Meghan Markle to attend first Royal Variety Performance with Prince Harry

The Duchess of Sussex is to attend her first Royal Variety Performance alongside Prince Harry.

The couple, who are expecting their first child next Spring, will attend the 2018 performance and will be expected to meet all the performers on the red carpet afterwards.

Prince Harry first attended the event in 2015, at the Royal Albert Hall, when he was 31 years old, but it will be mother-to-be Meghan’s first show.

The couple will watch Take That and the cast of hit musical Hamilton as performers take to the stage of the London Palladium on Monday evening.

The event is held in aid of the Royal Variety Charity, of which the Queen is patron.

Chart-toppers George Ezra and Rick Astley will also perform, while comedian and Taskmasters star Greg Davies has been confirmed as the host.

Comics at the show often take the opportunity to make jokes at the expense of any attending royals - and it is unlikely to be an exception for the duke and duchess.

In 2015, host Jack Whitehall made digs at former partying prince Harry, saying they would turn the venue into a nightclub after the show in his honour.

Whitehall added: "He may only be a prince, but when it comes to banter, all hail the king."

The Royal Variety Performance dates back to 1912 when King George V and Queen Mary agreed to attend a Royal Command Performance at the Palace Theatre in London, in aid of the Variety Artistes' Benevolent Fund and its proposed plans to build an extension to its Brinsworth House home for elderly entertainers.

A second royal show was performed in July 1919 and billed as a celebration of peace.

It became an annual event at the suggestion of George V in 1921, when the King decreed that "the monarch or a senior member of the royal family, would attend an annual performance, in aid of Brinsworth House and the Royal Variety Charity, once a year thereafter".

Laurie Mansfield, life-president of the Royal Variety Charity, welcomed the duke and duchess's support.

"The Royal Variety Charity was so pleased that Prince Harry was able to attend his first Royal Variety Performance back in 2015, and that now in their wedding year, both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are attending," he said.

"It will be a very memorable Royal Variety Performance."

The show helps raise money for entertainers throughout the UK, who are in need of help and assistance as a result of old age, ill-health, or hard times.

It also supports Brinsworth House, the home in Twickenham which is owned and run by the charity.

Additional reporting by Press Association