Meghan Markle's First-Ever Royal Speech Proves She's Meant to Be a Duchess
Ever since Meghan Markle announced her engagement to Prince Harry in November 2017, her life has been a frenzy of press appearances, events, and hats (like this one!). Despite all this publicity, though, Markle hasn't really said much—not publicly, at least. Markle and and Prince Harry sat down for an interview shortly after their engagement reveal, but aside from that, it's been relatively quiet—just lots of smiling, waving, and breaking royal protocol with messy buns.
But this changed last night at the Endeavour Fund Awards in the U.K., where Markle gave her first-ever royal speech. Because it's Markle, though, you probably wouldn't be surprised to learn her speech "broke" royal tradition. Rebecca English from the Daily Mail noted on Twitter that it's actually unusual for someone to give a speech before they're officially married into the royal family. Nevertheless, Markle persisted.
It was for a great cause, too. The Endeavour Fund Awards ceremony honors accomplishments of sick or injured veterans who've used sports as part of their recovery. Markle specifically gave the Celebrating Excellence Award to veteran Daniel Claricoates.
Granted, the speech got off to a rocky start—it looks like Claircoates fumbled a bit, but the audience cheered him on anyway. Soon, however, we were off to the races.
“I’m truly privileged to be here," Markle said, according to People. “Daniel acquired complex post-traumatic stress after multiple tours in Afghanistan with the Royal Marines, during which he was awarded the Military Cross. "Despite his teammates stating that Daniel’s battle with post-traumatic stress was probably the toughest they have ever seen, Daniel joined '65 Degrees North' in climbing to the summits of the highest mountains in both Africa and Antartica. Daniel now works with children, assisting them to foster their own spirit of adventure through the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards Team.”
Check out some clips of Markle's speech, below:
Spoken like a true almost-duchess, am I right?
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