Queen Elizabeth II gave her grandson Prince Harry a strict ultimatum before he walked away from the royal family, never to look back, according to an author and a longtime friend of the British royals.
The author claimed that Harry and his wife Meghan Markle gave an “unforgivable” amount of stress to the queen during her final years.
Highlights
- Author Hugo Vickers made a series of explosive claims in his new book 'Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History.'
- “What I find unforgivable is the stress that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put on the queen in the last years of her life,” he said.
- The author claimed the queen gave Harry an ultimatum that made him step down from his royal duties for good.
- The Queen was “deeply hurt by her grandson’s attacks,” Vickers said.
After tensions flared up, the queen even refused to take phone calls from Harry without a witness present in the room, the author claimed.
Queen Elizabeth II gave her grandson Prince Harry a strict ultimatum before he walked away from the royal family for good
Image credits: The Royal Family
Hugo Vickers, a longtime friend of the British royal family, made multiple bombshell revelations in his new book Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History.
“What I find unforgivable is the stress that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put on the queen in the last years of her life,” he told Fox News.
Vickers spoke about how Harry initially seemed to be having a fairytale love story with the Suits alum. But issues within the palace started building cracks in the family's dynamics.
Image credits: 60 Minutes
“Sparkle” was the name some of the palace staff gave to Meghan, who began dating Harry in 2016 and was engaged to him by November 2017.
Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, nonchalantly referred to her as “the American,” while the queen advised Harry to wait a year before tying the knot.
“Have fun with her, but don’t marry her,” his father, King Charles, told him, according to Vickers’ book.
But Harry went ahead with the marriage, and they wed in 2018 in Windsor, England.
Members of the royal family weren't too keen on Harry hastily getting married to “the American”
Image credits: Steve Parsons - WPA Pool/Getty Images
Immediately after the wedding, things seemed to be going fine as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex carried out their royal duties.
“[Harry] was doing a really good job over in England and indeed in the Commonwealth. And [Meghan] also seemed to be very committed to the Commonwealth,” the author told the outlet. “...It all looked very positive, but it wasn’t to be.”
With time, the cracks worsened within the royal family.
Image credits: BBC News
“The distress the Sussexes caused the Queen in the last years of her life cannot be overestimated,” Vickers wrote in his book.
On one occasion, Meghan allegedly had an altercation with a gardener while staying at Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate, near the castle where the queen spent a major portion of her time.
When one of the head gardeners told the queen about the scuffle, she “flew into a rage,” Vickers wrote.
“She got into her car, drove to the site, and scolded Meghan for her rudeness to the staff,” he continued.
“The distress the Sussexes caused the Queen in the last years of her life cannot be overestimated,” author Hugo Vickers wrote in his book
Image credits: Vanity Fair
By 2019, Harry and the former actress moved to Canada amid mounting frustration with his family.
The couple later said they had issues with the relentless media intrusion and the lack of support from the palace.
At the time, Harry apparently wanted to propose a “half-in, half-out” arrangement, because he was “reluctant” to leave the royal family, Vickers claimed. He apparently wanted an arrangement where he and Meghan would be self-financing but would still work for the royals.
Image credits: meghan
As per the author’s version, the queen gave the Sussexes a year to think about how “this exile” would work out.
“She made it quite clear on advice, obviously from her private secretary and his private secretary, and others, that you couldn’t be half in and half out,” Vickers said about the queen’s ultimatum to his grandson.
The queen also allegedly made it clear to Harry that he and his wife couldn’t make their own money while still taking on royal duties.
“This wasn’t going to work. You either did your duties, or you didn’t,” Vickers wrote.
The queen told Harry that he couldn't have his way in terms of the nature of his royal duties
Image credits: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
After spending time in Canada, the couple relocated to California. And by the end of their year-long deadline, the queen apparently asked Harry how it was working out for them.
That’s when they “decided that they were going to stay,” the author wrote. “And at that point, he stepped down from his various positions in England.”
Since their official step-down as working senior members of the royal family, Harry and Meghan have shared their side of the story, including claims about racism being prevalent among the Windsors.
Meanwhile, the queen was “deeply hurt by her grandson’s attacks,” Vickers said.
Image credits: Phil Noble - WPA Pool/Getty Images
The author claimed that the queen grew so “distrustful of Harry” that he refused to pick up his phone calls “unless there was a witness who could record what was said.”
“One cannot underestimate the pain the Sussexes caused the queen in the last years of her life,” Vickers claimed in his book.
The author also claimed that the queen confided to a friend that her grandson once held a “very useful role” in the UK, serving as a member of the line of succession to the British throne.
But after he stepped down, he “turned into a kind of childminder,” the queen said, reflecting on how his life changed after moving to the Californian city of Montecito.
Vickers quipped in his book: “The way I interpreted that, perhaps rather more harshly, was you cannot be Captain General of the Royal Marines, a very distinguished position which had been held by Prince Philip for many years, and lie barefoot under a tree in California.”
“What about the attacks against his wife?” one commenter asked online
