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Prince Harry Chauffeuring Meghan Markle To A Royal Event Makes My Heart Sing

by Casey Suglia

The United Kingdom's royal family has rules about seemingly everything — from what they can wear to how they eat their meals. But some people might not be aware of the specific rules for driving cars. Someone out there has had to have wondered — do the royals drive? Let's just say, Prince Harry has been photographed in a car once or twice, and it wasn't just for show.

On Friday, Oct. 25, Prince Harry actually drove his wife, Meghan Markle, to her royal engagement at Windsor Castle, according to Cosmopolitan. He ended up joining Markle for her engagement, which was a roundtable discussion about gender equality, according to E! News. As it turns out, Prince Harry is a fan of carpooling with his wife. But he didn't have to drive them too far to the engagement — the event took place at Windsor Castle, which has "adjoining grounds" to their home, Frogmore Cottage, according to The Sun.

But distance doesn't matter too much for the royal family. The members of the royal family are allowed to drive themselves (and other passengers) to specific destinations, according to Town & Country. The royals reportedly drive themselves to add a bit of "normalcy" in their lives, Duncan Larcombe, biographer of Prince Harry told Town & Country. "They try and be as normal as they can," he said.

"For them, it's quite nice to be able to drive themselves and be independent."

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So, when Prince Harry drove his new wife in that gorgeous baby blue Jaguar to their wedding reception in May 2018, it wasn't just for show or for photo opportunity, according to Harper's Bazaar. He's licensed to be on the road.

While there are so many reasons why they would want to drive themselves, there are just as many reasons for them not to drive wherever they please. The members of the royal family have chauffeurs at their dispense, and a security team that follows them around for obvious reasons. They can't just decide they want to get takeout at 7 p.m. on a Friday night — these things have to be planned, according to Town & Country.

"They would have had at least two vehicles driving with them and a protection officer in the vehicle with them, all armed," Larcombe explained.

While they don't get that extreme freedom from driving that others might, they at least get to put their license into use, which is awesome for them. But Prince Harry isn't the only person who has this freedom — Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Phillip, have continued to drive their cars well into 90's, according to People.

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Prince Phillip was still driving in January at 97 years old near Queen Elizabeth's Sandringham Estate when he got into an accident, according to Mercury News. And Queen Elizabeth reportedly volunteered to "stop driving on public roads" in April after Prince Phillip's crash and after he reportedly relinquished his own driver's license.

This means that Prince Harry and the other members of the royal family can continue to drive well into their old age, if they so choose. But if they prefer having someone drive them around more, then they have plenty of options.