Category: Queen Elizabeth II

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Kate Middleton Meghan Sussex Prince Harry Queen Elizabeth II royals

QEII said ‘thank goodness Meghan isn’t coming’ to Prince Philip’s funeral?

qeii-said-‘thank-goodness-meghan-isn’t-coming’-to-prince-philip’s-funeral?

Today is the third anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death. As such, the British tabloids have all been doing “remember when” pieces, almost all of which are centered on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Over the weekend and as I’m writing this, this remember-when piece is the top story of the Daily Mail’s Royal section. It’s surprisingly not about QEII’s death but about Prince Philip’s passing in 2021. Philip died on April 9, 2021. His funeral was held on April 17th. Prince Harry traveled solo to the funeral, because Meghan was pregnant with Lili. Lili was born on June 4th – if you do the math, no doctor would have signed off on Meghan flying long-haul internationally with only six weeks left. But watch how that racist old coot Tom Bower framed the story:

As was his wish, Prince Philip’s funeral was a ‘minimal fuss’ ceremony. He didn’t want an eulogy or an elaborate state funeral; ‘He doesn’t see himself as important enough for that,’ an aide once said of the Duke of Edinburgh. The funeral – Operation Forth Bridge – was scaled back even further due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with just 30 mourners, primarily family members, in attendance.

Biographer Tom Bower paints a solemn picture of the days surrounding the funeral in April 2021 in his book, Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors. He wrote: ‘The mood in London was sombre. Daily, the media extolled Philip’s remarkable life and devotion to the country. The Duke had planned a simple funeral at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. The rehearsals displayed faultless military drill. Few would not be touched by the perfection of British ceremonial tradition. The weather was forecast to be perfect. The only uncertainty was the relationship between Harry and his family.’

Philip’s death on April 9 came just a month after the Sussexes’ explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, during which the couple made racism accusations against an unknown member of the Royal Family. The Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral was planned for April 17 and Bower wrote: ‘Neither the Palace nor the media understood the Sussexes’ mindset when Harry arrived in London just before the service. How would he cope with his father and brother? Meghan had cited her seven-month pregnancy as the reason for not travelling. In Windsor Castle, the Queen was preparing to face the public on one of the saddest days of her life. Philip had been her rock for the previous 70 years. To comply with Covid restrictions, she would grieve alone inside the chapel.’

She is reported to have said to her senior aides: ‘Thank goodness Meghan is not coming.’

‘There was no mistaking the Queen’s dislike for the disruptive actress,’ wrote Bower.

[From The Daily Mail]

They just love making QEII sound like a huge a–hole, right? And they continue to use QEII in death to rewrite everything around the Sussexes. It’s all part of the larger narrative where Meghan was scapegoated for every single f–king thing, even when she was just sitting at home pregnant. Anyway, I remember the funeral and I was so glad that Meghan wasn’t there. I also remember that no one said a f–king thing about Kate turning the funeral into her Keen Mourning photoshoot, nor did anyone blink an eye when all of the post-funeral press was about Kate’s keen peacemaking.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Instar.

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Prince William Queen Elizabeth II royals

Prince William advised QEII to interfere with the Scottish independence vote

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Here are more photos of Prince William and Kate’s big “return to work” following their summer holiday. I already talked about Kate’s new wiglet in another post. As for William’s appearance… he looks pretty much the same. Last year, he lost a dramatic amount of weight and then, last summer, he grew out this sketchy little beard. It appears that the beard is here to stay. He has gained some weight back though. Anyway, William is currently in deep sh-t with Scottish people, interestingly enough. Back in 2014, Scotland had a vote to decide their independence from the “United Kingdom” and the crown. At the end of the day, Scottish people decided to “remain,” but before that happened, Queen Elizabeth II made her anti-Scexit feelings known publicly. As it turns out, William was one of the people in the inner circle who convinced QEII to interfere in the political situation.

The Prince of Wales helped to persuade the late Queen to make her unprecedented intervention in the Scottish independence referendum, a new book claims. The future king was among the figures to apply “pressure” on the monarch to speak out days before the vote in September 2014, alongside then prime minister David Cameron, according to Valentine Low, the respected royal biographer and former Times royal correspondent.

