William’s fury at Meghan and Harry’s ‘insulting, disrespectful and petulant’ parting shot

Prince William was left furious and saddened by Meghan and Harry’s parting shot at the Queen and believes the couples’ final statement was ‘insulting, disrespectful and petulant’, it was claimed last night.

The Duke of Cambridge has been ‘shocked and saddened’ at his brother’s behaviour towards the monarch the sources told the Sunday Times – after Harry and Meghan were stripped of their royal patronages and Her Majesty suggested a ‘life of public service’ is not compatible with the couple’s lucrative new career in America.

Courtiers and other members of the family were equally upset by the tone of the pair’s response – released just minutes after the Queen’s announcement – in which they argued ‘service is universal’.

But the row has now placed even further strain on the relationship between the brothers, with some in the Palace claiming it is the most serious royal rift in decades.

As Prince Charles yesterday made a 200-mile round trip to be by poorly Prince Philip’s hospital bedside, it was also claimed that billionaire chat show host Oprah Winfrey spent two days with the Sussexes last week filming their prime-time interview on Wednesday and Thursday last week.

She flew into California on her £50million private jet and was with the couple hours before they released their statement on Friday. Sources claimed to The Sun that the chat show host’s ‘intimate’ access gave her a ‘real insight’ into the rift with the Royal family and they believe her interview to be broadcast on 7 March will be ‘pure gold’

William, 38, has struggled to accept the concept of Megxit and now feels there is added pressure on him with Harry turning his back on the UK.

The Times sources said William believed the Sussexes statement was ‘petulant and insulting to the Queen’ and he was left ‘really sad and genuinely shocked’ and  is ‘very upset by what has happened’.

While other Royal sources said: ‘Don’t disrespect your granny, Harry’ and ‘You don’t answer the Queen back — it’s just not done.’

In other developments:

• The Mail on Sunday has also revealed that Prince Harry did not inform the Queen about the ‘tell-all’ interview with Oprah Winfrey 
• Sources question whether he instigated the discussions with the Queen over the Sussexes’ ‘divorce deal’ in order for it to be settled before the interview, which was recorded last Tuesday.  
• Her Majesty was ‘blindsided’ last week when it emerged that the Duchess of Sussex and her husband had agreed to talk to the American chat show host 
• She learned of it only when US TV network CBS hurriedly issued a statement on Monday after a producer working for Ms Winfrey mistakenly alerted ITV to the project.

Explaining the Queen’s position on what constitutes public service, an informed insider said last night said: ‘People need to be able to look you in the eye and know that you are here for them, not filming a Netflix documentary.

‘Being a Royal is all about public service, not serving yourself. If public service is not your primary purpose, and making money is, then it’s impossible to represent the Queen.’

And a Royal aide said: ‘When someone has dedicated their entire life to duty, as she did on her 21st birthday, she understandably has very strong views on what public duty entails.’

One royal source told the Times: ‘Once [William] he got over the anger of how things happened, he was left with the absence of his brother.

‘They had shared everything about their lives — an office, a foundation, meetings together most days — and there was a lot of fun along the way. He’ll miss it for ever.’

Another friend of the Prince admitted he was ‘still raw’ from the fallout, but insists his relationship with Harry will heal over time.

The Mail on Sunday has also revealed that Prince Harry did not inform the Queen about the ‘tell-all’ interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Her Majesty was ‘blindsided’ last week when it emerged that the Duchess of Sussex and her husband had agreed to talk to the American chat show host.

She learned of it only when US TV network CBS hurriedly issued a statement on Monday after a producer working for Ms Winfrey mistakenly alerted ITV to the project.

It is usual for members of the Royal Family to run potential TV interviews past the Queen.

But Harry not only kept the deal secret, sources question whether he instigated the discussions with the Queen over the Sussexes’ ‘divorce deal’ in order for it to be settled before the interview, which was recorded last Tuesday.

