Royal biographers have revealed that Meghan Markle made a pointed joke about her silence within the royal family during her wedding speech in May 2018, a remark that reportedly left guests at the evening reception stunned.
According to a report in the Daily Mirror, the Duchess of Sussex stepped up alongside Prince Harry to speak at their wedding reception, a first for a royal bride, and opened her address with the words: 'First of all, it's been a while.' Biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand recount the moment in their book Finding Freedom, writing that the line drew a big laugh but hinted at a bride who felt she had been muzzled by the institution she had just joined.
What Meghan Markle said in her wedding speech
The wedding itself was a global spectacle. The couple married on 19 May 2018 at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, in a televised ceremony watched by millions around the world. Meghan, an American actress and activist before her marriage, was the first bride of her background to marry into the senior ranks of the British royal family in modern times.
After the church service, guests moved to a lunchtime reception and then to an evening party hosted by the then Prince Charles at Frogmore House. The celebration was modern to its core, with 'dirty burgers', candyfloss and a themed cocktail named 'When Harry Met Meghan'.
It was during the speeches that Meghan broke with tradition. Royal brides had not previously taken the microphone themselves. According to the Mirror's account of Finding Freedom, a close confidant of the Duchess described the silence that followed her decision to speak.
'You could literally hear a pin drop,' the confidant said.
The source added that Meghan had spent years speaking out, on campus, on television and as an advocate for women, and that royal life had required a very different way of living. The biographers write that Meghan laughed and said 'I know it's been a while' before continuing her address.
The Botswana passage in the speech
For readers in this country, one passage of the speech carries particular weight. In the version Meghan later read aloud in the couple's 2022 Netflix documentary, she described her courtship with Harry as a 'modern fairytale' and traced its key moments, including their first meeting in London on 3 July 2016 and a second date marked by cupcakes.
Then came the line that names Botswana directly. Meghan told the guests that after a month of long-distance courtship, the couple 'settle into the quiet of Botswana', where they looked at each other and thought, whatever world they were in, they would love and garden and travel and laugh together.
That retreat to Botswana in 2016 has become a fixture of the Sussex love story. The couple have spoken of it repeatedly as the place where their relationship became serious, and the reference in a wedding speech before a room of British royals and global celebrities placed this country at the centre of a narrative that would later reshape the monarchy's public image.
From wedding joke to Oprah interview
The joke about silence did not stay a joke. In her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan addressed the issue head on, saying she had been silenced as a working royal and comparing her situation to The Little Mermaid, the animated princess who loses her voice after falling in love with a prince.
Meghan told Winfrey she had stumbled on the film while alone at Nottingham Cottage, the couple's former home at Kensington Palace. She said she was struck that the character falls in love with a prince, loses her voice, and then 'by the end, she gets her voice back'.
The full text of the wedding speech only became public in 2022, when Meghan read it from her phone in the final episode of the Sussexes' six-part Netflix series. The opening quip that 'it's been a while' was confirmed as the line that had been quietly reported years earlier.
Tradition tested, and what followed
There is a lesson here about institutions and the people who join them. The monarchy asked for discretion, as it has asked of every bride who married into it. Meghan agreed to those terms, as her own speech acknowledged, and then spent years telling audiences that the price of that discretion was too high. The couple ultimately stepped away from royal duties in 2020 and relocated to the United States, a rupture that continues to generate headlines and commercial ventures, including the Netflix series that finally aired the speech in full.
Reports elsewhere in the British press suggest the Sussexes remain in the public eye, with Express noting recent commentary on Meghan's public messages and the family's movements. The wedding speech of 2018, once a private moment that stunned a reception room, has become one of the most quoted texts in the modern royal story.
Botswana, meanwhile, keeps its place in that story. A quiet camp in the bush, chosen by a couple seeking privacy, became the setting for a courtship that ended at Windsor and then, in the telling of one of the two people involved, at the heart of a speech that guests never forgot.
FAQ
When did Prince Harry and Meghan Markle marry?
They married on 19 May 2018 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in a ceremony televised worldwide.
What did Meghan Markle say in her wedding speech?
She opened by saying 'it's been a while', described her courtship with Harry as a modern fairytale, and referenced their retreat to Botswana after a month of long-distance courtship.
Why did the speech shock guests?
Royal brides had not previously delivered their own speeches, and the remark about having been quiet for so long hinted at her discomfort with royal constraints, according to biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.