When Meghan Markle stepped into her new role as Duchess of Sussex, she left her working life as an actress and adopted a vast set of royal rules.
With protocol including a ban on social media and selfies, rules for how she must dress and eat and even a ban on board game Monopoly, Meghan’s got a lot to get used to.
But the toughest royal rule 36-year-old Meghan has to follow is her loss of freedom to publicly express her political opinions.
According to British royal protocol established in the 17th century, members of the royal family are forbidden from voting, favouring one political cause over another or publicly sharing any form of political opinion.
The monarchy’s website states: “As head of state, the Queen has to remain strictly neutral with respect to political matters.”
As a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton and an anti-Brexit protester, there’s no denying that this rule will be the toughest for natural-born activist Meghan Markle to follow.
Before she became engaged to Prince Harry, former Suits actress Meghan described how she grew up “with a social consciousness to do what I could and speak up when I knew something was wrong”.
At just 11-years-old, Meghan was so infuriated by a sexist television ad for dish washing liquid that she wrote letters to Hillary Clinton and Gloria Allred about it. Eventually, the ad’s slogan was changed.