Meghan Markle sped into the lifestyle of British royalty Saturday when Prince Harry whisked her to the wedding reception in a gorgeous electric Jaguar E-Type Zero. Next up: a little James Bond-type evasive driving instruction.
CBS News reports the newly crowned Duchess of Sussex is due to receive special training in how to evade attack or kidnapping attempts. She'll learn escape and evasion techniques including J-turns and Y-turns to handle overzealous fans, creepers, criminals or terrorists. And while we figure the 36-year-old Los Angeles native and Northwestern University graduate can handle those routine maneuvers, Special Forces are even brought in to drill members of the royal family on how to handle worst-case scenarios. Princess Diana and Prince Charles even underwent anti-hostage training at a secretive facility called "The Killing House." So we're guessing the duchess will be in for a lot more training than the royal security team is letting on.
Markle may well never need to execute any evasive maneuvers herself, since she'll be assigned a personal driver as part of her royal protection detail. But she's also an American who's presumably accustomed to a certain amount of autonomy.
"Certainly within the younger members of the royal family, they are very much used to being independent — independent within a security bubble," Simon Morgan, a former close-protection officer to Queen Elizabeth II, tells CBS News. "And driving does afford them a degree of independence."
There is precedent for such training. Prince Charles and Camilla in 2010 were attacked in London after their claret-colored 1977 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI drove into a riot, with protesters hurling bottles and rubbish, badly damaging the car. And in 1974, Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth's only daughter, survived a kidnapping attempt after an armed, unemployed laborer shot the security-detail officer assigned to her.
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CBS News reports the newly crowned Duchess of Sussex is due to receive special training in how to evade attack or kidnapping attempts. She'll learn escape and evasion techniques including J-turns and Y-turns to handle overzealous fans, creepers, criminals or terrorists. And while we figure the 36-year-old Los Angeles native and Northwestern University graduate can handle those routine maneuvers, Special Forces are even brought in to drill members of the royal family on how to handle worst-case scenarios. Princess Diana and Prince Charles even underwent anti-hostage training at a secretive facility called "The Killing House." So we're guessing the duchess will be in for a lot more training than the royal security team is letting on.
Markle may well never need to execute any evasive maneuvers herself, since she'll be assigned a personal driver as part of her royal protection detail. But she's also an American who's presumably accustomed to a certain amount of autonomy.
"Certainly within the younger members of the royal family, they are very much used to being independent — independent within a security bubble," Simon Morgan, a former close-protection officer to Queen Elizabeth II, tells CBS News. "And driving does afford them a degree of independence."
There is precedent for such training. Prince Charles and Camilla in 2010 were attacked in London after their claret-colored 1977 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI drove into a riot, with protesters hurling bottles and rubbish, badly damaging the car. And in 1974, Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth's only daughter, survived a kidnapping attempt after an armed, unemployed laborer shot the security-detail officer assigned to her.
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