The Queen Seems to Be Bonding With Meghan Markle Faster Than She Did With Kate Middleton

For some reason, Queen Elizabeth’s relationship with Meghan Markle is seemingly progressing faster than her relationship progressed with Kate Middleton, her other famous granddaughter-in-law. Perhaps it’s just a matter of timing, perhaps Kate made Queen Elizabeth realize outsiders are OK, or perhaps Meghan just endeared herself to the British monarch faster.

For example, Queen Elizabeth and Meghan will make their first joint engagement on June 14, just days after Meghan’s return from her honeymoon. The two royals will head to Chester, England, to open the Storyhouse cultural center and then eat lunch at the town hall with Lord and Lady Mayoress. As Yahoo! Lifestyle noted, Kate had been married to Prince William for nearly a year by the time she took her first personal trip with the queen.

On that occasion, Kate joined Queen Elizabeth at the kickoff of the Diamond Jubilee tour. “The most memorable engagement for me was an away-day to Leicester,” she recalled in the documentary Our Queen at 90. “I went without William, so I was rather apprehensive about that. [Queen Elizabeth] was very supportive. The fact she took the time to make sure that I was happy and looked after for that particular occasion, which probably, in everything that she’s doing, is a very small element, shows just how caring she is, really.”

Plus, Queen Elizabeth first met Meghan less than a year and half after Meghan and Prince Harry started dating, on the occasion of the queen’s Christmas luncheon; whereas Kate didn’t meet the queen until five years after Kate started dating William, when Kate attended the wedding of Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly.

“It was amongst a lot of other guests, and she was very friendly,” Kate recalled in a 2010 interview with the UK Press Association. William added, “She was very welcoming. She knew it was a big day, and everything was going on with Peter and Autumn. She wanted to meet Kate for a while, so it was very nice for her to come over and say hello and have a little chat.”

PopSugar has reported, however, that Kate and Queen Elizabeth had previously shared the same space on multiple occasions without any interaction. As Yahoo! noted, it’s possible that the queen was leery of outsiders after Prince Charles’ fallout with Princess Diana. But royal expert Kelly Lynch insisted that Meghan isn’t receiving special treatment. “When Will and Kate got married, the queen granted them a grace period to live as normally as possible,” she told the site.

Well, we hate to think of the queen playing favorites, so we’ll assume this trend is just a coincidence. Then again, we’d be eager to meet Meghan as soon as possible, too.