Meghan ‘spoke to monarch by phone before the funeral’
MEGHAN spoke to the Queen before Prince Philip’s funeral, it was claimed last night.
The pregnant Duchess of Sussex, who is expecting a baby girl in the summer, was told not to travel with Prince Harry to Britain for the service but did send a handwritten note and a wreath.
She was in regular contact with her husband while he was away and also reportedly spoke to the Queen – with her toddler son Archie – ahead of last Saturday’s funeral.
‘Meghan spoke with Harry before his grandfather’s funeral,’ a source told People magazine in the US. ‘Meghan and Archie also spoke with the Queen.’
Harry has now returned to California, without having managed to repair his relationship with his father and brother. He did, however, manage to see his grandmother at least twice, as well as his cousin Princess Eugenie, and her new son August.
Harry, 36, is understood to have flown into Los Angeles on an American Airlines flight from Heathrow shortly after 1.30pm local time on Tuesday. His chauffeur- driven black people carrier was seen leaving the airport’s private terminal and arriving later at his Montecito mansion.
The prince had flown into the UK just over a week earlier and spent most of his visit in quarantine at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor so he could join his family at the funeral. Contrary to reports, there was no major summit with Prince Charles and Prince William. The three spoke only briefly after the service in the quadrangle at Windsor Castle, it is understood.
However, Harry and Meghan’s biographer Omid Scobie, who is regularly briefed by the couple and their team, claimed yesterday that the prince had managed to speak to his grandmother twice.
He quoted a source close to Harry as saying: ‘This trip was to honour the life of his grandfather and support his grandmother and relatives. It was very much a familyfocused period of time.
‘Saturday broke the ice for future conversations but outstanding issues have not been addressed at any great length.
The family simply put their issues to one side to focus on what mattered.’
The sources added of the meetings with the Queen: ‘The love and respect he has for his grandmother will always be unwavering.’
Harry is expected to return to Britain in July to join William for the unveiling of a statue of their late mother Diana at Kensington Palace.
He will now begin a second ten- day period of self-isolation, a requirement for travellers arriving in the US.
The brief visit to the UK was his first in more than a year, since he officially quit royal duties and his Windsor home.
It was also the first time that Harry had seen his family since making explosive allegations about royal racism during an interview with
Oprah Winfrey last month. While it had been hoped that the loss of the Duke of Edinburgh might bring the family together again, sources have said there is a ‘long way to go’ and people still feel ‘hurt and very wary’ of the Sussexes.
One royal insider said that the difficulties were both ‘personal and professional’, adding: ‘No one should underestimate the damage done by that Oprah interview.
‘The fact of them leaving is sad but wouldn’t have been such a problem had they gone about it in a different way. The interview was disgraceful on so many fronts.
‘Not just what Harry – and Meghan – said about their own family. But also the way in which they attacked every decent person who had worked for them and tried to support them. There is a lot of anger about that. It is all so sad but... also very damaging.’
‘Issues were put to one side’