Harry and Meghan brought forward the announcement of their ‘wide-ranging interview, covering everything from stepping into life as a Royal, marriage, motherhood [and] philanthropic work’ after ITV were accidentally tipped off about it. 

Insiders insist the Oprah interview did not influence the decision by the Queen to strip Harry and Meghan of their royal patronages and honorary military titles.

She sent a letter explaining the decision to her grandson after the Oprah interview had been announced, but had written it some days earlier.

In it, she underlined that there could be no ‘half-in, half-out’ role for the Duke and Duchess, including the specific words that ‘in stepping away from the work of the Royal Family it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service’.

That sentence, which was also included in the official Buckingham Palace statement on Friday, is said to have infuriated Harry and Meghan. In their stinging reply, they insisted they would still live ‘a life of service’ away from the Royal Family, adding: ‘Service is universal.’ 

Now, as the Royal Family wait anxiously to see what the Duke and Duchess tell Ms Winfrey when the programme is broadcast on March 7, it can also be revealed that:

• A joint statement on the Megxit outcome from the Duke and Duchess and the Queen was initially planned, but abandoned when the sides could not agree on wording:
• Palace aides were furious at the ‘downright rude’ response to the Queen from the couple which they believe made a ‘mockery of the Queen’s 70 years of service’;
• Harry is understood to have called the Queen last week to ask about the health of Prince Philip.

ITV discovered that the Duke and Duchess were to give an interview with Ms Winfrey when a member of the chat show host’s team requested access to news presenter Tom Bradby’s 2019 interview with Meghan in which she expressed unhappiness at her treatment by the British media.

When ITV approached a spokesman for Harry and Meghan for comment, the decision was made to release a statement revealing the interview.

A source said: ‘They had kept the interview totally secret. The Queen was not told, the Palace was not told.

‘It seems clear from the sequence of events that they wanted and needed to know the final outcome [of the Queen’s decision] before they taped Oprah.’

The couple recorded their tell-all sit down with the American chat show host on Wednesday and Thursday  this week – just hours before the couple issued their parting shot.

It has also emerged that Oprah had been with the Sussexes immediately before their riposte was released, having taken her £50 milllion Gulfstream jet to Santa Barbara – where she owns a second home a short drive from the pair.

In stark contrast to that glamorous meeting, Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, remains in hospital, and was visited by a teary-eyed Prince Charles yesterday, with the 99-year-old expected to continue to be monitored and encouraged to rest into next week.

The interview with Oprah is due to be aired on Sunday March 7, and a person close to the Sussexes said last night that Meghan believes the prime-time broadcast gives her the ‘loudest way she’ll get her voice back’. 

A source told the Sun: ‘The pair are clearly very close to Oprah and the fact she’s been with them at such an intense time has given her a unique insight into the rift with the royals.

‘The drama of last week means that Oprah’s tell-all show will be pure gold. It’s time to hide behind the sofa for the other royals.’

The chat show legend was a guest at the couple’s wedding in 2018, been a firm supporter of their decision to leave Britain and shared weekly emails with the Prince over proposals for a mental health documentary series, reports suggest. 

The Royals are braced for the couple to hit back at the Palace in the interview that was filmed days before The Queen removed Harry and Meghan’s royal patronages.

That sparked a barbed response from the Sussexes stating ‘service is universal’, which Royal sources called ‘horribly disrespectful’ adding: ‘You can’t line your pockets while undertaking official duties’.

Speaking about the Oprah interview which was filmed in California, the source close the couple told the Times: ‘Having an institutional voice within the royal family wasn’t enough [for Meghan]. This interview will be the loudest way she’ll get her voice back.

‘When they first started dating Meghan felt she had lost her voice. She had had a platform as a moderately successful actress, and when she was told to stop using her social media and be careful what she said, I could tell that loss of voice and independence pained her.’

The interview bombshell comes as Prince Philip, 99, continues to be treated in hospital.