The Queen said four days before the historic referendum that she hoped Scots would “think very carefully about the future” when talking to members of the public outside Crathie Kirk, her place of worship when she visited Balmoral. While at the time Palace sources attempted to present the interaction as entirely spontaneous, Cameron has since confirmed that he had been lobbying for the Queen to make an intervention, amid panic in Number 10 that the pro-independence Yes campaign was on the brink of victory.

The role William played behind the scenes — which has never been revealed before — is documented in Power and the Palace, in which Low, who reported on the royal family for The Times between 2008 and 2023, examines the relationship between the monarchy and Number 10.

Low writes: “The pressure [on the Queen to intervene in the referendum] did not just come from Cameron, however. Prince William also wanted the Queen to say something, and urged the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Christopher Geidt, to get her to intervene. Geidt and the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, had… already been talking about the constitutional propriety of an intervention by the monarch, and between them they came up with the formula that the Queen would use when she stopped to talk to members of the public outside Crathie Kirk that Sunday.”

The following Thursday, the No campaign won 55 per cent of the vote, a result which Cameron later revealed, accidentally, had delighted the Queen so much that she “purred down the line” when he called her to tell her the UK was secure.

Claims of a political intervention from William are likely to fuel suspicion among Scottish nationalists, which may cause issues once he becomes king. Tommy Sheppard, the former SNP MP who is planning to stand as a regional candidate in next May’s Holyrood elections, called for the claim in the book to be investigated.

“If true, it runs a coach and horses through the claim that the royal family are not involved in politics and further undermines their standing,” Sheppard said. “The public have a right to know if this happened or not. It is time for William to tell what happened.”

[From The Times]

There was a general belief that Scotland was fine with QEII because she was half-Scottish, but that Scotland would have more of an issue with King Charles and eventually King William. Charles seems to have placated Scottish people and god knows, he makes tons of visits to Scotland. William… does not. William and Kate barely visit, and when they do, it’s usually just a day trip or a long weekend in Balmoral once a year. I guess my point is that I’m surprised William even had strong feelings about Scottish independence, since he doesn’t seem to give a sh-t in general about Scotland. But sure, investigate the sh-t out of him! I find it interesting that William’s name is being mentioned here, and yet… Charles was silent about Scottish independence, even behind the scenes?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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politics Queen Elizabeth II royals

Queen Elizabeth II was secretly a Remainer, she never supported Brexit?

queen-elizabeth-ii-was-secretly-a-remainer,-she-never-supported-brexit?

In 2016, there was a lot of conversation about whether Queen Elizabeth was pro-Brexit or whether she was a “Bremainer.” The Brexit vote happened on June 23, 2016, and I remember in the weeks before the vote, there was a lot of conversation that QEII was a closeted Brexiter, and that she told various Tory politicians that Britain had no need of the EU. Even more specifically, there were stories about QEII wanting Britain to strengthen its Commonwealth ties over European ties. While the “QEII is pro-Brexit” stories were denied and circulated in equal measure, she obviously did not speak publicly about it. Now, three years after her death, a new report claims that QEII actually wanted Britain to “remain” in the EU.

On one occasion the Queen did share her views, only to see them on the front page of The Sun a few years later. During the referendum campaign over whether Britain should leave the European Union, the paper published a front-page story under the headline “Queen Backs Brexit”. The article said that at a lunch at Windsor in 2011 the Queen had told the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, that she thought the EU was heading in the wrong direction. She allegedly said, with “venom and emotion”, “I don’t understand Europe.” Clegg later denied this was true, accusing Michael Gove of leaking the story.

Was the Queen really a Brexit supporter? Although Buckingham Palace complained to IPSO, it did not issue a strong denial of the story. There was a good reason for this: it was understood that to officially deny that the Queen backed Brexit would imply that she was a Remainer. (The Queen, of course, cannot vote, because she is above politics. In theory, other members of the royal family can, but in practice they do not.)

