‘Queen wanted Meghan to reconcile with her father’

THE Duchess of Sussex rejected a suggestion by the Queen and the Prince of Wales that she fly to the US to reconcile with her father, an author has claimed.

Tom Bower, a biographer who wrote Revenge, a book about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, claimed the Prince – and possibly the monarch – were “irritated” by the Duchess’s failure to make peace with Thomas Markle.

In an extract published last night in The Sunday Times, Bower claims that two months after the Duke and Duchess married in May 2018, they came under pressure to resolve the rift.

Mr Markle did not attend the wedding after it was revealed he had been working with a paparazzi agency to sell photographs of the couple before the ceremony. He made several television appearances in which he criticised the conduct of his daughter and the Royal family.

According to Bower, the Prince “berated” the Duke and questioned the Duchess’s refusal to see her father. The Duke told his father that his wife did not want to call Mr Markle as she suspected his phone “was [not] in his possession” and “his email account was compromised”, the book goes on to claim.

Bower writes: “Meghan’s excuses irritated Charles and perhaps also the Queen. The monarch must have found it hard to believe that Meghan could not resolve her differences with Thomas Markle.”

The book also claims that the Queen and the Prince joined the Duke and Duchess for a conference call during which they urged the Duchess to fly to America for “a reconciliation”.

Bower writes: “Meghan rejected the suggestion ... the conference call ended with both the senior royals perplexed.”

The Duchess later said during the same visit “they fundamentally don’t understand”, referring to the Palace, according to the book. A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment, in line with its long-standing policy to never respond to unofficial books, as did Clarence House.