Meghan Markle has revealed that she paid a subtle tribute to her late mother-in-law Princess Diana in her new children's book, The Bench.
Speaking to NPR, the Duchess of Sussex said she asked Caldecott-winning illustrator Christian Robinson to include sketches of the Princess of Wales's favorite flowers, forget-me-nots, in the book.
"There are all those sorts of Easter eggs and nuggets tucked within the book," she said. "There's a lot if people start digging.
"I think you can find sweet little moments that we've tucked in there, from my favorite flower, even my husband's mom's favorite flower, forget-me-nots, we wanted to make sure they were included in there. There's a lot of special detail and love that went into that book."
The interview is the first to be broadcast since the June 4 birth of Meghan and Prince Harry's second child Lilibet Diana, who was named after her grandmother who died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Next month, July 1 marks the date on which Princess Diana would have turned 60 years old.
Meghan bought a bench for Prince Harry as a Father's Day gift to give him one month after the birth of their first child, Archie, and wrote him a poem she put on a plaque on the back of the seat.
"As most of us do, you go, what am I going to get them as a gift?" Meghan told NPR.
"And I felt that I just wanted something sentimental and a place for him to have as a bit of a home base with our son."
Two years later, the idea was expanded to a collection of vignettes, showing the special bond between father and son—all featuring a bench—as seen through a mother's eyes, with the pages full of watercolor illustrations by Robinson.
The Duchess of Sussex said the book expresses the larger theme of father and son relationships, as well as the smaller moments in life.
"I often find, especially this past year, I think so many of us realize how much happens in the quiet," Meghan said.
"In the story, I'm observing this love between my husband and our son, and imagining what it will be as they have more shared moments as our son gets older. So from scraping a knee to having a heart broken, whatever it is that they always reset at this bench and have this moment to bond."
Megan told NPR that she wanted to work with Robinson for The Bench because she had been a fan of his work and felt he could "bring this to life beautifully."
She added: "I wanted him to just try something a little bit new and work in watercolors. And that was specifically because I just felt that when you talk about masculinity, and you talk about fatherhood, it can often not come across with the same softness that I was really after for this book.
"I just wanted this to feel almost ethereal and light. And Christian was able to use that medium and create the most beautiful images."
Also speaking to NPR, Robinson said that while he normally works with acrylics, he was up for the challenge in producing watercolors to go with each story in The Bench.
"The story visually begins with a look at the author's actual family, depicting them and little moments. But then it goes on to share and show all kinds of different families," he said. "I think for me, inclusivity, and representing as many different families as we could was at the heart of this book."
Meghan added that she considered The Bench a love story for any relationship.
"While this was inspired by the love that I see between my husband and our son, this story and this connection, that bond that you're seeing play itself out, that could be with a mom that could be with a caregiver, that could be with a sibling," she said.
"It's really just about growing with someone and having this deep connection in this trust so that be at good times or bad. You know that you have this person and you know you can always go back to this place that you share together."
On June 16, Megan thanked her supporters after The Bench became a New York Times bestseller.
"While this poem began as a love letter to my husband and son, I'm encouraged to see that its universal themes of love, representation and inclusivity are resonating with communities everywhere," she said in a statement on the Archewell website.
June 20, 2021 at 11:02PM
https://www.newsweek.com/meghan-markle-princess-diana-bench-1602360
Meghan Markle Pays Tribute to Princess Diana With Her Favorite Flower in Book - Newsweek
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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