When the Duke of Sussex made extraordinary claims as he detailed his 2022 meeting with the late Queen Elizabeth, the Firm was dumbfounded, with even the Prime Minister stepping in to make a statement
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quit their royal duties in 2020 and relocated to California, they had no qualms speaking freely about the alleged inner workings of the royal family, which resulted in a very strained relationship with the Firm.
From their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 to Harry’s autobiography Spare in 2023, the Sussexes often spoke out about how they were treated within the Firm, and what led to their decision to leave. Even when being interviewed about different topics such as their charity work, their conversations often made their way back to the royal family.
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Prince Harry during his interview with NBC’s Hoda Kotb in 2022(Image: TODAY)
One of the biggest examples of this came in 2022 when Harry travelled to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games, which were taking place in The Hague. The Duke of Sussex sat down with NBC US breakfast show Today to discuss his involvement in the tournament, but the conversation quickly steered back to the Firm.
Harry revealed during the candid chat with host Hoda Kotb that on his way to the Netherlands, he and Meghan Markle had made a brief pit stop in the UK to have a private tea with the late Queen Elizabeth.
The couple arrived at Windsor Castle for the meeting, marking their first time back in the UK since they left their royal roles behind in 2020.
During the interview just days later, Harry made the declaration that it was his duty to ensure that his beloved grandmother was “protected and got the right people around her”.
Prince Harry detailed the private meeting he had with the Queen before heading to the Netherlands
He added that it had been refreshing to meet her “in some element of privacy”, saying: “It was so nice to see her. She’s in great form. She’s always got a great sense of humour with me.” The Duke also added that the late Queen would confide secrets with him that she couldn’t share with “anybody else”.
Following the extraordinary interview and the Prince’s claims about the late Queen, Harry faced accusations of “breathtaking arrogance”, with “no bounds to his self-delusion”. Royal expert Tom Bower also wrote in his book Revenge, that Harry’s comments made it seem that “ King Charles, Princess Anne, Prince William and all of the Queen’s staff were inadequate for the task”.
Amid increased public concerns for the late Queen’s wellbeing after the interview, Harry’s remarks also prompted an unprecedented intervention from Downing Street who were forced to dismiss his suggestion that the Queen was in need of enhanced protection.
When asked whether the Prime Minister was confident in the arrangements at the time to ensure the Queen’s welfare, a spokesman for Boris Johnson, then Prime Minister, was clear, as they simply responded: “Yes.”
In the aftermath of Harry’s NBC interview, the royal family sought to protect the Queen from further speculation as they celebrated what would come to be the Monarch’s final birthday prior to her tragic passing in September of that year.
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