Now, years after that headline, evidence of what the Queen really thought about Brexit can be revealed. A senior minister who spoke to her in the early spring of 2016, three months before the referendum, recalls that she said, “We shouldn’t leave the EU.” They discussed the referendum, and she said, “It’s better to stick with the devil you know.”

This chimes with what a palace insider says of the late Queen’s views on Europe. Although she would read stories in the papers about Brussels bureaucracy and say, “This is ridiculous,” on a fundamental level she saw the EU as part of the postwar settlement, marking an era of co-operation after two world wars. As David Cameron put it, “She was so careful never to express a political view, but you always sensed that, like most of her subjects, she thought that European co-operation was necessary and important, but the institutions of the EU sometimes can be infuriating.”

News of the Queen’s views on Brexit reached Cameron, who immediately had to decide whether to use it in the Remain campaign. He chose not to, even though the Leave camp had no such scruples. But it is now clear: if the Queen had had a vote, she would have voted Remain.

[From The Times]

Honestly, put this in the same “ghost queen said a bunch of sh-t that no one ever bothered to repeat when she was alive” category as some of the royalist fan-fic about QEII hating the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. I always believed QEII was a Brexiter, right up until Britain voted to exit the EU and it created a huge mess in British and European politics. They don’t ever suggest that maybe QEII felt one way, then changed her mind when she saw how chaotic everything turned out. Oh, don’t forget this – one of the conversations, post-Brexit, was that the Windsors would have to spend more time sucking up to European allies. King Charles even followed through with that, making his first international trips (as king) to Germany and France as opposed to Commonwealth allies or British realms. That’s why Prince William has been to Poland more recently than he’s been to a Commonwealth country or realm as well. Brexit was framed as a sort of royal busywork project too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Meghan Sussex Prince Harry Queen Elizabeth II royals

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

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.

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Meghan Sussex Prince Harry Queen Elizabeth II

Fordwich: Queen Elizabeth considered the Sussexit a ‘complete catastrophe’

fordwich:-queen-elizabeth-considered-the-sussexit-a-‘complete-catastrophe’

In the past year especially, it feels like there has been a renewed effort to convince everyone that Queen Elizabeth II hated the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and they made her life a misery. While that’s obviously untrue, I do feel like we should unpack some of these stories. The way people are being manipulated is always worth pointing out, and it’s always notable when the British press use dead people to slander the Sussexes. But in the particular case of QEII, even if you accept the general idea that she was somehow disappointed or “let down” by the way the Sussex situation panned out, she really didn’t have anyone to blame but herself and her advisors. All three royal courts – Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace – orchestrated the Sussexit and the terms of the exit deal. Why are those same royal courts still so f–king mad about it then? Why are we still being endlessly told that QEII was full of sadness that the Sussexes left?

Queen Elizabeth II’s final years were reportedly marked by sorrow after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made their exit – and for the royals, this has been “unforgivable.” The claim was made by British royals expert Hilary Fordwich, who alleged that the monarch had already been disheartened leading up to the couple’s 2018 wedding.

“It is unforgivable that Harry was the cause of much heartbreak for Queen Elizabeth II,” Fordwich alleged. “All those around her knew of her sorrow and deep concern,” she claimed “… This is the root of the massive rift between Harry and Meghan and the rest of the royal family. The pain they caused in the queen’s waning years can’t ever be repaired… The family nor the nation will never forget it.”

Fordwich claimed to Fox News Digital that for many close to the queen, the couple’s royal exit, or “Megxit” as it was called by the press, was “one of the very darkest periods of her reign regarding family matters.”

“It has been said that she verbalized it was a ‘complete catastrophe,’” Fordwich claimed. “She grew up under the shadow of her uncle’s abdication and was hoping that, like his exile, the Sussexes would go on with their lives quietly. Her hopes were dashed. The queen expressed in letters logistical concerns [about] Harry. She saw it as ‘paramount’ that he was safe, expressing her belief that their security should remain a priority. But the final decision was out of her hands.”

