Queen Elizabeth Had a Key Advice For Harry Before Marrying Meghan, New Book Claims
Queen Elizabeth was reportedly determined to protect Prince Harry, urging him to pause and slow down his fast-moving courtship.
Various reports indicate that the late Queen Elizabeth was allegedly wary of Meghan Markle and her intentions in joining the royal family. She was also determined to protect her beloved grandson, Prince Harry, urging him to pause and slow down his fast-moving courtship. According to a new book by royal author Hugo Vickers, the Queen had requested the Duke to wait a year before marrying the Duchess after their engagement, but her plea ultimately fell on deaf ears.
In his new book, Hugo Vickers: Elizabeth: Queen, Wife, Mother, Monarch, serialized by The Daily Mail, Vickers sheds light on the late Queen's alleged protectiveness of her grandson. He penned, "The Queen herself suggested that Harry should wait a year. He did not take her advice. Instead, as we know, the wedding went ahead just over six months after the couple's engagement." The Queen's reported doubts about Markle also extended to her wedding day in 2018. He added, "It was said that the Queen did not like the dress, too white and with ungainly shoulders. Someone close to the monarch told me her attitude to the actual wedding was: 'You get on with it. It's nothing to do with me.'"
Furthermore, he alleged that the former Prince Andrew was reportedly jealous of the publicity Harry and Markle's wedding got, compared to his daughter, Princess Eugenie. He continued, "Contrast this to the day, barely five months later, that Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank in St George's Chapel…It did not attract as much publicity, and the Duke of York was annoyed that it would not be filmed for the major networks, though he persuaded a company to record it." As for the Queen, while she beamed at Eugenie's wedding, she was reportedly upset over Markle's decision to wear a veil for hers, despite being a divorcee.
According to the royal author, the Queen was also in deep 'distress' owing to Harry and Markle's decision to leave the Firm. He stressed, "Family problems with Prince Harry and the then-Prince Andrew, and an increasingly maverick Prime Minister in Boris Johnson, clouded the Queen's brain at the time." He added, "Whenever Prince Harry called his grandmother, she asked her lady-in-waiting to stay with her. The distress the Sussexes caused the Queen in the last years of her life cannot be overestimated."
As for Harry's take on his grandmother's view of his wife, he wrote in his memoir, Spare, how he brought up his intentions of marrying Markle to her. During a family visit to Sandringham, he found a quiet moment and made his intentions clear. He awkwardly said, "I've been told that I have to ask your permission before I can propose." To this, she reportedly replied, "You have to? Well then, I suppose I have to say yes." The Queen was known for her cheeky sense of humor; nevertheless, her response shocked Harry as he was left unsure how she felt about Markle.
