Meghan Markle Cried Aged 16 at Prince Harry's Funeral Flowers for 'Mummy'—Author

Meghan Markle cried watching Princess Diana's funeral as a 16-year-old—after seeing Prince Harry's message to "mummy," according to a famous biographer.

The Duchess of Sussex watched from America with her teenage friends as Princess Diana's coffin was carried into Westminster Abbey for her funeral, according to Andrew Morten.

And she was moved to tears after seeing a message from Prince Harry and Prince William to "Mummy," placed among the white floral tributes.

The former royal correspondent wrote the most famous biography of the princess, Diana: Her True Story, published in 1992, which first exposed Prince Charles' affair with Camilla.

Diana secretly helped his book, smuggling tape recorded confessions out of Kensington Palace through a friend.

In an article in the Mail on Sunday, Morton wrote: "Tears coursed down the cheeks of 16-year-old Meghan Markle and her friends as they watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, and never more so than at the poignant moment when the cameras zoomed in on the Royal coffin.

"There, perched among the white flowers, was an envelope on which was written the one word, 'Mummy'—Prince Harry's last note to the mother who had now gone forever.

"To Meghan and her classmates, it was an inconceivable tragedy: how could a glamorous humanitarian in the prime of life die in the cruel banality of a car crash?"

Morton wrote that Meghan and friend Suzy Ardakani watched old videos of Princess Diana's wedding to Prince Charles in 1981.

Ardakani's mother gave the duchess Morton's book about the future mother-in-law she would never meet.

However, Diana is an even greater presence in Meghan's adult life, according to the author.

He wrote: "As the Sussexes embarked on their own journey together through Royal life, not a day went by without a reference, a memory or a decision that related in some way to Harry's late mother. Diana was the third wheel in their marriage."

Morton draws a series of comparisons between Meghan and Diana, including in their experiences of the coldness of palace life.

Meghan told Oprah she experienced suicidal thoughts while a working royal following a wave of negative media coverage, but was told she could not go to a mental hospital because it would make the British monarchy look bad.

Morton's book revealed in 1992 how Diana had attempted suicide five times in despair at her marriage to Prince Charles.

He wrote in the Mail on Sunday: "Harry had always been prickly at any suggestion of criticism of his wife, and from now on he seemed even more sensitive and quick to take offence.

"At about this time, Meghan's suicidal thoughts during her first pregnancy found a dark echo in the past.

"Even though she was happily married to Harry, Meghan felt a profound sense of isolation and loneliness during her first pregnancy, a feeling that she was somehow trapped in an unfriendly, unfamiliar and unforgiving new world.

"When Diana went to live at Buckingham Palace, shortly after her own engagement, she had come to feel like a captive in a Grimms' fairy tale."

However, Morton said not all the comparisons are negative, after Meghan and Harry have kept Diana's legacy alive through charity work.

Morton wrote: "Diana remains a constant inspiration to the couple, in the subtlest ways."

He added: "The comparisons with Diana were inevitable, of course. Both were and are controversial women who were agents of change in their own contrasting ways.

"And it is clear the comparisons will continue to be made for some time to come."

Meghan told Oprah Winfrey: "I would say I went into it naively because I didn't grow up knowing much about the Royal Family. It wasn't part of something that was part of conversation at home. It wasn't something that we followed. My mum even said to me a couple of months ago, 'Did Diana ever do an interview?' Now I can say. 'Yes, a very famous one', but my mum doesn't know that."