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Harry and Meghan kept their Windsor meeting with the Queen secret from her staff because her grandson ‘has every reason’ to question if they all have her ‘best interests at heart’, the couple’s friend Omid Scobie claimed today.
Royal aides have accused the Duke of Sussex of ‘breathtaking arrogance’ after he claimed he wanted to ‘protect’ the Queen, despite moving 5,000 miles away to California.
The author of the Finding Freedom biography alleged that the Sussexes kept their flying visit to Windsor almost two weeks ago a secret – although royal insiders have questioned whether this would be possible given they stayed in the grounds the night before their 30-minute meeting with the monarch, whose diary is carefully managed by staff.
Writing for Yahoo he said: ‘While the Sussexes and the Queen have been in regular contact over the phone or virtually, their recent in-person meeting – which was purposefully kept a secret from all palace aides – was Harry’s first chance in a year to truly speak privately with his grandmother without fear of anyone overhearing or wandering in the background of a video call’.
Mr Scobie also described how his ‘jaw dropped’ when he heard historic claims that Her Majesty’s private secretary Edward Young was accused of refusing to allow the Sussexes to visit the monarch at Sandringham.
And the royal reporter was similarly scathing about the Queen’s dresser and confidante Angela Kelly, who he claims was determined to put Meghan ‘in her place’.
Harry and Meghan kept their visit to the Queen secret from ‘all’ her aides, their friend Omid Scobie claimed
Omid Scobie has said Harry is known to have an historical hatred for royal aides who he blames for some of ‘his darkest and most distressing moments’
Prince Harry could have been referring to the Queen’s private secretary Sir Edward Young (left) or her dresser Angela Kelly (right) when he spoke about ensuring his grandmother has ‘the right people around her’, it has been claimed
Arguing Harry is right to question those around his grandmother, he added: ‘The reality is, since the passing of Prince Philip one year ago, the Queen is living by herself. While Prince Charles, the Cambridges and others stop by for visits, the people surrounding the monarch on a daily basis—aides, courtiers and household staff responsible for every aspect of her life—are all employees of the royal institution.
‘And it’s at the hands of some of these same people that Harry experienced some of his darkest and most distressing moments as a working member of the Firm’.
Harry is known to have an historical hatred for the so-called ‘men in grey suits’, the senior courtiers who advise the Queen, such as her private secretary Sir Edward Young, whom he believes has deliberately kept him at arm’s length.
Mr Scobie: ‘I remember how my jaw dropped when a friend of the couple gave me a play-by-play account of how the Queen’s private secretary, Edward Young, went out of his way to prevent the couple from visiting the monarch in Sandringham’.
But the Queen is also surrounded a tight-knit and intensely devoted circle of mostly long-standing servants.
They are led by Miss Kelly, a former dresser promoted to the special position of ‘personal assistant, advisor and curator’ to the Queen, who is so close to her boss that she wears in her shoes and revels in her position as her gatekeeper.
Harry famously fell out with the Liverpool docker’s daughter over Meghan’s choice of tiara for their wedding.
He accused Miss Kelly of being deliberately obstructive towards his fiancée, while supporters of the royal right-hand woman say the Queen’s grandson was rude and short-tempered, effectively telling her: ‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets.’
Writing about the aides Scobie said: ‘Angela Kelly, who multiple sources told me made it almost impossible for Meghan to have a necessary “hair trial” with her chosen wedding tiara—even standing up the duchess-to-be and her hairstylist, who had flown in especially, at a pre-scheduled fitting. Harry, sources said, felt it was a cruel attempt to put his partner “in her place”.’
Meghan returned with Harry for less than 24 hours for the first time in more than two years, staying at Frogmore Cottage, the home they have kept on the Queen’s Windsor estate.
Harry and Meghan arrived in Britain after an overnight British Airways flight from Los Angeles. They did not bring their children, Archie, two, and ten-month-old Lilibet – who the Queen has still not met.
They were driven to Frogmore where they spent the night. After his failure to attend his grandfather’s memorial service last month – amid an ongoing legal row with the Home Office over the removal of his police protection – Harry’s offer to visit the Queen was being viewed as an olive branch.
But the Duke of Sussex upset palace officials and reportedly his father and brother after claiming part of his visit was motivated by ‘making sure she’s protected and got the right people around her.’
Harry went on to claim that the Queen tells him things she feels she cannot tell anyone else.
He said: ‘We have a really special relationship. We talk about things that she can’t talk about with anybody else. So that’s always a nice piece to it.’
Harry and Meghan may come to a ‘commuter’ arrangement with the Royal Family after the Queen dies, a royal author has claimed
Meghan would not want to return to the UK for more than a fleeting visit if Harry mends his relationship with his father and brother because ‘she disliked England’, the former editor of Vanity Fair has claimed.
Ms Brown also noted that the couple’s exit from royal life was a ‘disaster all round’
Tina Brown has said she believes Prince Harry may even want to make a sensational return to the Royal Family after the Queen’s death – splitting his time between Britain and the US – though Meghan would be unlikely to be fully on board.
