We’ve all done crazy things for love, but breaking the unspoken rules of the monarchy isn’t one of them. Prince Harry apparently flouted royal protocol back in 2016 when he took a little side trip to see his then-girlfriend Meghan Markle, which could potentially put him in a bit of a pickle.
This was back when Prince Harry had finally acted on his crush on Meghan Markle and they were still doing the long-distance thing, more specifically while Meghan was filming Suits over in Toronto. While Prince Harry happened to be on royal tour in the Caribbean, he decided to cancel his return British Airways flight to London and bounce over to Canada to see her according to The Telegraph.
Apparently, combining official and personal trips is a big no-no in the palace’s book – especially since the Duke of York was caught out combining his golfing holidays with business trips back in 2004. Many complained about the fact that it appeared that the royals were having a holiday on the taxpayer’s dollar, which the palace eventually responded to and clarified that the monarchy pays for their vacations out of their own pocket.
They said, ‘Members of the Royal family are entitled to grant-in-aid for official travel, as are their staff and, where capacity permits, other officials. They meet their own costs, however, for private travel. In order to avoid confusion, combining private and public engagements in the same trip is actively discouraged.’
This isn’t the first time that Meghan and Harry have bent the rules a little. The pair are much more open with their displays of affection than their relatives, kissing publicly at the polo recently and, unlike Prince William and Kate Middleton, holding hands at events.
Now that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are properly hitched and in the same country, at least it’ll cut back on the murky travel costs of traversing the world to one another.
We wonder how many air miles they racked up while they were dating…
This article originally appeared on marie claire UK
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