A copy of Meghan Markle’s children’s book apparently containing a handwritten dedication from the duchess to Prince Harry’s cousin has been listed on eBay for more than $26,000.
The personally inscribed issue of her much-mocked children’s title, The Bench, is addressed to Princess Eugenie, the daughter of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and her husband, Jack Brooksbank.
The posting has sent internet sleuths into overdrive, speculating on whether and how a gift from the duchess to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughter has ended up online.
Harry and Meghan’s office, as well as Eugenie’s representative, have been contacted for comment on whether the book is genuine.
The seller is Drive Easy’s Signed Books, a London-based dealer in signed and inscribed copies. Buyers unwilling to front the full amount can spread the cost over 24 monthly payments of £943.29 ($1,245.34) via PayPal.
Ten percent of the proceeds will go to a charity supporting disadvantaged children in education in Thailand. The listing has now gone - potentially sold.
Unsigned copies of the book can be bought online for around £2.
What makes this one special is the handwritten message inside. Dated 2021 and addressed to “Eug and Jack,” it salutes the bond between a father and his son, declares “I wrote this poem at Frogmore,” hopes that Eug will feel “the same love there with her guys,” and is signed off with Meghan’s looping signature. The pair moved into Frogmore Cottage in Britain after she and Harry vacated it for Montecito.
The seller claims the book was a personal gift to the couple following the birth of their first child (a boy, August, born in February 2021), and describes it as a presentation copy that has been read but not heavily, with only minor scratches and creases. Sounds about right.
The listing does not undersell the artifact, saying it is “an extraordinary, undeniable record of modern royal history,” of interest to collectors and museums alike.
Eugenie, Harry’s cousin, and Jack moved into Frogmore Cottage in November 2020 and left in 2022. So it seems likely the absentee landlady gave it as a housewarming present.
The Bench, which, according to its carefully curated origin story, began as a Father’s Day poem for Harry and was published in June 2021, was panned on release. The Telegraph called it a “semi-literate vanity project.” The New York Times headline called its rhyme “tortured.”
And the Irish Times went to town on the final line, in which “alone” is chopped down to “lone” to make it fit. “The book ends with a word that isn’t a proper word,” its reviewer wrote, adding that this was fitting for something that wasn’t “a proper picture book either.” The Daily Mail reports that it sold just 3,212 copies in its first week in Britain.
The rumor mill has gone into overdrive. There are three explanations.
The first, and probably the least likely, is that Eugenie decided to sell it herself. Even by the standards of the venal and grasping Yorks, that would be pretty shocking stuff.
The second is forgery. The inscription has not been independently verified, but it seems very unlikely. Why would a forger include the stuff about Frogmore? And the flourishes and the signature match handwritten notes Meghan has previously published
The third, and most likely, is that the book was simply left behind at Frogmore Cottage when Eugenie and Jack moved out, and was picked up by a staffer when the place was cleared.
There is a long history of royal knickknacks finding their way to market. Most famously, there was the jewel-encrusted Arab dhow, a wedding present to Charles and Diana from the Emir of Bahrain, which turned up at a London auction house; Diana’s former butler Harold Brown was charged with stealing it and cleared when his trial collapsed in 2002.
And there was Michael Fawcett, “Fawcett the Fence,” accused of selling unwanted royal gifts and pocketing a percentage. An internal inquiry cleared him of financial misconduct, but he quit as Charles’ personal assistant in 2003.
Frogmore itself has long been a focus of popular animus. The late Queen gave it to Harry and Meghan after their wedding, £2.4 million of public money was spent turning five staff units into one family home, and they lived in it for about ten months.
They repaid the refurbishment money in September 2020 and kept the lease. Then, the day after Spare was published in January 2023, the King started the eviction process.
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