01 September 2023 , 06:00
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Meghan Markle has certainly had a rocky relationship with her royal relatives - especially King Charles. With the monarch's bond with son Prince Harry believed to be near rock bottom, it's fair to say he's probably not had much contact with Meghan recently either. But this wasn't always the case, with the King initially said to have been blown away when he first met Harry's then-girlfriend.
Charles even agreed to accompany Meghan down the aisle on her wedding day when her father was unable to attend the ceremony. And before they married in May 2018, a royal insider came forward to reveal the special nickname the-then Prince of Wales had bestowed on his future daughter-in-law.
Meghan with King Charles as well as Prince William and Prince Harry (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)In royal expert Katie Nicholl's book The New Royals, she explains that Charles admired Meghan's strength of character and gave her a fitting nickname to reflect this. Nicholl wrote in the book: "Charles reportedly nicknamed his future daughter-in-law 'Tungsten' because of her toughness and resilience."
This is not the first time that Charles' initial nickname for Meghan has been reported. In June 2018, the Daily Mail wrote that Charles called Meghan 'Tungsten', a type of metal because she is "tough and unbending".
A source told the Mail on Sunday at the time: "Prince Charles admires Meghan for her strength and the backbone she gives Harry, who needs a tungsten-type figure in his life as he can be a bit of a softy. It's become a term of endearment."
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Charles walks Meghan down the aisle on her wedding day (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)And while Tungsten is perhaps one of the more bizarre nicknames given to a member of The Firm, it certainly isn't the strangest. When it comes to the Royal Family's private family life behind palace walls, there are a whole host of pet names that they use for one another.
The late Queen, for example, had a handful of nicknames that were used by her nearest and dearest, from 'cabbage' to 'sausage' to 'Gan Gan' and even 'Lilibet' - but there is one pet name that tops all of these.
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According to the Daily Mail, while a young Prince William was playing at Buckingham Palace, he wandered off and called out for help. But instead of shouting for 'Granny', he called for 'Gary'- much to the confusion of everyone present.
The column reports: "A guest who went to help asked who Gary was, assuming it must be a member of the royal household. 'I'm Gary,' responded the Queen. 'He hasn't learned to say Granny yet.'"
William has also had numerous nicknames over the years. In 1983, at 10 months old, he joined his parents on his first royal tour to Australia. While he was there it was revealed that his mother had started calling him 'Wombat'.
In an NBC interview in 2007, William admitted to being stuck with the name, "I can't get rid of it now," he said. "It began when I was two. I've been rightfully told because I can't remember back that far, but when we went to Australia with our parents, and the wombat, you know, that's the local animal, so I just basically got called that, not because I look like a wombat, or maybe I do."