the monarch's private entrance," the royal correspondents write. "The inner sanctum of the Queen's private apartment was not at all what Meghan expected. Not that she really knew what to expect."

"Harry kissed his grandmother on both cheeks as they walked into her sitting room. Meghan knew she needed to curtsy and had practised a dozen times before that day," Scobie and Durand continue. In reality, she had no need to worry: "The truth was that the sovereign was simply delighted for Harry." 

The first sign that things would go well: The Queen's corgis, Candy and Vulcan, were immediate fans of Meghan (and a dog's judgment is second to none.) "As the dogs lay at her feet and wagged their tails, Meghan was also put at ease by the Queen, as warm and loving as Harry had told her his grandmother would be. The conversation flowed naturally before Meghan had to leave." Adorable!