“By then, Harry had introduced Meghan to Diana’s two sisters, Jane and Sarah, and her best friend Julia Samuel. Harry assumed that Diana’s family and friends would see a similarity between Diana and his fiancée. “Both, he said, shared the same problems. He was disappointed. No one agreed that his vulnerable mother had anything in common with his girlfriend. More discomforting for him, they thought Meghan would not fit in with the Royal Family.”

The author continued: “Their unease was voiced by Charles Spencer, Diana’s brother. At William’s request, Spencer weighed in. Three times married, Spencer cautioned his nephew to reconsider his haste towards marriage. His advice provoked a bitter reaction. ‘This was going to be really hard,’ Harry would later reflect on establishing Meghan’s place in the family.”

Bower went on: “One of his recurring concerns was insufficient money if they married. Although Harry annually received about £1.5 million from Charles, Meghan had been advised to continue acting to supplement their income. “By that point, Meghan knew from her agent Nick Collins that her acting prospects were limited. Omid Scobie, her official biographer, would accurately summarise her exit from Hollywood. “‘She wanted a more meaningful career,’ he wrote. ‘She could be doing so much more with her platform.’ Her frustration remained. She was tantalisingly close to sealing her future, but nothing was official.”