OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, did not get what they asked for from the late Queen Elizabeth II and then they rejected her “generous gesture.”
A new book, “The New Royals,” penned by Katie Nicholl, said that the couple wanted apartments in Windsor Castle but did not get them.
“When Harry and Meghan announced their wish to move out of Kensington Palace, the Queen offered them Frogmore Cottage in Windsor Great Park as their new home,” the book said, The Daily Mail reported.
“This was not the suite of apartments at Windsor Castle they had hoped for. It was a generous gesture nonetheless, recalled Lady Elizabeth Anson, who died in 2020,” the book said.
“‘The cottage was a big deal,’ she said. ‘The Queen’s entrance into the gardens is right next to their cottage. It is essentially her back yard, her solitude, and her privacy. She was giving that up in gifting Harry and Meghan Frogmore Cottage. We all thought it was very big of her. She said, ‘I hope they’ll respect it,’” it said.
“In April 2019, the couple finally moved in. Then, the following month, Buckingham Palace announced a still more significant departure: Harry and Meghan were moving their Royal Household – effectively their office – from Kensington Palace to Buckingham Palace,” it said.
The decision ended the teamwork of Prince William and Prince Harry and saddened the queen.
And when it came to Markle, the queen was stunned that she wore a white wedding dress after being divorced and chastised her for yelling at a kitchen worker.
“[Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s] wedding day was a great success, although the Queen had reservations about the pure white of Meghan’s Givenchy dress, designed by Clare Waight Keller.
“According to a source: ‘The Queen was surprised that Meghan wore pure white on her wedding day. Perhaps it’s a generational thing, but she believes if you’ve been married before, you wear off-white on your wedding day, which is what the Duchess of Cornwall did,’” the book said.
“Keen to support anyone marrying into her family, however, the Queen did her best to get to know the new Duchess,” it said.
“Meghan’s direct approach had even come to the notice of the Queen. On one occasion in the run-up to the wedding, Meghan went to Windsor Castle for a menu-tasting and ended up having a tense exchange with a member of staff, according to one source,” the book said.
“‘Meghan was at the castle to taste some of the dishes, and told one of the caterers she could taste egg,” the source said. “’She got quite upset, saying that the dish was meant to be vegan and macrobiotic, when suddenly the Queen walked in and said. ‘Meghan, in this family we don’t speak to people like that,’” it said.
The couple are not on very good terms with King Charles, according to a weekend report.
The Daily Beast, citing unnamed sources, reported that the king intends to “follow the playbook” established by the royal family last century to overcome a crisis that was “triggered by Edward VIII,” who abdicated the throne in 1936 and had to live the rest of his life outside of the UK. The outlet said that would amount to “permanent ‘exile.'”
“The royals handled the abdication crisis by exiling Edward which meant he and Wallis ultimately came to seem like unimportant, misguided, disloyal, and even treacherous individuals to almost the entirety of the British people,” a friend of the king’s told the outlet. “It was a masterful operation in the service of which the Queen Mother, in particular, worked tirelessly.
“The same thing is already happening with Harry and Meghan, and will only gather pace over the next few years under the rule of King Charles. And of course, a wayward second son is far less of an existential threat to the fabric of the monarchy than a wayward king,” the king’s friend added.
A second source, also unnamed but reported to be a former Buckingham Palace staffer, told the outlet that in his accession statement, King Charles noted that his son and Meghan should “continue to build their lives overseas” in what was viewed as a message not to interrupt his reign by continuing to make trips to the United Kingdom.
“Harry and Meghan will get an invite to the coronation, but they will be firmly seated in the cheap seats along with Beatrice and Eugenie, as they were at the funeral. That will be it. Charles will be ruthless when it comes to protecting the Crown, and that means keeping Harry and Meghan as far from the center of gravity as possible,” the former staffer told the outlet.