“I think one of the gravest charges that can be leveled at Harry and Meghan is that they made the queen’s last years so difficult,” royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told Fox News Digital. “A variety of recent reports have indicated that there were strong differences between the queen and the duo over a variety of issues, especially those involving their wedding.”

“Queen Elizabeth would undoubtedly have been hurt by the change in Harry’s behavior,” said Fitzwilliams. “Having known him for so long, she would have expected him to be loyal to her. Her reported surprise over Meghan wearing white and disapproval that she wore a veil at her wedding would not have endeared her to the couple who wanted to do things their way.”

“After they stepped down from royal duties, they were careful never to criticize Queen Elizabeth personally, but trashed the institution she headed, knowing it was next to impossible for [the palace] to answer their charges directly,” Fitzwilliams continued. “The irony is that the queen’s dignified comment, ‘some recollections may vary,’ is what is best remembered.”

[From Fox News]

“She grew up under the shadow of her uncle’s abdication and was hoping that, like his exile, the Sussexes would go on with their lives quietly…” She “hoped” that the Sussexes would stay silent about the institutional abuse and that they would eventually crawl back, humbled and terrified. I mean, maybe QEII didn’t want that to happen exactly, but she definitely signed off on what her courtiers did and what Charles did to them. And again… the easiest way to keep the Sussexes quiet and within the fold of the monarchy in some way was to accept the “half-in” solution, surely? Instead, it’s been five and a half years of these people being incandescent with rage that their global bullying campaign didn’t work and didn’t bring the Sussexes back. Last thing: as soon as the Windsors reneged on the exit deal (by removing the Sussexes’ security), the deal was null and void.

Also: it’s astounding how no one talks about what else happened in QEII’s final years, like Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit against Prince Andrew, and Charles and Camilla infecting QEII with Covid.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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Meghan Sussex Queen Elizabeth II royals

A royal cousin defends Duchess Meghan’s right to wear white to her 2018 wedding

a-royal-cousin-defends-duchess-meghan’s-right-to-wear-white-to-her-2018-wedding

For the better part of a month, the royal reporters have been obsessed with the late Lady Liza Anson, who died in 2019. Anson was Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin and friend, and Anson was a favorite gossip source for many royal reporters, as it turns out. She was “a source close to QEII” or perhaps just a “royal source.” In her last years, Anson had a major grudge against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The Sussexes didn’t hire her to plan any part of their wedding (Anson was a party planner) and so, as punishment, Anson told lots of reporters about QEII’s fury with Harry and Meghan. According to Anson, QEII had to “give up her solitude” in a 1,000-room Norman castle when she rented Frogmore Cottage to the Sussexes. Anson was especially pissed about everything involving the Sussexes’ wedding, and she claimed that QEII was as well. QEII was allegedly big mad that Meghan A) wore a veil, B) wore white, and C) refused to tell QEII about every single part of the wedding planning.

At no point during all of this third-hand hearsay and gossip-mongering has anyone over there acknowledged that, actually, the queen was in the wrong. If Anson’s gossip is correct, QEII was throwing a tantrum over her grandson’s wife-to-be wearing a white gown to a globally-televised royal wedding. No one has said “well, Meghan had the right to do whatever she wanted, it was her wedding after all.” Then, weirdly, the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden put this item in his column:

Meghan Markle’s choice of dress for her second wedding, to Prince Harry, is said to have caused Queen Elizabeth to raise an eyebrow. The late Queen is reported to have thought her gown was ‘too white’ for a divorcee.

Prince William’s cousin has, however, defended Meghan’s choice and explained why she, too, wore an ivory gown for her own second wedding.

Maddison May Brudenell – whose great-grandfather was King Charles’s beloved great-uncle, Earl Mountbatten of Burma – exchanged vows with Canadian welder Bret Kapetanov last November. And Maddison reveals that she had to overcome the opposition of her mother, Edwina Hicks.

The model, 31, says: ‘In the monarch’s view, it was not appropriate for a divorcee getting remarried in church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal. My mother, our late Queen’s goddaughter, had said exactly the same to me, and that other family members would agree.’

