Re-Markle-ble resemblance: Meghan and Harry lookalikes offer royal services

TORONTO -- Photos of a Welsh man and an American woman who bear a resemblance to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have gone viral.

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Simon Pengelly, a financially independent builder and actor in Wales, was spotted by London straphangers on a subway ad earlier this month. “Bloody hell Prince Harry found a job quickly,” wrote a Twitter user who shared a photo of the handyman hiring ad.

“It’s all a bit of a laugh,” Pengelly told CTVNews.ca on the phone.

He doesn’t think he looks like the prince. In fact, he’s more often compared to Transporter actor Jason Statham.

“I think it’s just the angle of that photo and the ginger beard,” he said.

Normally, he has stubble and a shaved head (he’s played roles in Celtic action films). But when the tradesman ad was shot four years ago, he had a beard and fuller head of hair. The ad, originally shot for TV and internet use, appeared on the tube this year when RatedPeople.com decided to bring it back for a short campaign. They told Pengelly that the Harry comparisons were “pure coincidence” and not why they selected the image.

He’s unbothered by the comparisons, but wouldn’t call himself a fan of the Royal Family.

“Personally I’m not a big royalist so to speak, but it’s just something we’ve always been brought up with,” he said.

As for Harry and Meghan’s decision to step back and move part-time to Canada, he thinks they should be left alone. The real Duke of Sussex recently “stepped back” from the Royal Family seeking a more private life.

“He’s done his bit for his country,” he said, noting the prince’s military service. “He’s done more than a lot of people here who are whingeing about it.”

But he wouldn’t pass up an offer to fill in if the Sussexes aren’t keen to attend royal events. “Free food, why not?” he joked.

Nor would Akeisha Land pass on the opportunity to play Duchess.

“I always joke and say I need to have someone reach out to her people to let them know I'm always up for filling in for her as her doppelgänger if she doesn't want to go to any of the events she's invited to,” Land, who lives in Missouri, told the Daily Mail’s women’s blog Femail.

Her resemblance to Meghan was noted by followers of the woman’s popular Instagram account on which she shared fashion and lifestyle photos of her young children.

“I get compared to her quite often, and not just online. Out and about, whether at church, movie theater, or at the grocery store,” she told Daily Mail TV.

“It’s a huge compliment because she’s drop-dead gorgeous in my eyes.”