On Monday, Kensington Palace confirmed that Meghan Markle has a royal aide to help manage her busy schedule. As reported by E! News, former Kensington Palace press officer Amy Pickerill has been assigned the duties of an assistant private secretary in Prince Harry's office, who will also manage Markle's official diary, her correspondences, and collect any gifts she may receive during public appearances. Kensington Palace told E! in a statement Pickerill "will be working on Meghan Markle's programme".
Seeing as she used to be Kensington Palace's press officer, Pickerill obviously has experience with the British Royal Family and handling their communications. As reported by Metro, Pickerill was a senior communications officer for Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Harry, before exclusively working for Harry's office. According to the Metro, before working for the royal family, Pickerill attended Nottingham University, where she graduated with a history degree. She also once worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland, where she handled a variety of positions in the press office department.
In January, there were reports that Pickerill was serving as Markle's personal assistant. Rebecca English, a royal correspondent for the Daily Mail, tweeted on Jan. 18, "Oh, and one more thing of interest to royal watchers: #MeghanMarkle is being helped by a new assistant private secretary, Amy Pickerill. She was a press officer but has been sequestered by Harry for his private office and will be helping #Meghan on engagements and with her diary." Now, Kensington Palace has confirmed Pickerill's new role.
Pickerill has already been spotted by Markle's side. If you take note of the above and below media, the blonde woman standing next to the former Suits (writer: Sharyn Rothstein) star is Pickerill during a few of Markle's public visits with Harry.
According to People, it seems the first time Pickerill was seen assisting Markle was during her Jan. 9 visit to a radio station in Brixton, south London. In the video below, you can see Markle hand Pickerill a bouquet of flowers she receives from someone standing in the crowd.
People also reports that palace sources revealed after Harry and Markle announced their engagement in November 2017 that Harry's private secretary Edward Lane Fox and his team would assist Markle and now Pickerill is part of her support team.
From here on out, Markle's schedule will no doubt continue to be beyond busy. So far, she's made four public appearances with Harry, including their visits to Nottingham, England, Brixton, south London, Cardiff, Wales, and Edinburgh, Scotland. In addition to that, she and Harry also attended the Endeavour Fund Awards in London, making it their first ever awards ceremony. Plus, of course, Markle has a wedding to plan, which is set for Saturday, May 19 at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.
Even after Markle and Harry marry, they have their first royal tour as a married couple. According to Express U.K., the royal tour serves as "a rite of passage" for Markle. Details have yet to be confirmed for Harry and Markle's tour, but it's a big deal and takes a lot of planning, according to Town & Country. "Royal tours can take up to a year to plan, and are either instigated by the U.K. government, or by an invitation from the host country," the publication reports.
Between all of that and everything else that will come Markle's way, the 36-year-old future royal's schedule is going to be an extremely hectic one. However, that's what happens when someone marries into the royal family. They always seem to be constantly on the go, have some type of event or pubic visit scheduled, or somewhere to travel.
So, Pickerill will probably be a huge help in keeping Markle's schedule up to date and organized, in addition to most likely easing any stress Markle may have when it comes to experiencing the busy life of a royal.
