BATTLE ROYAL
Queen Elizabeth’s patience wears wife grandson and his attention thin as her continue to draw unwanted to the palace
Don’t call them the Sussexes! Meghan and Harry fight back as the queen strips them of their titles, and Us has all the details from inside Buckingham Palace.
On Feb. 21, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced that they wouldn’t be using the word “royal” as part of their brand or in the name of the new charity they’re preparing to launch in the spring. The official statement, released by their spokesperson, seemed straightforward enough. But just hours later, the couple took to their website to elaborate on the latest development in the Megxit saga with a seemingly hostile attack on the queen.
The couple — who reportedly blindsided the royal family in early January with their shocking decision to step back from their royal duties and move to North America — first noted that the monarchy has no “jurisdiction” over use of the word “royal” outside of the U.K. (Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, had planned to keep expanding their Sussex Royal brand). They then implied that the queen is treating them unfairly as they attempt to make a new life and generate income for themselves and their 10-monthold son, Archie. “While there is precedent for other titled members of the Royal Family to seek employment outside of the institution, for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, a 12-month review period has been put in place,” they wrote.
Now a source tells Us the queen is at her breaking point over Harry and Meghan’s refusal to keep the peace. “The queen is beside herself,” says the source. “She’s so disappointed
THE VIEW AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE IS THAT MEGHAN AND HARRY ARE UTTERLY OUT OF CONTROL.” A SOURCE TELLS US
that her own grandchild would heap so much embarrassment on the monarchy and bring all this unwanted attention on his family at the worst possible time.”
ROYAL PAINS
Between her husband Prince Philip’s failing health and her son Prince Andrew’s underage-sex scandal, the queen is already under an enormous amount of stress, and Harry and Meghan’s actions are pushing her over the edge, says the source: “She’s exhausted, both physically and emotionally. She’s approaching her 94th birthday in April and should be at a stage in her life where she can ease up and be supported by her loved ones.” Instead, the source says, Harry and Meghan are piling on more pressure and heartache.
Another insider tells Us the matriarch is “counting the days” until Meghan and Harry officially step away from their royal role son March 31.( Their schedules are packed with highprofile events until then, including a Feb. 28 recording session with Jon Bon Jovi and a March 9 Commonwealth Day service with the royal family.) “The drama’s never-ending, and she’s so frustrated with their petty attitudes,” says the source.
MAJOR BACKLASH
The insider says Harry and Meghan are bitter that the queen won’t let them use “royal” in their branding (they announced that they’d removed their applications to have Sussex Royal trademarked) and don’t understand why Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie (Harry’s first cousins) can work outside the family but they can’t. “That’s why they released a more in-depth statement,” the insider explains.
But there’s a sense that their behavior’s starting to backfire. “Seeing them act like loose cannons has made the queen more confident
that she was right to ban them from trying to profit off the royal brand,” says the insider: “For the queen, you’re either in or out of the family. They can’t have their cake and eat it too.”
And the British people are in increasing agreement with this sentiment, says a third source: “The sheer anger toward them in the U.K. is quite shocking and intense. They’ve gone from being utterly loved to utterly loathed far and wide.”
Now the couple are fighting fire with fire. “The queen’s livid that Harry and Meghan are treating her like she’s just another pawn in the game, when in fact she’s the queen of England,” says the insider.
“It’s clear they like to have the last word, but at the end of the day, Elizabeth has the final say. She rules the roost.”
HOLDING OUT HOPE
Still, the queen hasn’t totally given up on her grandson just yet. “She looks for the good in people, even when they don’t really deserve it,” says the source. “She still has a great deal of love and affection for Harry” but blames Meghan for pulling the strings behind the scenes: “The queen thinks he’s being controlled like Meghan’s personal puppet, and it’s really nothing short of pitiful.”
The insider agrees, saying, “The queen thinks Harry’s been acting out of character recently.” While Charles and Diana’s youngest son always had a rebellious streak, it’s gotten much stronger since his 2018 marriage to Meghan. “When Meghan says ‘Jump,’” snipes the insider, “Harry says, ‘How high?’”
The queen would like to see an end to that. “She’s praying that, over time, Harry will start to see things more clearly,” the insider says, but “whether that will actually happen remains to be seen.” If it doesn’t, the queen will at least have by her side William and Kate — who, Us previously reported, has been spending more time with her husband’s grandmother and is even starting to prep for her eventual role as queen herself.
None of that seems to be of any consequence to Harry and Meghan, who are too busy trying to establish themselves in the United States and Canada (Meghan reportedly has a deal with Disney already in place), and aren’t looking back. “Meghan and Harry are planning to make megabucks in Hollywood,” says the insider, “with or without their royal titles.”