If Princess Diana was here, things may have been easier for Meghan Markle right now. According to the late royal’s former private secretary, Patrick Jephson, Diana would have helped her daughter-in-law deal with the scandal surrounding her dad not attending her upcoming royal wedding on Saturday, May 19. Better yet, she may have even prevented all of this drama from happening in the first place.

“The first thing you need to know is that she was fabulously approachable, warm, and emotionally empathetic. And she recognized those strengths only work if you also learn the practical skills to be a perfect, professional princess,” Jephson told Page Six of Diana. “She worked very hard at that. Not least because of her own lineage, which was way more aristocratic than the Windsors. She had a sixth sense about how to make royalty approachable.”

“The only thing [Diana] would be concerned with is that Meghan should help Harry carry the burden of public life, help him to be happy and offer unfailing encouragement, support, and advice — and know how to take a joke!” Jephson added.

Jephson specifically thinks that Meghan should already have the skills to handle public life after knowing what Diana went through with Prince Charles. “It bears repeating that Meghan is the age that Diana was when she died,” he said. “When you’re 36, with one marriage and numerous romances behind you, you’re not a beginner, you don’t have many excuses left. Therefore, the amount of latitude that the British public will give Meghan and to an extent, Harry, does have its limits.”

He continued, “Harry and Meghan now hold their own future happiness in their own hands. They will encounter many media irritations and it will be up to them whether they fulfill the enormous potential for themselves and their children, they cannot blame anybody else.”

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In fact, he thinks she should turn to Kate Middleton for advice. “This is a long game,” Jephson shared. “The royal family are not politicians, they should not be competing for popularity and I do hope Meghan takes an example from Catherine, who very much to her credit said, ‘I’m going to learn the ropes’ when she married William. She has to remember her duty to the monarchy always comes first.” We think Meghan will handle being a princess just fine!

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