The late Queen was said to be ‘dismayed’ by her relationship with Prince Harry in the lead-up to his 2018 wedding to former Suits actress Meghan Markle, according to a royal author
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who wed over seven years ago, are now facing new allegations about pre-wedding tensions.
The period leading up to their May 2018 wedding was fraught with drama, notably with Meghan’s father withdrawing from the event last minute. However, a Royal biographer has recently revealed claims that behind the scenes, Harry had caused the late Queen considerable concern with some of his wedding plans, even suggesting he nearly jeopardized his relationship with his late grandmother.
Sally Bedell Smith alleges that before her passing, Lady Elizabeth Anson, a cousin of Elizabeth II and renowned party planner, confided in her that the former monarch was “very worried” about her grandson and there were doubts about Meghan’s motives.
Lady Anson, who reportedly made these remarks, passed away in 2020 – and it’s been over seven years since the events surrounding the wedding. Despite the passage of time since their marriage, former BBC Royal correspondent Jennie Bond told the Mirror that Meghan recently revisited the past first in a recent gesture.
She stated, “There have been too many reports about tensions in the weeks running up to Harry and Meghan’s marriage to discount them. I think the old saying ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ holds true.”, reports the Mirror.
“Lady Elizabeth Anson was certainly a very well-connected and informed source for these latest reports, which suggest that the Queen felt Harry was rushing into a marriage too quickly.
“Worse than that, it seems the Queen and other members of the Royal family doubted Meghan’s sincerity and found her very difficult to deal with.
“It’s extremely sad to think that the situation also soured the late Queen’s relationship with her very much loved grandson, Harry: a young man she had nurtured and guided through the very worst time of his life, the death of his mother.
“Is it fair that all this is being brought up so many years later? Maybe not, but then perhaps Meghan shouldn’t allude to lies being told about her eight years ago, which she did in a recent podcast.
“The fact is the royal story is always a source of curiosity and will sell books and papers, especially when there is a whiff of discord or scandal.”
One explosive claim made in Bedell-Smith’s Substack is that the former monarch was taken aback that Harry had asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to perform the wedding ceremony without asking the Dean of Windsor first and that the now Duke of Sussex thought his grandmother could just “do what she wants”.
According to Bedell Smith, Lady Anson expressed that Harry had “blown” his relationship with his grandmother. She recounts Lady Anson’s words from several months before the wedding, “She [the Queen] 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 ten minutes.
“They had tea with her the day before yesterday. She was trying to find out about the wedding dress, and Meghan wouldn’t tell her.”
However, closer to the wedding day, Bedell Smith writes that Lady Anson indicated Harry and his grandmother had “patched things up” after he shared details of the wedding plans with her. Bedell Smith quotes Lady Anson describing Harry as “besotted and weak about women.”
Now, Jennie interprets these claims as evidence of a significant change in Harry. She remarked, “It does seem quite out of character for Harry to disrespect his grandmother and, if he did, it is a sorry reflection of how his relationship changed him.
“He always claimed they had something special, and that she could confide in him in a way she did not with other family members. He suggested he was in some way her protector…making sure ‘she had the right people around her.'”.
“The late Queen was meticulous about including both Harry and Meghan in statements she made about the situation and made it clear she would always regard them as part of the family. Whether she would still feel quite so magnanimous today is something we shall never know. I just hope Harry now feels it was all worth it.”