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Why Royal Staff Reportedly Call Meghan Markle & Prince Harry "Monica & Chandler"

If there’s one thing the public has learned from watching Meghan Markle during her time with the royal family it’s that she has a bent towards perfectionism. She’s always perfectly coiffed, perfectly dressed, perfectly royal in her carriage and demeanor. Even her supposed gaffes seem to be perfectly charming. She’s so perfect that royal staff have apparently nicknamed Meghan Markle and Prince Harry after one couple from the iconic 90s TV series Friends, according to The Sun, and it may not be such an endearing comparison.

Markle and the prince are reportedly called "Monica and Chandler" by members of the royal staff, according to reports from the Express and The Sun. You may recall that Monica was a controlling, neat-freak, whose perfectionist tendencies were played for great laughs on the show. Chandler, meanwhile, was the more laid-back of the two, and let his girlfriend-turned-wife make the decisions for the couple.

The Express reported that the nicknames allegedly landed after two members of Markle’s staff resigned in the few months since her wedding. There were also apparently tensions over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress that were reported to have left Kate Middleton in tears, according to People.

And Prince Harry is said to have defended Markle in a very Chandler-esque way, according to the Express. In the run-up to the wedding, the queen reportedly had to pull her grandson aside and speak to him about how he was addressing the staff. “What Meghan wants, she gets,” was said to be his refrain around the palace, according to The Mirror.

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The comparison was lent further credence with an important qualifier in an interview on Dec. 17 on the TV show Good Morning Britain with Markle's father, Thomas Markle, according to E! News. He spoke with Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid in a segment that focused on his recent estrangement from his daughter. Responding to a question about whether Duchess Meghan could be perceived as a social climber, according to E! News, her father responded: “She’s always been a controlling person and that’s part of her nature but she’s never been rude... She’s always been in charge, that’s her nature, but she’s always been polite with it.”

A profile in The Guardian supported Thomas Markle’s statement that Meghan knows how to balance her forthrightness with a dose of civility. “She’s been praised and criticized as 'outspoken' but her style never risks being 'aggressive' or 'combative' or any of the other words thrown at women who are deemed insufficiently graceful when they disagree with men,” The Guardian reported.

That’s what is making it so hard for Thomas to understand why his daughter has "ghosted" him, according to his interview. He basically blamed it on everyone’s current favorite excuse: fake news. “The unfortunate thing about my daughter and Harry is that they believe what they read in the papers,” he said. He’s previously made controversial statements to the media about how he believes Meghan is handling her new role as a royal, according to Town & Country. “My thing about my daughter right now is I think she’s terrified. I see it in her eyes, I see it in her face and I see it in her smile,” he told The Sun just a few months after the royal wedding.

But as he reminded viewers of Good Morning Britain, he will be the royal baby’s grandfather, and perhaps he’ll get the chance to meet his new grandchild when Meghan returns to the United States in fall of 2019 for a tour of the country and Canada, according to Vanity Fair.

Of course, whether the newlyweds really are anything like the fictitious couple they’re compared to is hard for anyone to say who doesn’t deal with them on a regular basis. But despite reported quirks, if they’re as loving and committed as Monica and Chandler, that can only be a good and promising sign of things to come.

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