As the pomp and circumstance surrounding this weekend’s royal wedding between England’s Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle fades away, the newly-minted Duchess of Sussex starts her first week as a member of the House of Windsor. And among other things, that means Markle will be getting a crash course in evasive and tactical driving techniques, according to CBS News.
We doubt that Markle thought executing a perfect J-turn would be part of her royal duties. However, tactical driving instructor Mick Croome told CBS that every high-profile member of the modern royal family gets training on how to escape a dangerous situation from the driver’s seat. In addition to mastering maneuvers like the J-turn, where a reversing vehicle spins around 180 degrees to drive forward in the same direction without stopping, Markle will learn how to drive at high speeds and safely get away from aggressive paparazzi, obsessed well-wishers, or someone with more nefarious intentions.
Immediate members of the British royal family are given a 24-hour security detail, which does include a driver, so Markle will probably never get to put her new skills to the test. But unlike in America, where the Secret Service bans current and former presidents from driving on public roads, the royals can still get behind the wheel if they so choose. And increasingly, that’s been the case.
“Certainly within the younger members of the royal family, they are very much used to being independent—independent within a security bubble. And driving does afford them a degree of independence,” Simon Morgan, a former member of Queen Elizabeth II’s security force, told CBS News.
The Queen herself is a well-known fan of Land Rover Defenders, and looking at that royal fleet of flawless old Jaguars, Bentleys, and Rolls-Royces from the wedding this weekend, we’d probably be asking for the keys more often than not. So with that in mind, it only makes sense to be prepared.
