Before dying, a cousin of Queen Elisabetta revealed what the monarch really thought of Harry and Meghan

Five years after the death of Lady Elizabeth Anson, first degree cousin and close confidant of Queen Elizabeth, the esteemed real biographer Sally Bedell Smith reveals the details of his conversation with the disappeared noblewoman. In a three -part series on Royals Extra, his newsletter on Substack, Bedell Smith revealed that the deceased queen had some reserve on Meghan Markle and was troubled by the way the Prince Harry he had turned them in the period before the Royal Wedding of 2018.

According to Anson, Harry had been rude to his grandmother during a meeting before the wedding, and “was not clear” if Harry’s girlfriend liked Queen Elizabeth. Bedell Smith also accuses Prince Harry of having “ruined” his relationship with his grandmother.

During my twenty years of career as a real correspondent, I spent many hours in the company of Lady Elizabeth, a professional party organizer, in his home in Ladbroke Grove. In front of a tea in his “egg room”, which housed an incredible collection of painted decorative eggs, Lady Elizabeth traced a fascinating portrait of the deceased queen: he loved his cousin, and spectacular on the phone like two old friends. Lady Elizabeth was an excellent narrator, which the Queen adored. The fact is that the Queen herself loved to be told the latest news.

Unfortunately, Lady Elizabeth disappeared five years ago, at the age of 79, and took a large part of its secrets to the grave. “Lady and”, as I called it, had an infinite number of stories about the countless leading celebrities for which he had organized parties. I have tried several times to convince her to write a book on her incredible life and extraordinary people for which she had worked with her business, Party Planners. However, he kept too much at the relationship with his customers (in particular the members of the royal family) to let go of rumors.

Whenever we talked about the queen, Lady Elizabeth called her “Jemima” or “the number one lady”, and she told me how much the queen had been injured by Harry’s behavior in the last years of her life, as well as Harry had changed after knowing Meghan. Now I can say more about what the queen really felt towards Harry and Meghan and explain why he was so disappointed by Harry in the last years of his life.

Lady Elizabeth told me that the Queen had the feeling that her relationship (once tight) with her nephew would no longer be the same. “He could not understand how Harry, who had loved his military career and had consecrated himself to duty, could change that way,” Lady Elizabeth said to me in 2020. “It is very sad that at his age, after having managed an extraordinary kingdom, there is this stain. He injured it beyond all imagination. “

Lady Elizabeth also revealed that the queen had been deeply disappointed and wounded when Harry and Meghan made the shocking decision to leave Great Britain. The Commonwealth Day, in March 2020, returned to their homeland. «The queen hoped they would bring with it Archie. It was very disappointed that they hadn’t done it, “Lady Elizabeth told me at the time. It was not only the fact that they had left Great Britain, but also that they had gone so suddenly. Lady Elizabeth then added that Frogmore Cottage, the queen’s wedding gift to the couple, “was a great gift. To access that garden, the queen had to pass right in front of their cottage. It was literally the garden of her house, so she gave up her isolation and privacy to make gift. We all thought that he was very generous on his part. Jemima said: “I hope they will respect him” ».

While the queen has never made known her personal feelings, Bedell Smith has now shed light on one of the most fascinating periods of recent real history, the release of Meghan and Harry from the royal family, revealing that the queen had been deeply injured when Harry “was rude to her for ten minutes” during a meeting, and that “Meghan did not get along very well with William And Kate». Bedell Smith added that they were “especially the two girls” not to be well. In a conversation that took place two weeks before the wedding of May 2018, Lady Elizabeth said to Bedell Smith: “My Jemima is very worried”.

In The New RoyalsI revealed that the queen had remained “surprised” by Meghan’s decision to dress in white, since it was divorced and married for the second time. Now Bedell Smith has revealed that “Meghan didn’t want to talk to her about the wedding dress”. The monarch did not think that Meghan should have worn the veil.

Like Bedell Smith, I too had come to know that the queen was disturbed during the wedding preparations. Harry and Meghan were willing to do things in their own way, even at the cost of breaking with tradition. Lady Elizabeth also told me that the queen was contrary because Harry had turned directly to Justin Welbyat the time archbishop of Canterbury, to ask him to celebrate the wedding without first consulting the dean of Windsor, as expected instead by the protocol for a wedding in the Chapel of San Giorgio.

I also knew that the queen had asked the cousin to help her in the organization of the wedding, in particular as regards the flowers, given the excellent contacts and the experience of Lady Elizabeth in the organization of weddings in buildings and royal chapels. Lady Elizabeth had organized many real celebrations, including those for the Queen’s 90th birthday, the 70th anniversary of the Queen and Prince Filippo and the wedding of William and Kate. But after meeting Meghan, in Lady Elizabeth it was said that her services were not requested.

Behind the scenes there were many tears and tensions, some of which emerge only now, seven years later. Meghan’s wedding diadem’s story is well documented. According to what is said, after saying to the queen’s seamstress, Angela Kellythat Meghan wanted a specific diadem, Harry would insist: “What Meghan wants, Meghan gets it.” But the tensions continued even after the wedding (for its part, despite having admitted the tensions with Kelly in Sparehis autobiography, Harry specifically denied having pronounced that sentence).

In April 2020, Lady Elizabeth told me that the queen was sorry to have seen Archie only a couple of times, and that she had to see the great -grandson grow on zoom instead of in person after the couple had moved to California. «She was rather surprised to hear Harry on Zoom, it was all new to her, but it was the only way to see the great -grandson. He told me that Archie has red hair. “

The notes left by Lady Elizabeth and the conversations he chose to have with few trusted journalists offer a fascinating look at what the queen thought of Harry and Meghan. After all, Lady Elizabeth did not use half terms. I know he personally met Meghan to discuss preparations for the wedding at Windsor Castle, and that he had contrasting feelings towards the future Duchess of Sussex.

According to Bedell Smith, Lady Elizabeth’s opinion on Meghan and his relationship with Harry was the following: «We hope he is in love, but we are not convinced at all. We think has orchestrated everything ». And on Harry: «The problem, poor, is that it is neither brilliant nor strong. Instead, she is both ».