Telegraph:
Elizabeth II advised Prince Harry to wait a year before marrying Meghan Markle, a new biography has claimed.
Although the future Duchess of Sussex was initially welcomed into royal circles following the start of her relationship with Prince Harry, his grandmother reportedly expressed reservations.
Writing in his new biography of the late Queen, Hugo Vickers claims that she mentioned her concerns to the Duke.
Mr Vickers writes: “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.”
Queen Elizabeth’s ambivalence about the couple’s marriage appears to have extended to the Duchess’s wedding dress.
Mr Vickers writes: “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’.”
The doubts about Meghan’s suitability as the wife of a prince appeared to be in contrast to the way the American actress had been welcomed into the fold after being introduced to his family by Prince Harry.
“Although the Prince would never have been allowed to marry a divorcee at an earlier time in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the union was welcomed by a younger, more tolerant generation,” writes Mr Vickers in his book, Queen Elizabeth II, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail.
“Even the Royal Family seemed to be bending unspoken rules for Markle: unlike previous royal fiancées, she was invited to join the Queen and the Royal family at Sandringham for Christmas 2017, and attended church with the family.
“The staff at Sandringham joyfully surrounded the couple at the annual Christmas party and nicknamed the actress ‘Sparkle’.”
But senior members of the Royal family quickly became concerned that Prince Harry was rushing into things with someone who was ultimately unsuitable for the role.
Mr Vickers states: “Prince Philip, however, was not taken in. He referred to her dryly as ‘the American’.
“The view Prince William expressed privately – that Harry should take more time to get to know her – contributed to a lasting rupture between the brothers. But their father also had doubts.
“Prince Charles took the line that Lord Mountbatten had taken with him before he started courting Diana: have fun, but don’t marry her.”
Prince Harry and Meghan announced their engagement on Nov 27, 2017, and married just six months later in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in what much of the public regarded at the time as a joyous occasion.
Mr Vickers claims that Prince Harry looked ill at ease at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March 2019.
When the Duchess of Sussex used an overseas visit to Africa in the autumn of that year to tell Tom Bradby of ITN that she was struggling, it became apparent that relations with the wider Royal family could not continue as before.
Mr Vickers, who has written on royal affairs for nearly five decades, recounts how Harry returned from the couple’s holiday in Canada in January 2020 “keen to discuss a way forward with the Queen”.
He writes: “He wanted a half-in, half-out arrangement, whereby he would be self-financing but could still work for the Royal family.”
But the private secretaries to the Queen, Charles and William – Sir Edward Young, Sir Clive Alderton and Simon Case – were not willing to accede to the Prince’s proposal.
“Prince Harry flew to Sandringham and was told it was either all in or all out. He returned to Canada – reluctantly out,” stated Mr Vickers.
He claims the Queen took “a dim view” of her grandson’s decision, saying to a confidante: “And now Harry has opted out, and for what? To be a carer for Archie.”