CULTURE

Meghan Markle Micro News Updates Have Officially Gotten Out of Hand

The Meghan Markle content wheel keeps churning, but we may have officially reached our peak.


The Prince Of Wales' 70th Birthday Patronage Celebration
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The post-royal-wedding world is a dizzying one. Between following Meghan Markle and Prince Harry every step of the way as they decide on where they will spend their honeymoon (as of right now, it appears that Canada will be the destination of choice), absorbing any available insight regarding how Markle is adjusting to her new royal life in London (she’s doing just fine, and has even enlisted the help of her friend Amal Clooney), and every other daily update concerning the Duchess of Sussex that just one year ago would have been on hardly anyone’s minds, everyone is thirsty to lap up any Markle-related micro news they can get their hands on. The latest Markle moment is no exception.

On Wednesday afternoon, Queen Elizabeth II was photographed during a meeting with George Brandis, the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. In this private Buckingham Palace room where she held the meeting, there are a few framed paintings, some comfortable seating options, a couple side tables, and a fireplace with a very busy mantle. Basically, the whole scene looks just like your grandma’s house, if your grandma’s interiors were decorated with English palatial aesthetics in mind—but eagle-eyed fans of the royal family spotted something special about the photograph of Her Majesty with the Australian High Commissioner.

Never mind the fact that the Queen’s handbag was settled on the seat of a chair in the background of the photo (is there no one designated to hold onto the Queen’s belongings while she takes a business meeting?); just shift your eyes slightly further back and above her purse instead. What you’ll find is a framed—and apparently never-before-seen—photograph of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on a side table next to the fireplace. Since the photo has never been shown to the public before, no one knows when the photograph was taken, but upon zooming all the way in it is clear that Prince Harry is clad in a blue suit while holding onto Meghan Markle, who is smiling while wearing a light blue dress.

Zoom all the way in.

WPA Pool/Getty Images

We’ve endured whiplash from the many nutty Markle family scoops in the lead-up to the royal wedding, established that Markle herself was not actually breaking with so many royal traditions on a daily basis (though it was reported ad nauseum for months that she was some sort of queen of breaking barriers in the royal family), and weathered some very niche drama concerning the Duchess of Sussex’s dog, in addition to watching designers duke it out over who actually came up with the design for Markle’s wedding dress. At this point, seeing a framed photograph of the Duchess with her husband on his grandmother’s side table should hardly stir any of us, but the method by which this information was obtained signals that our national obsession with Meghan Markle has either gone to far or we’ve just breezed through everything else by now. Countless blogs and media outlets zoomed in and enhanced this seemingly random photograph of the Queen as if they were replicants in Blade Runner, just to get the tiniest taste of Markle-related information.

Still, it’s all good fun to remain on the Meghan Markle content wheel, taking in the daily updates as they come. If there’s anything to take away from today’s Markle moment, it’s that if you thought you were obsessed with Meghan Markle, you’ve probably got nothing on the first person who spotted that framed photograph on the Queen’s side table.

Related: Amal Clooney Has Reportedly Been Helping Meghan Markle “Settle Into London Life”