Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘snubbed late Queen’ just weeks before quitting royal life

Despite all the grievances that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have aired about the aspects of royal life with which they struggled since leaving the UK, the couple have always spoken about the late Queen Elizabeth in the best terms, expressing nothing but admiration and affection for the former monarch.

However, in the last few months of their tenure as full-time working royals, the couple is reported to have “snubbed” the former monarch – an expert has claimed – potentially indicating just how much the couple was struggling behind closed doors, something that they have been candid about since moving to California on several occasions, including their bombshell sit-down with Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry’s bestselling memoir Spare.

The apparent “snub” in question was the refusal of two separate invitations from the late Queen to spend some family time together, according to expert Robert Lacey – an author and historian. The former monarch invited the couple, and their new son Archie, who they had welcomed in May 2019, to spend some of the summer holiday with her at Balmoral – where she went every year for most of August. Lacey also claimed that the couple were invited to Sandringham that same year for Christmas, but the couple opted to spend six weeks in Canada instead.

“To compound it,” the expert wrote, “as the Christmas holidays approached Harry and Meghan snubbed the Queen for a second time. They had not gone to stay at Balmoral with her in the summer, and they decided that they couldn’t join her at Sandringham for the New Year break either.”

It had become clearer in the autumn of 2019 that all was not entirely well with the Sussex family. Harry had released a strongly worded statement regarding press intrusion in October announcing legal action would be taken by the couple regarding the publishing of a “private letter” from Meghan’s father Thomas, and in a documentary made covering their official royal tour to Southern Africa, he admitted that he was “on different paths” from his brother William, with whom there had been reports of a rift. For her part, Meghan revealed in the documentary that she had been struggling during her pregnancy and as a new mum whilst living in the spotlight and she added that “not many people have asked if I’m ok.”

The couple spent six weeks in Canada instead of spending the festive season with the rest of the Royal Family, before making a shock announcement in early January 2020 that they hoped to change their role within the monarchy and live transatlantically – something that was deemed impossible within a few weeks, and the couple made a full break from their royal roles.