QEII was allegedly furious about Prince Harry & Meghan’s wedding guest list

A few months ago, the royal gossip world was rocked when royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith published some third-hand gossip from a dead woman. The dead woman in question was Lady Liza Anson, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s cousins. Liza and QEII were close, and according to Liza, QEII confided in her about all manner of things, mostly involving the Duke and Duchess of Susseex. As it turned out, Liza liked to gossip with many royal reporters, as they all eagerly lined up to admit that they used Liza as a source for many years before her passing in 2020. They also admit that Liza had a particular grudge against Harry and Meghan, because the Sussexes didn’t hire her to plan any part of their wedding. Thus, she spent years bad-mouthing H&M to anyone who would listen, and she clearly misrepresented QEII’s thoughts on the Sussexes consistently. Speaking of, Sally Bedell Smith has more to say about two dead women.

The Queen was ‘hurt’ by some of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s plans for their wedding at Windsor Castle and declared exasperatedly: ‘But it’s my house – and I’m paying for it’, a close friend of the monarch’s cousin has claimed. Her Majesty is said to have disapproved of their guestlist and the couple’s preference to invite ‘random’ celebrities over family members in May 2018.

‘That was just yet another irritation for the Queen’, seasoned royal expert Sally Bedell Smith, a celebrated biographer who was popular in royal circles, said today. Harry’s grandmother was more excited about Princess Eugenie’s wedding in October that year only for the Duchess of Sussex to announce she was pregnant on the day, it was also claimed today. Ms Bedell Smith, whose 2012 biography of the Queen won the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence, has claimed the timing of the Sussexes’ happy news had been ‘rude’.

She had described her conversations with Her Majesty’s late cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson, who spoke to the Queen daily towards the end of her life. The monarch was ‘upset’ at not being fully involved in Harry and Meghan’s wedding plans in the months and weeks beforehand, Sally said in a new podcast. Her cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson tried to console her by telling her she could ‘look forward’ to Royal Ascot and Princess Eugenie’s wedding. However, the Queen replied: ‘But it’s my house. And I’m paying for it’.

The Royal Family paid for the wedding, including the service, music, flowers and reception. All 600 guests were invited to a lunchtime reception at St George’s Hall, hosted by the Queen followed by an evening bash for 200 VIPs at Frogmore House, hosted by Harry’s father. But Harry and Meghan had invited people that ‘barely knew’ knew them and the Royal Family, it was claimed today.

Sally Bedell Smith told American royal commentator Kinsey Schofield’s Unfiltered YouTube show: ‘Harry and Meghan just disinvited or didn’t invite a whole group of family and cousins. The children of the Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and of the Gloucesters. She [Meghan] and Harry just “exed” them out of the guest list and they added all these other random people who barely even knew the Royal Family. That was just yet another irritation for the Queen’.

‘So she was predisposed to be very fond of him, to love him, and I think it was a real shock for her when he began treating her discourteously after he and Meghan got together’, Sally said.

Lady Elizabeth comforted her in their daily phone calls by saying she could really look forward to Eugenie’s wedding. She told the Queen: “This is going to be your family wedding. And it was because Harry and Meghan had they invited people they barely knew’. She told the Queen: “Just concentrate on Royal Ascot and then concentrate on the real family wedding in October”.

[From The Daily Mail]

First of all, a grandmother throwing tantrums about her grandson’s wedding guest list is asinine, but this is apparently how they want QEII to be remembered. As for the all of this… it brings up some things I kept thinking about as I read Prince Harry’s Spare. One, Harry’s family really knows how to wind him up and push his buttons, and I suspect that a lot of people in the British press know how to push his buttons as well. Two, Harry has always been completely unwilling to call his family’s bluff. If QEII really was carrying on this way – and who knows if this is even partly true – Harry and Meghan should have called the queen’s bluff and just shrugged and said, “Vegas it is, nevermind about the wedding in Windsor!” And really stick to it – if these people are really going to get THIS upset over a bride and groom inviting their friends to the wedding, then just call their bluff and cancel the wedding. I bet QEII would have changed her tune in a hurry. Besides which, I’m pretty sure that Charles was the one who paid for a big chunk of the wedding, right?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.