An emotional Prince of Wales arrived at King Edward VII’s hospital in London to visit his father on Saturday, who has been treated by doctors since Tuesday. He is expected to remain in hospital until next week.

It comes after it was revealed that a ‘battle royale’ over their royal titles raged behind the scenes, with the Queen telling the couple their commercial careers were completely incompatible with the impartiality required of those in public service.

According to one official, she made it ‘abundantly clear’ to her grandson that when it comes to being a working royal you are either in, or you are out, telling him: ‘You work for the monarchy, the monarchy doesn’t work for you.’

With negotiations already tense, the revelation of the Oprah interview sent matters into free fall and was deemed to be the final straw.

Officials were angered that Harry and Meghan had kept this secret from the Palace, hoping to announce their interview bombshell once the ‘divorce deal’ was done.

The interview promises to deliver the most explosive revelations about the royals since Princess Diana lifted the lid in 1995, with the pair set to reveal exactly why they decided to turn their backs on the family and the UK more widely.

TV companies are already locked in an international bidding war for the rights to the programme, which will see Meghan talk about marriage and motherhood, having recently announced her second pregnancy, as well as her handling of life under the most intense of spotlights.

She is highlighted as the star of the show, with CBS, the American network broadcasting the special in the States, billing Harry as something of a support act.

It will be ‘time to hide behind the sofa at the palace,’ a royal source said.

Last year, The Duke of York was forced to step back from public life following his car-crash Newsnight interview in 2019 about his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, while Diana, Harry’s mother, told friends she ‘deeply regretted’ her appearance on Panorama, in which she admitted adultery and spoke frankly of her relationship with Charles.

‘Oprah is skilled at getting people to talk about their feelings and bound to take them down a path they’ll almost certainly regret,’ the source added.

‘There will be an element of reliving Megxit and airing their grievances. No one benefits from that, but Oprah will get it out of them whether they like it or not.’  

A YouGov poll found nearly half of Britons think the interview is inappropriate. A further 29 per cent were in favour, while 25 per cent said they didn’t know.

It comes after Buckingham Palace announced in a dramatic statement yesterday that they had been stripped of their remaining roles following their move to California .

Pointedly, it said they could not continue with ‘the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service’. 

Harry loses his three military titles – Captain General of the Royal Marines, Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington and Commodore-in-Chief, Royal Navy Small Ships and Diving. 

His patronages of the Rugby Football League and Rugby Football Union, plus Meghan’s of the Royal National Theatre and the Association of Commonwealth Universities have both been returned. 

The Duke and Duchess have also stepped down as president and vice-president of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust.

Representatives for the Sussexes did not respond to a request for comment yesterday

Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey will ‘make or break’ their fortunes in the US as they try ‘to woo and win over Americans’, experts say 

By Caroline Graham for the Mail on Sunday 

The interview with Oprah Winfrey will ‘make or break’ the fortunes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the US, experts predict.

The 90-minute programme, which will air immediately after CBS’s flagship 60 Minutes show on March 7, is the couple’s chance ‘to woo and win over Americans’. A producer who has worked with Ms Winfrey in the past said: ‘This is make or break for them.

‘People in Britain assume they are famous here but the reality is they are not A-list stars in the same way Beyonce or even the Kardashians are.

‘Most Americans have no idea what they stand for and what they actually do.

‘Of course, we know Harry is Princess Diana’s son but ask your average guy in the street and they likely have no clue about them beyond that.’

He said it was significant that Meghan, who last week announced that she is pregnant with the couple’s second child, intends to speak to Ms Winfrey on her own before Harry joins her later in front of the cameras. 

‘It seems Meghan wants to state her case and present her narrative about how she was received in Britain and what caused Megxit,’ the producer added. 

‘She needs regular Americans to understand what she’s about, like her and then want to click on her Netflix projects or Spotify podcasts.

