Is it time for Meghan to follow the example of other American women who married into royalty, asks royal expert CHRISTOPHER WILSON

*Going back more than 200 years, Betsy Patterson’s father was an Irish-born Presbyterian who came to America from Donegal and went on to become was the second wealthiest man in Maryland. She married Napoleon Bonaparte’s kid brother Jerome in 1803 when he was hiding in the States to escape his brother’s wrath after a failed military action.
The marriage didn’t go well. Within a few months the couple decided to return to France, but Napoleon denied Betsy entry to the country and she ended up in London giving birth to the couple’s only child. She sailed back to America, never to see Prince Jerome again.
More recent American princesses include:-
*Investment banker Kelly Rodesvedt, 49, born in Pensacola Florida, married Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 2000. She’s the daughter of a US navy pilot and a teacher.
*Katie Walker, a former communications director of a Catholic charity and born in Cincinnati, Ohio, married Archduke Imre of Austria in Washington DC in 2012. The deeply religious couple live in Brussels.
*Sarah Butler, 52, the daughter of a petroleum geologist, grew up in Houston Texas. Educated in England, she married Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad of Jordan in Amman in 2000. Princess Sarah is a global health advocate who has worked for the United Nations and whose work focuses on maternal and newborn health .

All these appear women to have achieved more in life with their royal marriages than Meghan Markle has so far managed – but the Duchess doesn’t quite come bottom of the list of dud American princesses.