Meghan and Harry have never grasped the notion of ‘only connect’

In June 2017 Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, was surprised when Jane Sarkin, his features editor, told him they should do a cover story on Meghan Markle, the star of Suits. Carter had never heard of Markle, but then nor had most people. In her own eyes she was a huge Hollywood celebrity, but actually she was mainly unknown outside Canada, where Suits was filmed. She wasn’t even the star of the series; she was about sixth in the billing. But Sarkin knew something else about her: that she was rumoured to be marrying Prince Harry.

Markle happily agreed to the interview, but said, of course, she could not talk about Harry. She wanted to be celebrated as a global ‘activist and philanthropist’. The trouble was that Vanity Fair’s meticulous fact-checkers could not find any evidence of her activism and philanthropy, so that claim had to be dropped. And then, when asked about Harry, Meghan answered, ‘We’re a couple.