‘The fact they’ve been given the time slot after 60 Minutes, which consistently wins the ratings war on Sunday nights, should give them a huge audience going in.

‘The question is can they keep those millions of viewers interested enough to keep watching for an hour and a half?’

Why Prince Harry must now offer to step aside from the line of succession, by royal biographer HUGO VICKERS 

Few could doubt the anger and frustration felt by Prince Harry as he lost his Royal patronages this week.

His military titles were given to him by the Queen after years of dedication, including two tours of duty in Afghanistan. 

The patronages meant a huge deal to him on a deeply personal level – that is not in question.

Even so, it is time for him to accept the logic of the position that he and Meghan have so very deliberately carved out for themselves.

In moving to the States and making his own money, Harry has chosen a life which is incompatible with that of a working Royal.

If you wish to be Captain General of the Royal Marines – as the Duke of Edinburgh was before him for 60 years – then lying barefoot in the Californian sunshine under a fertility tree does not, I’m afraid, quite cut it. 

Harry is no longer fully able to support his Royal titles from that distance, although a lucrative deal with Netflix suggests he is willing to cash in on them nonetheless.

And he is certainly doing little for his nation in comparison with the many hard-working – and less senior – Royals who toil in their duties uncomplainingly.

That is why I now believe Harry must take one step further still and do the only honourable thing in the circumstances: offer to step aside from the line of succession.

As the sixth in line to the throne, it would take a catastrophic turn of events for him to be called upon as King. But there remains the chance, and it is only sensible that Harry and the Palace advisers at least consider the possibility.

It is not a comfortable prospect – particularly in the light of the approach he has shown in recent times. Harry and Meghan have turned their backs on the Royal Family. Their public statements have shown disrespect to the Queen.

In forging their own paths, they have also strayed into the political arena. These are hardly the distinguishing features of senior Royals.

The Sussexes had been handed roles as president and vice-president of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, a hugely important cause for the Monarch, and faced rewarding lives fostering environmental and economic cooperation between nations.

But that, it seems, was not enough.

Then there is the prospect of Queen Meghan, which no one wants. The idea that she could end up representing our country is impossible. It simply cannot be.

Today, the Queen finds herself in a delicate position – one of Harry’s making. Her Majesty cannot remove her grandson from the line of succession without it seeming vindictive, something she is most certainly not. Duty comes first, but she is fond of her family.

Yet the alternative, that Harry maintains a claim to the throne, is equally unthinkable. Harry has already made it very clear that he was unhappy in his role as a working member of the Royals. So why would he not take the final step and move aside?

The fact is that the Americans are impressed with lineage and inheritance. Plain old Harry Windsor wouldn’t get much of a look in.

In the first (and sole) episode of their Archewell Audio podcast, the couple introduce themselves simply as Harry and Meghan. But the credits at the end are more formal.

‘The executive producers… are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,’ a voiceover notes.

The fact is, they will need their Royal links and titles more than ever if they are to make it on their own.

Harry is easy enough to market in his full military regalia, resplendent in a horse-drawn carriage.

But with a backpack and woolly beard, he’s a different prospect altogether. Harry is valued as a member of the Royal Family, not as a tech entrepreneur.

Perhaps there is a more personal lesson. After his own parents divorced, Princess Diana was asked by the Queen whether she wanted to keep her HRH title.

Her response was clear. ‘No,’ she said. ‘No, I don’t.’

Losing the formal HRH title gave her at least part of the freedom she craved.

Harry, in that respect, is much like his mother. He has shown no desire to be King.

It’s likely that he would not want it for his own children, either, having grown up in the shadow of what it means.

It would be far kinder to his grandmother, to the rest of the Royal Family and to himself for Harry to accept that his place in the succession is no longer tenable.

That sacrifice would prove that Harry is respectful of everything his grandmother stands for.

He would retain his dignity, regardless of title, and we would all respect him for it.