Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s sudden act left late Queen ‘devastated’
A royal expert has claimed that when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made one particular move, the late Queen Elizabeth was left emotional by their decision and how sudden it was
Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex have settled into their lives in California they have been candid about their experiences living inside the monarchy, and the challenges they faced as a recently married couple, and as they welcomed their first child Prince Archie to their family.
The couple has been open about their frustrations with the royal household, and some of the other senior royals, throughout a series of interviews, their Netflix documentary series, and Prince Harry’s memoir Spare, but there has been one member of the House of Windsor they have routinely remained positive about, the late Queen Elizabeth. Despite their clear affection and esteem for Harry’s grandmother, the late monarch, one royal expert has claimed that when the couple took one particular action, its sudden nature left the late Queen “devastated”.
The royal expert – author and historian Robert Lacey – claimed in the Daily Mail the move in question was none other than their shock announcement they would be stepping back as working royals, made on 8 January 2020. The couple had just returned from six weeks in Canada, where they had spent the festive period when they released the news, and expressed their initial hope that they would still be able to represent the crown on a part-time basis and split their time between the UK and North America – whilst giving up any public funding.
“At 6.30 pm, the Sussexes pressed the button on their new website, sussexroyal.com, announcing the bombshell news that they would be leaving Britain and were planning to “carve out a progressive new role within this institution’ and to become ‘financially independent’. The media shock at this was nothing to the dismay and anger felt inside the palaces — to whom Harry had given just ten minutes’ notice of the news. Prince Charles was only just getting himself organised after returning from an official trip to the Middle East — and out at Sandringham both the Queen and Prince Philip were said to be ‘devastated’. Once again their grandson had acted unilaterally,” claimed the author.
In Prince Harry’s memoir, he denied he had “blindsided” the late Queen, calling this idea “hogwash”. The Duke of Sussex claimed their decision to release a statement came with the news The Sun newspaper was poised to report the couple was moving overseas, and the couple’s desire to tell their own story. Harry claimed he informed his grandmother of this intention to release a statement before this article was published, but he quickly realised it wouldn’t be possible to get the appropriate wording that the monarch would be happy with together in time.
As Harry tells it, after the publication of the article, which he claimed contained details of his proposal known only to a small number of people, the couple worked on their own statement alongside their staff and eventually released one, after informing the private secretaries of the late Queen, Charles, and William what it contained – to which his brother’s aide said: “This is going to go nuclear”.
