While Meghan Markle was still a working royal, King Charles, who was Prince of Wales at the time, had a bizarre nickname for the Duchess
King Charles had a rather bizarre nickname for Meghan Markle, when she was still a working royal and he was Prince of Wales.
While Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has been given a slew of unflattering nicknames by the media, Charles acknowledged her mental toughness with his own nickname for his daughter-in-law.
The then Prince Charles christened Meghan as ‘Tungsten’ due to her being ‘tough’ and ‘unbending’ and while the nickname was unusual, Charles believed it was a compliment to her tenacity and it soon stuck.
The royals have been renowned for giving each other nicknames in private, and Charles felt it only right that Meghan was treated the same when she became part of the family with her marriage to Prince Harry. The new moniker was nothing new for Meghan as she was christened Rachel but decided to use her middle name.
Speaking about when Charles began using the nickname, a palace source told the Mail On Sunday’s Charlotte Griffiths in June 2018 : “Prince Charles admires Meghan for her strength and the backbone she gives Harry, who needs a tungsten-type figure in his life as he can be a bit of a softy. It’s become a term of endearment.”
In Katie Nicholl’s 2022 book The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown, she revealed more details about the nickname. She claims that Charles found Meghan to be “resilient” and was able to hold her own. Charles labelled Meghan a “breakout star” as Meghan came across as “polished, passionate, and funny”.
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