Ms Brown has described Megxit as a ‘disaster for both sides’ and claimed Harry and Meghan caused ‘maximum mayhem’ when leaving the Royal Family because they are ‘addicted to drama’.
She said: ‘I think that Harry is going to want to come back when the Queen dies to serve his country. And I think they will find a way to reel him in. And it’s possible that Meghan – maybe they will have a commuter arrangement. I don’t know. I don’t see Meghan ever wanting to go back. She disliked England.’
Ms Brown claimed that the British public are ‘very very sad’ about Megxit, because they took Harry to their hearts and also tried to support him when he found love with Meghan. Ms Brown also labelled Prince Harry a ‘very impetuous man’ and revealed how Palace advisors ‘always thought he would leave’.
She said: ‘I actually think there is a Harry-shaped hole in the royal family now. And Harry was beloved, actually, by the British people. And people adored Meghan when she came into the mix.
‘So it was actually very, very sad for everybody that it went so wrong because they actually need Harry and Meghan now. You should see, the Queen is failing, and she’s very frail. They kind of need Harry and Meghan to bring that star power and to be on the balcony at the Jubilee. We have to have a royal family up there. We can’t have Andrew up there.’
The Queen and Prince Charles are said to be ‘keen’ to welcome Harry and Meghan (pictured during Trooping The Colour 2018) to ‘family’ events at the Jubilee in June but: ‘The ball is in their court’
The journalist, Princess Diana’s biographer, is the author of the new bombshell book The Palace Papers: Inside The House Of Windsor – The Truth And The Turmoil.
Speaking on a New York Times podcast Sway to promote her new book, she said the couple made ‘bad choices’ and could have left the Royal Family on far better terms if they weren’t as ‘hotheaded’.
Ms Brown also labelled Prince Harry a ‘very impetuous man’ and revealed how Palace advisors ‘always thought he would leave’.
She said she was told it was because ‘he was so fragile, so combustible, he was so unhappy, frankly, in the constraints of the royal family’.
However, she also noted that the couple’s exit from royal life was a ‘disaster all round’.
The Queen and Prince Harry’s father Prince Charles are both said to very ‘keen’ for him, his wife and children to jet in from California to mark the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.
Buckingham Palace is said to have promised the Sussexes full armed security at all Royal Family events in June in a bid to reassure them after Harry said he felt ‘unsafe’ in Britain.
But despite Her Majesty and Prince Charles removing the main obstacle for Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet attending, the Duke of Sussex is still said to be genuinely undecided about whether to jet in to celebrate his grandmother’s 70 years on the throne.
A palace source told the Sunday telegraph that ‘the ball was in his court’, adding: ‘His grandmother and father keen to welcome the Sussexes to “family” events’.
It would mean that the Sussexes would be welcomed onto the Buckingham Palace balcony with the rest of the royals to watch a RAF flypast and the Trooping the Colour on June 2, the Queen’s official birthday.
But they would be unable to attend working elements of the Jubilee, having quit as frontline royals when they emigrated to Canada and then Los Angeles two years ago.
The Sussexes recently caused outrage after Harry claimed in an NBC interview that he wanted to make sure his grandmother was ‘protected’ and had ‘the right people around her’.
In an NBC TV appearance, Harry also opened up on his ‘special’ relationship with his grandmother, and his very public claim that she confides in him things she cannot talk to anyone else about.
Experts branded the comments a ‘gross insult’ to Charles and William, and point out that his and Meghan’s top secret ‘olive branch’ meeting with the Queen at Windsor Castle before the Invictus Games was the first time Harry had seen his grandmother in two years.
The Queen is all smiles as she heads out this morning on the Sandringham Estate
Tina Brown said Sussexes made ‘bad choices’ and could have left the Royal Family on far better terms if they weren’t as ‘hotheaded’
Discussing the surprise meeting with the Queen, Ms Brown said it could be a sign of things to come.
She said: It’s a sign of a cautious rapprochement, and I actually think that when the queen dies, I would not be at all surprised if some kind of new charter, as it were, with Harry is drawn up, because I think they’re going to feel they do need Harry in some way. And he might get a bit more of what he wanted.
‘I mean, he could be a kind of commuter royal, I guess. The problem is the money piece. You know, they wanted to make money. And the big tension there was conflict of interest. I mean, how do you work that?’
Ms Brown’s podcast appearance comes after her new book unveiled a list of bombshells on Harry and his relationship with the royal family.
It revealed how Harry ‘vented’ about William and ‘poured out resentments’ about his father Charles to his actress ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas so much that she recommended he see a therapist, leading the duke to seek advice on the best shrinks from MI6.
The Duke of Sussex grew ‘angry’ as he felt his brother was ‘hogging the best briefs’ around a decade ago – and when he wasn’t obsessing over William would moan about the Prince of Wales.
She claims ‘friction between the brothers escalated’ so much after William became patron of the rhino and elephant charity the Tusk Trust in 2015 that the pair had ‘Olympic rows’ – and quotes a friend of the siblings as calling Harry a ‘very, very angry man’.
