A PRINCE Harry lookalike has told of the “strange” moment he first met Meghan Markle’s doppelgänger.
Rhys Whittock learned he was a dead ringer for the flame-haired royal when guests at a dinner party gawped at the resemblance back in 2006.
And the 38-year-old made the likeness into a money-spinning career – when his life changed at the exact moment Harry’s did in 2017.
He’d attempted to sign up for a number of talent agencies over the years.
But it was only when the duke got engaged to Meghan that Rhys was propelled into the limelight.
He now earns thousands working for a talent agency.
Rhys told MyLondon: “Honestly, I would not be a lookalike without her help getting engaged to Harry.
“I was watching their engagement on the news in 2017, and I thought, ‘This is huge, actually’.
“The very next day, just by chance, I checked an old email account that I don’t look at too often.
“One of the agencies had sent me an email, having seen there was going to be huge demand for him – and there was a shortage of Harrys.
“So they sent me an email and said: ‘Hi Rhys, don’t suppose you still look anything like Harry, do you?’ It changed my life.”
As the engagement dominated the news, Rhys began working with his new colleague – Meghan’s lookalike, Sarah Mhlanga from Manchester.
They met for the first time a week before the royal wedding in Windsor.
“It was quite unusual to see somebody look so much like Meghan Markle, definitely,” he said.
I wouldn’t be a lookalike if Meghan hadn’t got engaged to Harry
In the lead-up to the wedding, Rhys said he was booking two Prince Harry jobs a day, with appearances at hotels, photo shoots and even interviews with TV’s Loose Women.
He also works closely with a number of other lookalikes – particularly William, Kate, Charles and the Queen.
Unlike Harry himself, he has no plans to step back from his life on the royal frontline, and says of his colleagues: “We’re like one big family.”
Among the highlights of his career are a trip to Macau in China for a billionaire’s birthday party and a PR stunt for a hot tub boat company in London.
He and lookalikes for William and Charles posed up for pictures of Harry’s ‘stag party’ – with the men wearing Union Jack speedos and downing Champagne while playing beer pong.
Rhys admitted it’s “strange” to step into the royal’s shoes – and says he often responds to Harry’s name rather than his own.
He said he’d love to meet Harry in person.
“I would definitely like to meet him,” he said.
“I’m sure they have a WhatsApp group where they share the crazy things we get up to. I hope they find them all amusing.”
