THE late Queen allegedly branded Prince Harry’s relationship with Meghan Markle a “complete catastrophe” in the weeks before she died.
An insider has revealed how the late monarch “saw straight through Meghan” in the lead up to her passing in September 2022.
The queen is alleged to have seen ‘straight through Meghan’[/caption]
Harry and Meghan stepped down from royal duties in 2020[/caption]
Journalist and royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith revealed the queens thoughts on her Substack Royal Extras.
Bedell Smith previously told how Harry had been rude to his grandmother during a meeting about his wedding with Meghan refusing to reveal details about her death.
Bedell Smith said the interaction left the queen “saddened.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have always claimed their relationship with the Queen was warm despite the rift between them and other senior royals.
According to a source, Bedell Smith says, the queen made some strong remarks about the Sussexes at Balmoral just weeks before her death.
A group of guests at the Scots castle were alleged to have been privy to some strongly worded comments made by the late queen about Harry and Meghan’s union.
It came just months before her majesty sadly passed away in September 2022.
A source said: “It was out of character for the Queen…but she saw straight through Meghan.
“At the drinks before the dinner, a small group were talking to the monarch and she explained that Harry meeting Meghan had become a complete catastrophe.”
“By this point we all knew the Queen’s health was in decline and she had months left, she seemed regretful about how things had panned out.”
At this point the Sussexes had stepped down as working royals and were living in Montecito.
When ‘Megxit’ was announced the late Queen Elizabeth said in a statement: “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down from royal duties in 2020 and went on to publicly criticise the family in their 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview.
The relationship began to break down in the run up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding according to insiders.
The relationship is alleged to have began to break down in the lead up to the Sussexes wedding[/caption]
In the run up to the Harry and Meghan’s wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor in 2018, the queen is alleged to have said her grandson was “besotted and weak.”
She also worried that his bride-to-be had manipulated the prince, while getting away with a raft of bad behaviour.
The Queen’s first cousin is alleged to have said just days before Meghan and Harry’s wedding: “We hope but don’t quite think she is in love. We think she engineered it all.”
According to Bedell Smith, when Harry and Meghan announced their plans to step down as working royals in 2020 the queen tried to find a compromise to stop ‘Megxit.’
The couple said at the time that they were stepping back to gain more financial independence and avoid the prying eyes of the media.
Inside Prince William and Prince Harry’s ‘feud’
TENSIONS have been running high in the royal family since Prince Harry stepped down from royal duties in 2020 and relocated to California with Meghan Markle.
Their last reported interaction was during the funeral of their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September 2022, but conversations were said to be brief.
The feuding brothers reportedly did not speak to each other despite standing “virtually back to back” among mourners at their uncle’s memorial service last year.
Growing up, Wills and Harry shared many of the same friends who were part of their close, tight-knit circle.
But their relationship took a sour turn after Harry lobbed vile allegations against the Prince of Wales in his memoir Spare – and they are said to have not been in direct contact since the 2023 release.
In the book, he claimed William had physically attacked him and knocked him to the floor in 2019 and made insulting comments about Meghan.
The Sussexes had also targeted Princess Kate, when Meghan claimed the royal made her cry.
The bitter feud was ignited when the Sussexes told Oprah, in their 2021 sit down interview, that certain members of the Royal Family had speculated about Prince Archie’s skin colour.
It was later claimed the royals were Princess Kate and King Charles, after Harry and Meghan’s former pal Omid Scobie published his hatchet-job book Endgame.
During the infamous Oprah interview, the duchess also made stinging comments about the Firm and how they handled her mental health struggles.
Prince William and Harry’s bond then worsened after the Sussexes made a number of accusations against the Royal Family in their 2022 Netflix docuseries.
The duke has given subsequent interviews, such as his most BBC chat in May 2025, that have only propelled bad blood.