Harry and William stand together during the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London, July 1, 2021
Harry and William with a cheetah at the Mokolodo nature reserve in Gaberone, Botswana on June 15, 2010
The royal expert also claims Harry’s ex-girlfriend Cressida grew ‘tiresome’ of his complaints about his family while they dated between 2012 and 2014, and was apparently the first person to persuade the Queen’s grandson to see a therapist – leading him to take advice from MI6 to find the right person.
After their relationship broke down, Harry wrote the old flame ‘a sweet letter saying ‘I admire you, I wish you well and above all thank you for helping me to address my demons and seek help”, Mrs Brown claims, quoting one of her contacts.
Cressie is said to have also found his resentment towards the Press ‘trying’ – and that while reports played-up the romantic love affair, the ‘bizarre reality of date nights was glumly eating takeaway and watching Netflix at Nottingham Cottage, Harry’s none-too-tidy two-bedroom grace-and-favour bachelor pad in the grounds of Kensington Palace’, Mrs Brown writes.
The tension between Harry and William existed years before Meghan Markle burst onto the scene, Mrs Brown claims. However, her arrival changed ‘everything’ in Harry’s life, and she suggests the pair became ‘drunk on a shared fantasy of being the instruments of global transformation who, once married, would operate in the celebrity stratosphere once inhabited by Princess Diana’.
Mrs Brown has also claimed that Harry and Meghan are ‘addicted to drama’ – and says one day the duke will ‘wake up’ and realise he’s living in Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop.
The Duke of Sussex cheers on competitors during the powerlifting event at the Invictus Games, in the Netherlands
Harry and Meghan during the Invictus Games on April 17, a week after meeting his grandmother the Queen at Windsor
Speaking to the Telegraph, the expert said the pair can’t stop creating dramatic scenes wherever they go – claiming they appeared to be ‘addicted to drama’. And she warned the duke appears to have been ‘completely and utterly taken over by Meghan and his whole personality has changed’.
‘I do question how it will end. ‘[Maybe] he’ll wake up and realise he’s living in Goop and he has to get the hell out, go down the pub and see his friends,’ she added.
The Royal Family was last week left reeling when Harry, appeared to issue a veiled warning to those closest to the Queen when interviewed by a US network, saying he wanted to make sure his grandmother was ‘protected’ and had ‘the right people around her’.
The duke did not elaborate on whether he was referring to royal aides or members of his own family, but his comments may have deepened his rift with his father the Prince of Wales and his brother William and perplexed palace officials.
Harry also risked further fuelling the rift with his estranged older brother by stating that their late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, was now watching over him from beyond the grave as ‘she’s done her bit’ with William and his family.
In an NBC TV appearance, Harry also opened up on his ‘special’ relationship with his grandmother, and his very public claim that she confides in him things she cannot talk to anyone else about.
And in a barbed comment, he said of his visit: ‘I’m just making sure that she’s protected and got the right people around her’.
Sources have told the Daily Mail that the prince appeared mollified at the plans put in place when he and Meghan visited the Queen at Windsor last week.
The couple brought over their own private bodyguards from the US but stayed on the Queen’s Windsor estate and received a Special Escort Group (SEG) detail when travelling outside.
The SEG provides mobile armed protection to both royals and government ministers. This ‘hybrid’ model is now likely to be offered to Harry, Meghan and children, Archie, two, and, Lilibet, ten months, when visiting. It would be funded by taxpayers as the Home Office have made clear that they cannot agree private financial arrangements with anyone receiving Met Police security.
Harry is taking legal action against the Home Office after being stripped of armed police protection. He says he does not feel safe under current security arrangements bringing his family to the UK and has offered to pay for British police bodyguards himself.
The duke’s barrister, Shaheed Fatima QC, previously told the High Court that Harry considers the UK ‘is and always will be his home’ and says he is keen to return to visit family and friends – although the prince this week said in a TV interview that home ‘is in the States’.
A well-placed source told the Mail: ‘Harry was fairly pleased with the way the operation worked [when he and Meghan came to Windsor] and the liaison between his security team and the Met. He believes it means a workable solution can be found, allowing him to come over with his children as early as the Platinum Jubilee.’
The source said they believed Harry would now row back from his legal action.
It came as Donald Trump urged the Queen to strip Prince Harry and Meghan Markle of all their royal titles as he described the Duke of Sussex as being ‘whipped like no person I think I’ve ever seen’ and ‘led around by his nose’.
The former US president admonished Harry for being ‘so disrespectful to the country’ and an ’embarrassment’ – adding that the Queen should ban him from even visiting Britain and tell him: ‘Frankly, don’t come around.’
Mr Trump also said Harry had been ‘led down a path’ and that he wondered whether the Duke – who stepped down as a senior royal in early 2020 with his American wife – would ‘go back on his hands and knees and say “please”.’
He claimed is ‘not a fan’ of Meghan and ‘wasn’t right from the beginning’, telling Piers Morgan on the new channel TalkTV: ‘I’ve been a very good predictor, as you know – I’ve predicted almost everything. It’ll end, and it’ll end bad.’
It was Mr Trump’s latest attack on the couple, with him having previously spoken of his support for the 96-year-old monarch who hosted him with wife Melania in a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace in London in June 2019.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
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