Queen Elizabeth II urged Prince Harry to wait at least a year
before marrying Meghan Markle but ended up saying the 2018 wedding
was ”nothing to do” with her.
According to Hugo Vickers, in his new biography of Queen
Elizabeth II, the late Monarch advised her grandson to wait at
least twelve months before saying ‘I do’ to Meghan but the prince
decided against that.
Instead, Harry and Meghan married six months after announcing
their engagement.
And Hugo Vickers writers in ‘Queen Elizabeth II’ that the late
Monarch ended up telling someone close to her that the wedding was
”nothing to do with me”.
The insight into the lead up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding comes
as Hugo Vickers discusses the support that the Royal Family gave to
the bride to be when she announced she would be marrying the
prince.
For the first time, a royal fiancee was very publicly welcomed
to the Royal Family Christmas celebrations before their marriage
and Meghan Markle was also invited to big events including the
Commonwealth Day service in 2018 which took place two months before
her wedding to Prince Harry.
Hugo Vickers also writes about discussions between Prince
William and Prince Harry where the older brother also advised a
longer engagement before a wedding, something that caused antipathy
from the younger brother.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle married on May 19 2018 at St.
George’s Chapel, Windsor with Queen Elizabeth II making the groom
Duke of Sussex on his wedding day, ensuring that his new bride left
the ancient church as a royal duchess.
However, Hugo Vickers says that dissatisfaction with their royal
lives began soon after the wedding for the Sussexes with things
coming to a head in January 2020 when they announced they would be
stepping back as senior royals and proposing a half in, half out
arrangement that was rejected. The book claims that Queen Elizabeth
II was far from impressed with the final decision.
It’s not the only book claiming to lift the lid on the Duke and
Duchess of Sussex at the moment. Tom Bower has written a book
called Betrayal about the couple.