"Princess Diana would have been thrilled, Meghan's just the kind of woman she wanted to be": The writer who knew Harry's mum best says

Richard Kay, the writer who knew the late Princess Diana best has given an insight into how she'd feel today had she been alive to witness her son's engagement.

Kay revealed that The Princess of Wales used to wonder who Harry would marry and she thought Harry could marry anyone from any background, even a divorcee. Read what he wrote below..

Sitting on the pink striped sofa in her drawing room at Kensington Palace, Princess Diana was playing one of her favourite parlour games: who might Prince Harry marry? The question, loaded with intrigue, was asked with deliberate mischief and to Diana held endless possibilities.

She knew, she told me, that William's future would take care of itself. As heir in line to the throne, his life choices would be predetermined by the need to produce children and secure the monarchy's line of succession.

Harry, on the other hand, could afford to take his time, in the knowledge that normal conventions would not apply. Diana, who also daydreamed about a new life in America, believed he could marry someone from any background or corner of the earth. And, yes, that could include a divorcee.

At 36, Meghan is the same age Diana was when she died and she displays the Princess's easy confidence. And like Diana, she radiates a natural likeability.

In many ways Meghan is the young woman Diana yearned to become, whose successes and achievements she has earned for herself, not just through marrying into the Royal Family. While Diana Spencer's wedding to Prince Charles propelled her onto the world stage, it was only after her divorce that she finally found a way to use that fame and turn it into a meaningful role.

With her landmines campaign she garnered huge international attention — but tragically that success, and the huge sense of accomplishment it gave Diana, came only in the last months of her life.

Meghan has already used her stardom to carve out a parallel life in the charity sector, with a wide range of humanitarian concerns — among them, driving a clean-water campaign in Rwanda, tackling poverty and injustice as a global ambassador for World Vision, speaking out against moder-day slavery and working as an advocate for the United Nations on gender equality.

How Diana would have longed for a CV to match that of Harry's fiancée.

It was perhaps inevitable that Harry would be drawn to her. He has been beguiled by her beauty, certainly, but also intoxicated by a young woman who has not only had to make her way in the world but had to overcome its prejudices, too.

Her charitable commitments will have struck a chord with Harry.

And with her megawatt smile, smart grasp of social media — she used to have her own lifestyle blog —and relaxed informality in front of the cameras, it is tempting to wonder if Meghan will be the next Diana in terms of her global appeal.

Consider how she has adjusted so stylishly to dating a member of the Royal Family.

Unlike Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas, Harry's two previous long- term girlfriends who were unknown until they started seeing Harry, Meghan was a successful actress already in the public eye.

From the very beginning she seemed comfortably at home in the neighbourhood of Kensington Palace, walking around freely just as Diana used to do with William and Harry when they were small.

Back at that Kensington Palace parlour game, Diana asked one close friend what advice she should give her sons about their future partners. 'Tell them to marry their best friends,' came the reply.

Yesterday, when asked in their TV interview what Diana would have made of Meghan, Harry said: 'Oh, they'd be thick as thieves, without question. I think she would be over the moon — jumping up and down, you know, so excited for me, but then, as I said, she would have probably been best friends — best friends with Meghan.'