The Queen always facilitated the adaptation of the former actress to the Royal Family and supported Prince Harry, despite the abrupt break with her brother Prince William
She landed in the British Royal Family with pretensions to modernize the Crown, as a "breath of fresh air" that would help support tradition without losing sight of the social context of the 21st century. Too many fantasies attributed to a second-rate actress named Meghan Markle, who only annulled her husband by separating him from her family and generated with 'Megxit' a media circus that has shaken the pillars of the Monarchy, with accusations as serious as the racism.
Elizabeth II was always amused by the pranks of her grandson, Prince Harry. They had an affectionate, very close and trusting relationship. Harry even convinced the Queen to appear with him in a video responding to Michelle and Barack Obama's challenge to promote the Invictus Games, a sports competition for war veterans.
When her courtship with Meghan seemed serious, the Queen gave the former actress a warm welcome. Her first meeting took place, in 2017, during a relaxed lunch at Royal Lodge, the residence where Prince Andrew lives, in Windsor Great Park, in Berkshire. On Christmas of that year, Elizabeth II took the step of inviting Meghan to the celebrations at the Sandringham estate, even though she was not yet married to Harry. In June 2018, they starred in Cheshire, northwest England, their first official act together. They shared a car aboard the royal train, had breakfast together and the Queen gave her a pearl necklace with matching earrings. The harmony between them did not seem too forced.
"The Queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me," Meghan said during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Previously, in other interventions she had already commented that it had always been an honor to share time with her.
The relationship between William and Harry
The first disagreements between the Sussexes and the Royal Family are channeled through Prince William. Harry considers that his brother tries to boycott his happiness and he is not attentive and kind enough to his wife. Meghan confessed in her interview with Oprah that the Duchess of Cambridge had made her cry over a discussion about the dresses that Charlotte and her other bridesmaids would wear to her wedding.
In March 2019, those known as the Fabulous Four announced that they were leaving the Household, that is, they were separating their offices and their communication cabinet. "We've been through hell together, but now we're on our separate paths," Harry said in an interview in October of the same year. The gap between the brothers, who had walked shoulder to shoulder behind their mother's coffin at the ages of 15 and 12, was evident.
Prince William, called to reign in the future, found a balance in his relationship with the media. Aware that to reach the town he needed to give voice to his official commitments. For Harry, the paparazzi were always to blame for the death of his mother, and he couldn't stand the fact that day in and day out his name was also in the headlines.
The Queen and her main advisers suggested before 'Megxit' that the Sussexes spend time abroad in a Commonwealth country, where they could get away from the media spotlight that harassed them so much and enjoy privacy. This is how Robert Lacey exposes it, in his book Battle of Brothers. The possibility of Africa was considered, due to his previous trip to Botswana where his love story was consolidated.
After a long official tour of South Africa that fall 2019 and a long Christmas break in Canada, relations became strained with his father, then Prince of Wales. Harry complained that he wasn't answering his calls. On January 8, 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their desire to leave the Royal Family as senior members. For the Queen it was a real disappointment because she always held out her hand to them.
According to Damian Whitworth, in The Times, "despite the tense relations between Harry and his father and her brother, the Queen always kept the door open to her grandson." "Her daughter of her Lilibet of her will be a reminder of her grandmother and of the second Elizabethan era, even if she grows up in a place unusually remote from the rest
of the Royal Family."
This week, after the death of Isabel II, the brothers have staged an apparent truce. The new Prince of Wales invited his brother to accompany him for a walk around Windsor Castle for 40 minutes and thank the people for the gestures of affection with his grandmother. On Wednesday they were walking together behind their grandmother's coffin. However, it does not appear to be a very solid approach.
After updating the line of succession, Prince William and his three children (George, Carlota and Luis) occupy the first four positions, followed by Prince Harry and his two children, Archie and Lilibet, who have not been officially granted the titles of Prince and Princess, which would correspond to them as grandchildren of the King. Neither will they worry too much or maybe they will, since their intention is to return to Montecito and continue with their life as stars, exploiting their role as victims of the British Crown. And that certainly sells a lot. At the moment, we are awaiting the publication of his memoirs.
