King Charles III walking Meghan Markle down the aisle as the royal family watched on has gone viral on TikTok.
Prince Harry and Meghan tied the knot at St George’s Chapel, in Windsor Castle, on May 19, 2018, in front of a global TV audience of millions.
However, the duchess’ father Thomas Markle could not walk her down the aisle having pulled out following heart problems and a paparazzi scandal.
Karwai Tang/WireImage/Jonathan Brady – WPA Pool/Getty Images
Charles—then Prince of Wales—stepped in to perform the important role of giving his future daughter-in-law away to his second son.
The moment went viral on TikTok with some fans commenting on how “perfect” Meghan looked while others read meaning into the body language of Zara Tindall, Harry’s cousin and daughter to Princess Anne.
The clip was viewed 525,000 times and liked 47,000 times after it was posted with the message: “Prince & princess.”
It began with Charles walking Meghan down the aisle before showing clips of the couple’s wedding vows and some reactions from royals including Queen Elizabeth II and Zara Tindall.
“I wish God gifted me a man like Prince Harry—Meghan you have gold,” one fan wrote in a reply.
“They look perfect,” another said while a third wrote: “She’s my princess.”
Meanwhile, one TikTok user said simply “Zara iconic” while another agreed: “Zara’s face told everything.”
Thomas Markle had been due to walk his daughter down the aisle but was caught staging paparazzi pictures for money after The Mail on Sunday obtained CCTV footage of him posing at an internet café near his home in Rosarito, Mexico.
At the time, Markle Sr. denied colluding with photographers to Meghan and Harry only to then be exposed by the footage, destroying his relationship with his daughter.
He was then treated at the hospital for an apparent heart failure and told TMZ he would not be able to attend the wedding.
The pair have never spoken again, though Meghan sent him a bombshell private letter begging him to stop talking to the media in August 2018, which he leaked to The Mail on Sunday in February 2019.
Meanwhile, Meghan downplayed the significance of their public wedding in her interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021: “Even at our wedding, you know, three days before our wedding, we got married.
“No one knows that. But we called the archbishop, and we just said, ‘Look, this thing, this spectacle is for the world, but we want our union between us.’
“So, like, the vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, later confirmed the public wedding at Windsor Castle was the legally binding moment they were actually married.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.