The Queen will weigh Meghan Markle after Christmas as part of a bizarre tradition
Meghan Markle lives a wholly different life to the one she lead a year ago. She's now known as The Duchess of Sussex after marrying Prince Harry in a beautiful ceremony held at St. George's Chapel in Windsor this past May.
Since then, the erstwhile Suits actress has reportedly been nailing her duchess duties. She accompanied Her Royal Highness on her first royal outing in June, made appearances at Trooping the Colour and Royal Ascot, and she's been on the royal train - something that is unprecedented for such a new member of Kensington Palace. Not to mention that she and the Duke of Sussex have just touched down after embarking on their first ever royal tour across Oceania.
But while we're all winding down for the holidays, it seems as if Meghan has another thing to worry about: her in-laws' festive traditions, which quite frankly, are bonkers.
And you thought spending Christmas with your in-laws was bad, eh?
As if spending Christmas with your in-laws isn't stressful enough, Meghan and her mother, Doria Ragland, will purportedly have to take part in a super weird royal family tradition: getting weighed before and after they eat Christmas dinner.
This bit of Kensington Palace trivia comes from Majesty editor, Ingrid Seward, in the latest issue of Grazia. Seward claims that the tradition dates back to King Edward VII's reign. Apparently, King Edward VII was seriously concerned about his subjects' health, and whether they were eating enough turkey and trimmings on the 25th of December.
According to Seward, the royal family continue this custom by using antique scales, but as of now, we're unsure whether it's the Queen herself who shifts the scale weights to and fro.
Of course, this isn't a law that has been put into place by Parliament, as it was in King Edward VII's time. So if it is true, the Christmas weighing tradition is entirely voluntarily, and won't result in Meghan or Doria being sent to the stocks.
Additionally, this will be Doria's first Christmas with the royal family. Apparently this is highly unusual and breaks royal precedent as Kate Middleton's family has never been invited to stay with the Queen for the festive season even though she's been married to Prince William for seven years.
It's possible that Doria is being invited not only because her daughter is pregnant, but because she has no other family in England. Doria has also been very involved in the Duchess of Sussex's new life as a royal: she attended an event with Meghan to support the launch of a cookbook, she stayed with the newlyweds in Oxfordshire, and was the only member of Meghan's family to attend her nuptials.
So what have we learnt today? That the royal family are just as strange as they were back in the 1800's.