Four years on, the most savage visual from Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral is circulating again with fresh captions, edited “MARKLED” overlays, and a meme in which Prince William knights a smiling yellow candle as “Sir Wickam Candle, OBE” for “standing tall, blocking drama, and throwing more shade than the palace umbrellas.”
The original image is unmistakable. During the September 19, 2022, service at Westminster Abbey, a tall yellow church candle sat directly in the camera line of sight of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. In wide shots of the senior royals near the high altar, her face vanished behind the flame and her wide-brimmed hat. Only the hat brim and a sliver of black clothing remained visible while Prince Harry, Princess Beatrice, Vice Admiral Tim Laurence, and others were clearly identifiable.
Viewers watching the BBC and other live broadcasts immediately noticed. Social media filled with comments such as “I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist but that candle is totally blocking the view of Meghan,” “Did they put Meghan behind that candle on purpose?” and “A candle blocking the majority of Meghan Markle’s face, is it? What a coincidence.” Some called it poetic justice after the couple’s public criticisms of the institution they had just left. Others insisted the placement of one of the four candles around the coffin and the chosen camera angle could not have been random given how precisely royal events are planned.
Palace sources and official coverage never confirmed any deliberate snub. Seating followed protocol by generation and rank; Harry and Meghan sat in the second row behind King Charles and Queen Camilla, next to Beatrice. Meghan’s hat and the physical presence of the taller Laurence in front added to the obstruction. Still, the shot became instant folklore. It even inspired a South Park gag and endless “candle in the wind” jokes.
The meme’s return in September 2026 is no coincidence either. Harry and Meghan recently relocated from Montecito back to the UK with Archie and Lilibet so the children could start school. King Charles responded with a formal letter, circulated to officials, making clear they remain non-working royals and private citizens. Their HRH styles stay in abeyance. Any public work they do is personal, not on behalf of the Sovereign. The couple’s camp said they were “surprised” by the timing and wording.
That letter, coming so soon after their return, has been read by many as another reminder that the half-in, half-out arrangement they once sought is still closed. Combined with ongoing distance from Prince William, lingering fallout from Spare, the Oprah interview, the Netflix series, and repeated legal battles with British newspapers, the old funeral image feels like a standing verdict to critics: the institution they spent years attacking does not owe them the spotlight they keep chasing.
Harry chose to follow Meghan out of royal life, amplifying her grievances about “the Firm,” the press, and alleged racism while accepting the commercial deals that followed. The result has been isolation from the family he was born into, public polls that remain deeply unfavorable in Britain, and now a palace document treating them as private citizens who happen to have famous surnames. The candle that once hid Meghan’s face at the most solemn royal occasion in a generation has become a shorthand for that reality. People keep laughing at it because, to a large part of the audience, it still looks like the most honest frame of the entire saga.
