A royal insider claims Harry 'blew up' relationship with Queen over his wedding with Meghan Markle. Photo / Getty Images
A royal insider claims Harry 'blew up' relationship with Queen over his wedding with Meghan Markle. Photo / Getty Images
The Duke of Sussex “blew up” his relationship with the late Queen over his wedding plans, it has been claimed.
Lady Elizabeth Anson, a society party planner who was one of Elizabeth II’s closest confidantes, is said to have chatted to the late Queen about Prince Harry’s relationship with thefuture Duchess of Sussex. Lady Elizabeth died five years ago, aged 79.
A first cousin of Elizabeth II, she acted as a sounding board over concerns about Harry and Meghan’s relationship, not least that their wedding in 2018 was being planned without the Queen’s involvement, leaving her “really upset”.
The monarch is also said to have voiced concerns about the discord between Meghan and Kate, recognising that there was no love lost between the two.
Lady Elizabeth’s conversations with the monarch have now been shared by Sally Bedell Smith, a journalist and royal biographer with whom she was also good friends.
In February 2018, Lady Elizabeth, known to her friends as Liza, revealed that she had recently met Meghan, describing the American actress as “full of charm”.
However, the future duchess is said to have been clear that she and Harry did not want the Queen’s favoured party planner to take charge of their wedding.
“Harry wrote to me and said they were going another way,” Lady Elizabeth is said to have told Bedell Smith. “He said, ‘I am close to my grandmother, and she is content with this.’ When I spoke with the Queen, she said she is not at all content.”
Lady Elizabeth added: “Meghan could turn into nothing but trouble. She sees things in a different way.”
Among other things, the late Queen was said to have been “dismayed” that Prince Harry asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to perform the marriage service at St George’s Chapel without first asking permission from the Dean of Windsor.
“Harry has blown up his relationship with his grandmother,” Lady Elizabeth said. “She said she was really upset. I was shocked when the Queen told me this, how she was so saddened. I had no idea about the conversation, that he was rude to her for 10 minutes.”
She added: “They [Harry and Meghan] had tea with her the day before yesterday. She was trying to find out about the wedding dress, and Meghan wouldn’t tell her.”
A palace insider claims that the wedding planning upset the Queen. Photo / Getty Images
Two weeks before the wedding, Lady Elizabeth reported back on a further conversation with the Queen, whom she affectionately nicknamed “Jemima”, amid fears that Meghan did not have the right intentions.
“The Number One Lady – I call her Jemima – says the jury is out on whether she likes Meghan,” she said. “My Jemima is very worried. Harry is besotted and weak about women. We hope but don’t quite think she is in love. We think she engineered it all.”
Elsewhere, Lady Elizabeth repeated concerns that “Meghan and William and Kate are not working well”, adding: “That is what the Queen said, particularly about the two girls.
“It’s worrying that so many people are questioning whether Meghan is right for Harry. The problem, bless his heart, is that Harry is neither bright nor strong, and she is both.”
In 2019, a year before she died, Lady Elizabeth was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for her services to the monarchy.
The conversations were published on Bedell Smith’s Substack, Royal Extras.
