This Finding Freedom story is a request from the Celebitchy Zoom call, apparently you Celebitches want to talk about the FF story about then- Meghan Markle’s duchess training and security training. Let’s set the scene: Meghan and Harry were quietly engaged in the summer of 2017, and everyone at the palaces knew about the engagement soon after it happened. H&M were basically given a grace period of several months throughout the fall to just be a private couple. Everyone knew Meghan was the “official girlfriend” and she was living in Nottingham Cottage with Harry.

They didn’t officially announce the engagement until late November that year, and things went to warp speed after that, including the criticism. Harry and Meghan were well aware of the chatter in the palaces and in the media. Harry was thrilled to guide Meghan through the details of British life and royal life. They put together the team of people who would help them. Meghan began researching the charities she wanted to work with, because she truly wanted to hit the ground running and announce some patronages soon after the wedding. Meghan was also going through what must have been quite intensive training on royal life, and one of the most fascinating asides in FF was this:

Set to undergo the same informal training Kate had embarked upon following her engagement to William—a series of instructions that covered everything from how to most gracefully exit your chauffeured sedan while wearing a pencil skirt to when to curtsy to members of the family several rungs up the hierarchy from you—Meghan was connected to a team of experts. She had hoped to take etiquette lessons, too, but curiously they were never on offer.

[From Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal Family]

I’m almost positive that Kate took etiquette lessons before her marriage, but if memory serves (and I can’t find this story now, but I’m sure I wrote it up at the time) Kate sought etiquette lessons herself, separate from the “princess lessons” she received by courtiers. I’m not surprised that the palace didn’t offer etiquette lessons to Meghan, but I am surprised that she didn’t ask about it or request it?

Meanwhile, in addition to all of that, Meghan also went through “an intense two-day security course with the SAS, the British Army’s most elite regiment.” FF points out that Kate didn’t receive this training until after her marriage, although I do remember that in 2007-08, when Kate was back with William following their big breakup, she received some security guidance. It just wasn’t this intensive SAS training, which has royals going through various security-nightmare scenarios, like kidnapping and terrorist attacks.

The training—which all senior members of the royal family except the Queen have completed at SAS headquarters in Hereford—is preparation for all high-risk security scenarios, including kidnapping, hostage situations, and terrorist attacks. Meghan took part in a staged kidnapping, where she was bundled into the back of a car by a “terrorist,” taken to a different location, and then “saved” by officers firing fake guns (the kind used in Hollywood filming) for realism.

During the mock kidnapping, Meghan was even taught to develop a relationship with the enemy. She was also instructed on how to drive a car while in pursuit. A source said it was an “extremely intense and scary” experience for Meghan, but one that she was grateful to have gone through.

[From Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal Family]

I imagine it was scary to go through that and think about that. And it was a reminder of the kind of violent racism already targeting Meghan, even in those early days, which was being constantly ginned up by a rabid and racist press machine.

One of the courtiers explained the differences between Kate and Meghan and how they dealt with the situations from girlfriend-to-fiancee-to-wife as Kate being “lovely and smart and shy and modest, and beautifully gorgeous. And very watchful. She always used to say, whenever she rang me . . . when she was the girlfriend, ‘I’m really sorry. I don’t want to bother you with these facts.’” And then Meghan “arrived in this job a fully formed adult, having lived already a third of her life. She is a Californian who believes she can change the world. She creates her own brand, she creates her own website, she does deals. She talks about life and how we should live. Good for her. That’s the way in America. In Britain, people look at that and go, ‘Who do you think you are?’”

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red, Backgrid.