Prince Harry Teases Wife Meghan Markle to Speak French at Canada House in First Outing of 2020
Meghan Markle got shy about showing off her language skills!
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped out for their first outing of the New Year on Tuesday, visiting London’s Canada House to thank them for the country’s hospitality during their recent Christmas vacation. While speaking to gathered staff, Prince Harry suggested that his wife speak to them in French, one of Canada’s two official languages.
“No!” she exclaimed, mocking horror — despite her multilingual abilities. The Duchess of Sussex studied French for six years and also completed an internship at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires during her time at Northwestern University where she learned to speak Spanish, according to her official page on the royal family’s website.
Instead, Meghan stuck to English as she told the staff, “I want to say Happy New Year and thank you, and as my husband said, my goodness it was just such an incredible time we were able to have there and with our son too.”
“And just to be able to take in the warmth that we experienced from the people but also just to walk around and just see the beauty of Canada,” she added. “To see Archie go ‘ahhh’ when you walk by and just see how stunning it is, so it meant a lot to us.”
In January 2016, the then 34-year-old Meghan shared her personal goals for the New Year on her former lifestyle blog, The Tig — which included focusing on her language skills.
“Run a marathon. Stop biting my nails. Stop swearing. Re-learn French. These make my New Year’s resolution list nearly (AKA actually every) single year,” she wrote, adding that they never came to fruition.
“The marathon hasn’t happened. The swearing comes in lulls triggered by being overworked or feeling mighty cheeky after a couple drinks,” she wrote. “Then there’s the French — a language I studied through high school and then lost as I immersed myself in speaking Spanish with the Argentinians during my stint in Buenos Aires. I have put my little Rosetta Stone headset in my eager ears every year, resolving to do interviews en français, but much to my chagrin, it hasn’t stuck.”
Meghan kept her resolution in 2019 during the couple’s tour of Morocco in February. The then-pregnant royal spoke French while asking students at a secondary school what they study. The interaction was shared in a video on Kensington Palace’s Twitter page.
The Duchess asks two girls in the @EFAMorocco dorms about what courses they would like to study at university and the careers they would like to pursue. pic.twitter.com/pIxqAIuGCG
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) February 24, 2019
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Meghan, 38, and Harry, 35, stopped by Canada House to show their appreciation for what the couple’s office said was “the warm Canadian hospitality and support they received during their recent stay.”
Prince Harry asked the staff if any of them were from British Columbia. Several shouted yes and put up their hands, and he told them, “What a wonderful place you live in. Thank you so much for having us – not that any of you had anything much to do with it.”
“But the warmth and hospitality that we were shown while there was unbelievable, and that’s exactly why we chose to go out there. So thank you,” he added.
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The royal couple spent their first holiday season as a family of three with son Archie, 8 months, on Vancouver Island. The palace confirmed that the family were “spending private family time in Canada” ahead of Christmas.
The couple have history with the North American country, which is part of the Commonwealth, a group of nations with close ties to the Crown. Meghan called Toronto home for years while she filmed her hit USA legal drama Suits, and she was living there when she and Harry first began dating. The couple’s first public appearance together was in support of Harry’s Invictus Games in Toronto in 2017.
