Could Harry and Meghan announce engagement on Tuesday?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are set to bring months of fevered speculation to an end by announcing their engagement this week, Royal sources have indicated.

The couple’s plans appear to have been finalised at a series of last-minute meetings between senior courtiers at Kensington Palace. 

An official announcement is expected in the next few days, with Tuesday thought to be the most likely date.

This is the same day of the week that Harry’s brother, the Duke of Cambridge, and his father, the Prince of Wales, chose to share their engagement news with the nation. 

Downing Street has refused to comment but a Cabinet meeting is, as usual, scheduled for that day – providing Theresa May with the perfect opportunity to inform her Ministers.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s (pictured) plans appear to have been finalised at a series of last-minute meetings between senior courtiers at Kensington Palace. An official announcement is expected in the next few days, with Tuesday thought to be the most likely date

Details of the ceremony, the date and the venue would follow swiftly – along with huge speculation about the guest list for what is set to be the wedding of 2018.

Royal insiders say there has been a growing sense of urgency in Palace corridors since American actress Meghan, 36, and 33-year-old Harry appeared together at the Invictus Games in Toronto in September.

In the two months which followed, there have been multiple hints that the couple are set to formalise their 18-month transatlantic relationship.

Her role in US TV drama Suits has now come to an end, and her apartment in Toronto is standing empty.

Last week, Meghan arrived in London and was spotted looking relaxed during a shopping trip. Her beloved dogs, Bogart and Guy, are understood to be in quarantine in London.

In the past few days, a senior official from Buckingham Palace has been seen at Kensington Palace, in a breach of normal protocol.

Over the summer, it became clear Meghan’s legal affairs were being looked after by Royal solicitor Harbottle & Lewis, while planned building works at Kensington Palace raised the possibility of a new home in one of the apartments. 

At present, Prince Harry lives in Nottingham Cottage in the Palace grounds.

Last night,the house in the Toronto suburbs (pictured) that had been rented by Prince Harry's girlfriend looked to have been vacated for good.

Last night,the house in the Toronto suburbs (pictured) that had been rented by Prince Harry’s girlfriend looked to have been vacated for good.

It has also been suggested the couple are hunting for a country retreat in either Norfolk, close to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s home Anmer Hall, or in the West Country.

This year Meghan has spent time with Kate and William, met the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, and been introduced to the Queen who must give the marriage her blessing. 

In terms of Royal protocol, it is unlikely that all of these things would have happened if Meghan was not set to marry into the House of Windsor.

It’s curtains for her old life in Toronto 

The curtains are carefully tied up, away from the dust. There’s no one at home – not even actress Meghan Markle’s much-loved dogs Guy and Bogart.

Last night, the house in the Toronto suburbs that had been rented by Prince Harry’s girlfriend looked to have been vacated for good.

Meghan rose to fame for her role as Rachel in the hit legal drama Suits, which is filmed in the Canadian city.

According to friends, she has now left the series – and Toronto – behind her.

He gave engagement ring to Wills and Kate

When Princess Diana died, it was her stunning sapphire engagement ring that Prince Harry chose to keep as an enduring memento.

But Harry gallantly handed the ring, right, to Prince William for his engagement to Kate. Now there is speculation that he will choose another of his mother’s jewels to be turned into a ring for Meghan.

One item which would have special sentimental value, as well as a historic Royal provenance, is an emerald choker gifted by the Queen, which Diana later turned into a headband. The late Princess is also said to have favoured a set of sapphire jewels she received as a wedding present from the Saudi Crown Prince, including a pearl and sapphire choker.

The Queen’s jewellery collection includes the Queen Mary’s Town of Windsor ring, with three diamonds.

Harry should take note… American brides appear to favour diamonds.

When Princess Diana died, it was her stunning sapphire engagement ring (pictured) that Prince Harry chose to keep as an enduring memento

When Princess Diana died, it was her stunning sapphire engagement ring (pictured) that Prince Harry chose to keep as an enduring memento

A welcome watershed for Royalty 

Eighty-one years ago this month, King Edward VIII was preparing to surrender his throne because of his love for Mrs Wallis Simpson.

‘We will not stand for an American divorcee as the wife of our King,’ wrote an angry correspondent quoted in one Canadian newspaper. 

‘If the Monarchy will not observe tradition, then we had better give it up altogether!’

In November 1936, most of Britain and the Empire – and certainly the British Government of the time – agreed.

How times have changed. Time was when divorced persons were not admitted to the Royal Enclosure at Ascot.

Royal insiders say there has been a growing sense of urgency in Palace corridors since American actress Meghan, 36, and 33-year-old Harry (pictured) appeared together at the Invictus Games in Toronto in September

Royal insiders say there has been a growing sense of urgency in Palace corridors since American actress Meghan, 36, and 33-year-old Harry (pictured) appeared together at the Invictus Games in Toronto in September

Now the bookmakers are saying that November 2017 is the month when Britain will actively welcome an American divorcee, Meghan Markle, into the Royal Family as the future wife of Prince Harry, currently fifth in line to the throne.

There’s also an extra attraction: Ms Markle is of mixed race.

‘I’m half black and half white,’ she explained in Elle magazine two years ago. ‘My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American.’

In a world of euphemism and verbal tiptoeing around the truth, it would seem that Meghan Markle can add forthrightness to her roster of attractions.

‘You create the identity you want for yourself,’ she wrote of her background, ‘just as my ancestors did when they were given their freedom.’