Maddison, who previously ran off to be secretly married to a DJ, Olaoluwa Modupe-Ojo, wore a bespoke white dress by Laura Green, of Modern Bride, for her wedding to Kapetanov.

Of her frank conversation with her mother, she says: ‘I was sad to think about the painful past during what I wanted to be a joyful, future-focused time of my life. But I understood the notion. My mum was speaking out of love. I didn’t let my feelings overcome me – we talked about it.’

‘However, as I told my mother, we may as well splash muddy water, drip some blood, sweat and tears on it for good measure. As it happens, my dress did have a lot of unique components, but these were because of what I chose and not in any way what I felt I must choose. My mother listened to my wisdom and respected my style.’

[From The Daily Mail]

This is actually completely normal – an older relative has super-conservative opinions about weddings, and the bride says “okay, granny, but I’m still going to do what I want because it’s my wedding,” and the granny just has to deal. As I’ve said this whole time, I can understand why a woman of QEII’s generation would have thoughts and opinions about “which brides can wear white.” It’s the weaponization of those opinions which bugs me, and using a dead queen’s memory to bash Meghan for “making her own choices for her wedding.” There were literally dozens of royal reporters writing ghastly sh-t about Meghan in the past month, all because one dead woman said another dead woman was “furious, confused and HURT” by Meghan’s choice to wear white SEVEN YEARS AGO.

PS… if we’re getting into conservative wedding rules about who can and cannot wear white, I find it remarkable that QEII seemingly had no opinion about the then-Duchess of Cambridge wearing white to another woman’s wedding.

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Nicholl: QEII had to ‘give up her solitude’ by renting Frogmore to the Sussexes

nicholl:-qeii-had-to-‘give-up-her-solitude’-by-renting-frogmore-to-the-sussexes

If the fakakta “secret peace summit” story did anything positive, it got that stupid Lady Liza Anson story off the British tabloid rotation for several days. A few weeks ago, royalist Sally Bedell Smith spilled some extremely stale tea on her Substack. The stale tea: Bedell Smith used to talk to Lady Liza Anson constantly, and Lady Liza was constantly bitching about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Not just that, but Anson was constantly recounting all kinds of crazy sh-t about how Queen Elizabeth II hated Meghan and Harry. Lady Liza died in 2020 – QEII died in 2022. Their ghosts are still super-salty that Meghan wore white at her wedding, apparently. Well, Waity hagiographer Katie Nicholl wants everyone to know that Lady Liza was one of her “royal sources” too. Nicholl has written a new piece for Vanity Fair, confirming Bedell Smith’s triple-hearsay and adding her own remembrances of Lady Liza’s gossip about Harry and Meghan. Some highlights:

Nicholl regularly used Lady Liza as a royal source: During my twenty-year long career as a royal correspondent, I spent many hours in the company of Lady Elizabeth, a professional party planner, at her Ladbroke Grove home. Over tea in her “egg room,” which had the most incredible collection of painted decorative eggs, Lady Elizabeth painted a charming portrait of the late Queen; she adored her cousin, and they would gossip on the phone like old friends. Lady Elizabeth was a wonderful raconteur, which the Queen adored. The truth is the Queen herself loved a good catch up.

Liza went to her grave fussing about the Sussexes: Whenever we spoke about the Queen, Lady Elizabeth would refer to her as “Jemima” or “the number one lady,” and she told me how hurt the Queen was by Harry’s behavior in the final years of her life and how much Harry changed after he met Meghan. Now I can reveal more about how the Queen really felt about Harry and Meghan and why she was so disappointed in Harry in the twilight years of her life. Lady Elizabeth told me that the Queen felt her once close relationship with her grandson would never be the same again. “She couldn’t understand how Harry, who had loved his military career, and been devoted to duty could change the way he did,” Lady Elizabeth told me back in 2020. “It’s so sad that at her age, having managed the most amazing reign, it has been sullied. He has hurt her beyond belief.”

