By Adapting To The Times, Queen Elizabeth Might Have Saved The Monarchy

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According to former palace staffer Colleen Harris, it’s pretty much known inside the palace that Queen Elizabeth has saved the monarchy on several occasions — simply by adaption to the times.

“She’s insuring the future of the monarchy by being open and flexible and adapting,” she told People. “She’s allowing it to rebrand.”

As People reports, the death of Princess Diana 21 years ago brought questions about how close the royals were to the feelings of the people they serve. And the gossip-laden ending of the marriages of Prince Charles and Diana and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, coinciding with the fire at Windsor Castle (all in 1992), made it feel more soap opera than stately.

Now that Prince William and Prince Harry were able to marry Kate and Megan, both commoners, the Queen might have strengthened the allure of royalty and insured its future.

Colleen noted how people around the palace were “quite shocked” that William was marrying “an ordinary middle-class girl with no background in royalty or aristocracy,” when he wed Princess Kate in 2011. “People then sort of thought, an ordinary person can grow up and marry into the royal family. How exciting, how different! With [Meghan], that takes it even a step further.”

She adds, “The Queen is allowing the royal family to modernize. We have come a real long way. They are not stuffy and immovable.”

H/T: People.