Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had initially wanted to be ‘half-in, half-out’ members of the royal family – but their suggestion was shut down by the late Queen

Meghan Markle always wanted to become a “superstar” and would never have been happy living the “quiet” life of a lesser royal family member, an expert has claimed. Prince Harry and his wife had originally wanted to be “half-in, half-out” members of the Royal Family, which would allow them to support the late Queen but also be allowed to work and earn independent salaries.

But Her Majesty shut down this suggestion, prompting the couple to leave the UK and settle in the US on a permanent basis. At the time, some of the Sussex fans questioned the decision, comparing Harry and Meghan’s situation to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who have normal jobs but also appear at royal events. But royal commentator Jane Barr has said the former actress would never have been happy living a more low-key lifestyle like the two sisters.

Writing in the From Berkshire to Buckingham newsletter, Barr suggested: “She [Meghan] would not have been happy with the ultimately quiet or truly independent/non-royal lives that William and Harry’s cousins actually live. “Looking back to Megxit, Harry was not just the grandson of the Queen, the same relationship all his cousins had to the sovereign, he was the son of the future King.

“William and Harry were — from birth — preeminent royals, while their cousins, although celebrated, surely, began as secondary royals and only continued to fade as the years went by. Harry seems so bitter about being the spare, but he has always been quite senior to his cousins, and treated accordingly.”

It comes after a documentary from German network ZDF accused Harry and Meghan of hypocrisy given their luxurious lifestyle in the US. The Lost Prince, made by award-winning filmmaker Ulrike Grunewald, contrasts the couple’s high-profile visits to impoverished nations with Meghan’s penchant for costly designer outfits – and also accuses the couple of capitalising on their former royal roles to fund their lifestyle.

The Mirror’s Russell Myers told the show: “If you’re going to places like Nigeria, like Colombia, which have huge socio-economic problems, some of the world’s poorest communities in these countries, and you’re turning up wearing tens of thousands of pounds worth of designer clothes – it really doesn’t send the right message.” Elsewhere in the documentary, former soldier Ben McBean, who once shared a flight home from Afghanistan with Prince Harry, criticised the royal for his revelations about his family in his explosive memoir ‘Spare’ and the Sussexes’ Netflix show.

McBean, who tragically lost his left arm and had his right leg amputated above the knee following a landmine blast in Afghanistan in 2008, didn’t mince his words when he appeared on the documentary , according to the Daily Mail.

The veteran soldier expressed: “I just thought, with him kind of whinging about his family and he was saying something about his brother pushing him over or something like that, I was just like, “Mate, just leave it out” You and your brother had a little fisticuffs…but family’s family, you know.”