Liza claims QEII was terribly hurt that the Sussexes moved out of the UK: [Liza] also shared that the Queen was deeply disappointed and hurt when Harry and Meghan made the shocking decision to leave Britain. They returned to Britain for a final engagement, Commonwealth Day—in March 2020. “The Queen had hoped that they would bring Archie over. She was very disappointed they didn’t,” Lady Elizabeth told me at the time. She was hurt when they left Britain, and how they left so suddenly.

QEII was mad about Frogmore Cottage: She added that Frogmore Cottage, the Queen’s wedding present to the couple, “was a big give. Her entrance into that garden is past their cottage. It really was in her backyard so she was giving up her solitude and privacy when she gave up the cottage. We all thought it was very big of her. Jemima said: ‘I hope they’ll respect it.’”

QEII had old-fashioned opinions about Meghan’s wedding dress: In The New Royals, I revealed how the Queen was “surprised” that Meghan had chosen to wear white, given she was a divorcée and marrying for the second time. Now Bedell Smith has revealed, “Meghan wouldn’t tell her about the wedding dress.” The monarch did not think Meghan should have worn a veil.

QEII was pissed about Harry speaking to the Archbishop of Canterbury: Like Bedell Smith, I was also told that the Queen was upset during the planning of their wedding. Harry and Meghan were intent on doing things their way, even if it came to breaking with traditions. Lady Elizabeth also told me that the Queen was upset that Harry went straight to Justin Welby, then the Archbishop of Canterbury to ask him to conduct the wedding without first going to the Dean of Windsor, which was the correct protocol for a wedding at St George’s Chapel.

Most of all, Liza was mad that the Sussexes didn’t hire her to plan their wedding: I was told that the Queen had enlisted her cousin to assist with the wedding plans, in particular the flowers, given Lady Elizabeth’s excellent contacts and experience organizing weddings in palaces and royal chapels. Lady Elizabeth had planned many royal celebrations, including the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations, the Queen and Prince Philip’s 70th wedding anniversary, and William and Kate’s wedding. But after meeting with Meghan, Lady Elizabeth, was told her services were not required.

QEII was mad about Zoom: In April 2020, Lady Elizabeth told me the Queen was sad she had only seen Archie once or twice, and had to see her great grandson growing up on Zoom rather than in person once the couple moved to California. “She was quite surprised to hear from Harry on Zoom, it was all new to her, but it was the only way for her to see her great grandson. She told me that Archie has red hair.”

[From Vanity Fair]

Alright, fine, if we’re going to gossip about two dead women, let’s really get into it. “She couldn’t understand how Harry, who had loved his military career, and been devoted to duty could change the way he did.” What does Harry’s military career have to do with anything? What specifically was his “duty” to his grandmother? To never marry, to never stop being his brother’s support and punching bag? “It’s so sad that at her age, having managed the most amazing reign, it has been sullied.” Again, let’s be specific: how exactly did “Harry marrying a Black woman” sully QEII’s reign? Did Harry have a “duty” to marry a white woman or something?

“The Queen had hoped that they would bring Archie over…” Keep in mind, this was around the same time that the Windsors were withdrawing the Sussexes’ security. One of the smartest things Meghan and Harry did was not bring Archie back to the UK in 2020. They purposefully kept their child far away from Harry’s family because the Windsors could not be trusted. Frogmore Cottage “was a big give. Her entrance into that garden is past their cottage. It really was in her backyard so she was giving up her solitude and privacy when she gave up the cottage.” ARE YOU JOKING?? The poor queen GAVE UP HER SOLITUDE by renting a small shack to the Sussexes, a shack which was in the backyard of her enormous 1000-room Norman castle?? These people lost their everloving minds about the Sussexes.

The thing about the Dean of Windsor is so petty and nitpicky, it throws the entire narrative out of perspective. It really shows that Lady Liza was just f–king furious about every single little thing involving the Sussexes. Imagine being the whole-ass queen of a tattered empire and throwing a hissy fit because your grandson contacted the “wrong” member of CoE clergy. I strongly suspect that if Harry *had* spoken to the Dean of Windsor first, everyone would have been mad about that because how dare he not speak to the Archbishop?? But yeah, the part about the Sussexes not hiring Liza is the reason for 99% of this.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.