Harry and Meghan’s starkly different educations as they eye up £40k school for Lilibet

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have embarked on the hunt for the best possible school for their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet but the pair had very different educations themselves.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have reportedly already begun their hunt for a school for their daughter Lilibet after she turned three earlier this month.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are thought to be eyeing up a place at a £40k ($60k) a year educational facility for their youngest child. The school is situated in the heart of Montecito, the luxury California area where they live, and is also an option for their son, Prince Archie, who turned five in May.

While they have caused some controversy by looking at prestigious schools, there is no doubt Meghan and Harry will both want the best possible education for their children. While Harry attended some of the most famous establishments in the world to gain his education, Meghan also embarked on an interesting school journey to become the woman she is today.

Harry’s protected prep-school beginnings
Harry first attended Wetherby school before both he and his brother William enrolled at the elite Ludgrove School where they resided as fortnightly boarders from the ages of 8 – 13. Their headmaster was said to be preoccupied with keeping their educational experience as normal as possible and keeping them safe from what was going on in the outside world.

This involved implementing rules for both teachers and pupils alike, that shielded the brothers from the many headlines regarding the issues in their parent’s – Charles and Diana – marriage and eventual acrimonious divorce. The £33,300 a year school is located about a 30-minute drive away from Windsor Castle and was said to be a safe haven for the two brothers whilst they were pupils there.

The headmaster did this by banning all TV except educational viewing to keep the gossip at bay. In his memoir Spare, Harry described in great detail his years at the preparatory school and spoke of his former headmasters in glowing terms, calling both Gerald Barber and Nichol Marston, who held the role jointly from 1973 – 2004, “legends”.

Infamous Eton

After Ludgrove Harry of course went on to attend the prestigious Eton College as a boarder from ages 13 – 18. Unlike his brother, Harry opted not to go to university and instead embarked on ten months of officer commissioning training at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Following his training Harry served in the Army for ten years, eventually becoming a Captain and undertaking two active duty tours in Afghanistan.

While he finished his studies at Eton with two A-Levels – a ‘B’ in Art and a ‘D’ in Geography – Prince Harry confessed that he does not remember his early days at the world-famous college with any particular fondness. During his rounds of media interviews to promote his memoir, Spare, Harry opened up about how he felt he didn’t fit in at the school and was not welcomed by his elder brother.

Sibling heartbreak
While he also touches on his time at Eton in the book itself, Harry also recalls his disappointment at his elder brother Prince William not wanting to spend time with him at secondary school. Speaking to TV host Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, the Duke of Sussex says he took William’s apparent rejection of him “personally”. Cooper prompted: “Your brother told you, ‘Pretend we don’t know each other’.”

To which Harry replied: “Yeah, and at the time it hurt. I couldn’t make sense of it. I was like, ‘What do you mean? We’re now at the same school. Like, I haven’t seen you for ages, now we get to hang out together.’ He’s like, ‘No, no, no, when we’re at school we don’t know each other.’ And I took that personally.”

Meghan’s lucky break

While Meghan had a far more humble start in life than her husband, a lucky break saw her father Thomas Markle win the lottery in 1990 and he used a chunk of the cash he won to fund a private school education for his daughter. Meghan began her secondary education at Immaculate Heart High School in 1992 where she was known as a hard-working and focused student.

During her high school years, The Duchess of Sussex performed in theatrical productions at both Immaculate Heart and Loyola High School. Her former drama teacher, Gigi Perreau, who directed Meghan in seven plays, remembered that her former student “sparkled.” She said: “You see someone nice to the other kids, who gets good grades, doesn’t say anything bad about anybody.”

She went on gain a double major in Theatre and International Relations at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 2003. During her time at university, The Duchess completed an internship at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she learned to speak Spanish. She also studied French for six years.

So having both benefited from private education, there is little wonder they are looking for prestigious schools for their own children.