Royal families are proud of their family trees and the House of Windsor’s about-to-be latest recruit feels the same pride in hers, describing in Elle how her great-great-great-grandfather on her mother’s side was one of the American slaves who was freed in 1865.

Whoever doubted the ability of the House of Windsor, with its own invented name, to reinvent itself? 

Meghan Markle (pictured) shows every sign of being caring, hard-working and intelligent – 'all useful ingredients,' says one trusted Windsor friend, 'for members of our Royal Family.'

Meghan Markle (pictured) shows every sign of being caring, hard-working and intelligent – ‘all useful ingredients,’ says one trusted Windsor friend, ‘for members of our Royal Family.’

Meghan Markle shows every sign of being caring, hard-working and intelligent – ‘all useful ingredients,’ says one trusted Windsor friend, ‘for members of our Royal Family.’

Prince Harry first got to know his sweetheart, of course, in the way that we all did – through television. 

As Rachel Zane, the para-legal assistant and would-be lawyer in the TV series Suits, Meghan Markle impressed as an actress.

Grace Kelly, the last actress to marry into high-profile royalty, was light, charming and beautiful, but her high society screen profile was of a mischievous fashion plate. 

Meghan stands for sterner stuff – can there be such a thing as a self-made princess?

The essence of Rachel Zane is her determination to make her own way in the world, without fear or favour – and Meghan herself has identical ambitions.

She was a philanthropist long before she met Harry, travelling to Rwanda to work on a clean water project, and she is now developing future plans, it is reported, to set up her own foundation, helping vulnerable young women around the world.

‘I’ve never wanted to be a lady who lunches,’ she told a UN Women’s Conference in 2015. ‘I’ve always wanted to be a woman who works.’

She’s certainly heading for the right place now – look at the formidable workrate of her future aunt, Princess Anne, not to mention, of course, the unremitting schedule of our 91-year-old Queen.

The infamous treatment that was handed out to Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend by press and politicians in the 1950s derived from the concept of the whole Royal Family having to ‘set a good example’.

Well, in contemporary terms, Harry and Meghan are now doing precisely that – with plans for much more. Presumably, Meghan will become a partner inside the innovative and adventurous Royal Foundation created by William, Harry and Kate to support and develop creative charities such as Place2Be, with its emphasis on the mental health of the young.

People frequently give credit to Diana, the ‘People’s Princess’, for the progressive and open instincts of her two enterprising and quietly innovative sons – and so they should. 

But let us not forget the contribution of their father, Prince Charles, and the hell that he went through to win the right to marry his own divorced partner, as a divorcee himself. Prince Harry and Meghan will now be the beneficiaries of that battle.

Last week, Meghan arrived in London and was spotted looking relaxed during a shopping trip. Her beloved dogs, Bogart and Guy (pictured) , are understood to be in quarantine in London

Last week, Meghan arrived in London and was spotted looking relaxed during a shopping trip. Her beloved dogs, Bogart and Guy (pictured) , are understood to be in quarantine in London

Most of us may not think of Camilla Parker Bowles as a ‘sweetheart’ in the same romantic terms as we view the youthful Meghan Markle. 

But in legal and dynastic terms, the two women’s situation is exactly parallel.

Prince Charles fought for the freedom that his son will now enjoy to publicly acknowledge and marry the woman of his choice – and didn’t we give him a hard time in the process?

This all comes back to us and to the prejudices and the stereotypes that we, the general public, impose on our public figureheads. But history moves on – and sometimes in a positive fashion.

Who would have imagined, even in the first decade of the 21st Century, that an heir to the throne (Prince William) could ‘shack up’ with his girlfriend Kate for the best part of eight years before making a ‘decent woman’ of her? When his grandmother came to the throne in 1952, that sort of

behaviour was called ‘living in sin’. But his grandmother Elizabeth II – herself a deeply committed Christian who is said to kneel beside her bedside every night in the style of her own mother – blessed this potentially controversial waiting time.

All of this goes back to the open-mindedness and the tone set by our Royal head of state. 

We know the Queen (tutored herself by a constitutional historian) took personal charge of William’s lessons as a future King, inviting him to Windsor when he was a teenager to study confidential Government papers in her ‘red boxes’, and instructing him in the topmost protocols of the Monarchy.

Recently we have learned the key event triggering current expectations of an engagement announcement was the fact that Meghan and Harry went to the Palace a few weeks ago and sat down for tea with the Queen, who is said to have conferred her blessing on the match.

Was Prince Philip there as well? He was certainly there in spirit, since the free-thinking modernity of our representative Monarchy owes much to Philip’s no-nonsense impatience with formality and convention. 

So, will we be seeing Meghan with Harry at Sandringham this Christmas, taking her first public steps in her new life as a future princess?

The omens seem promising, with reports that she will shortly be importing her two beloved rescue dogs – a beagle and a labrador-shepherd – to Britain.

It would be marvellous if the roster of controversial Royal alliances could progress happily in the next few weeks with the smooth and non-controversial addition of its two latest names: David and Wallis, Peter and Margaret, Charles and Camilla, and now Meghan and Harry.

It looks as if the Queen and the Royal Family stand ready to smooth the way for this brilliant step forward – but what about the rest of the country? 

Will a marriage to Meghan – the Monarchy’s Obama moment – prove a problem for the more prejudiced among the public?

I sincerely hope not. The actress has related how her great-great-great-grandfather, the last slave on her mother’s side, decided to give himself a new surname following the emancipation of 1865, picking out the word ‘Wisdom’.

Let us hope that Meghan and Harry’s forthcoming happy news will inspire all of us with a generous measure of that wisdom this Christmas. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk