A royal biographer has claimed that when Prince Harry and his wife Meghan left life as working royals behind and then went public with their grievances against the rest of the Royal Family they broke the late Queen’s heart and “made her final years a misery”

Prince Harry and Meghan with the late Queen(Image: Getty Images)

New allegations have emerged from a royal insider that the late Queen and her inner circle had major “doubts” about Meghan before she even married Prince Harry – and experts have weighed in on their significance.

Author and journalist Sally Bedell Smith made the revelations on her Substack, Royal Extra, which included claims that one of the late Queen’s cousins and closest confidants – Lady Elizabeth Anson – had divulged that the former monarch had serious “doubts” about Meghan ahead of the Sussex’s royal wedding in 2018.

The close pal of the late Queen claimed that Meghan had been rude to the former monarch in one 10-minute discussion about the couple’s nuptials and that within the royal circle, they hoped Meghan loved Harry, but were not totally sure, with some even believing she “engineered” things between them.

Meghan and Harry announced in early 2020 that they wanted to step back as full-time working royals, and “carve out a progressive new role” for themselves by becoming financially independent from taxpayer funding, and representing the crown on a part-time basis.

Their dream wasn’t to come to fruition, however, with the late Queen, the other senior royals, and palace aides, quickly vetoing a half-in, half-out model at what became infamously known as the Sandringham Summit.

With a full break to be instituted after a transition year, the Sussexes were shocked when their police security was suddenly pulled – with borders rapidly closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the location of where they were staying in Canada public knowledge, they felt like sitting ducks.

The cost of the kind of private security the Sussex family needs is astronomically high, with Harry revealing in his memoir Spare that one company quoted him a price of several million per year to protect his family.

Unable to immediately foot such a big bill, Hollywood mogul Tyler Perry offered the family his LA home and security detail until they found their feet – and within months, they had signed multi-million-pound deals with Netflix, Spotify, and publishing house Penguin.

However, existing tensions between Harry and the rest of his family were only becoming more strained with the couple outside the fold.

In 2021, the couple sat down for their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, during which they levied a series of damaging allegations at some of the other royals, and their staff – and only a few weeks later, Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, passed away.

Royal biographer Phil Dampier explained to The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show that in light of the new allegations, the couple’s acrimonious royal exit, and the airing of public grievances, in his view, Harry and Meghan – along with the disgraced Duke of York – made the late Queen’s final years a “misery” and that this is something the British public, with whom the former monarch enjoyed a great popularity, are not likely to “forgive”.

“It must have been absolutely heartbreaking for her to see what was happening with Prince Andrew and what was happening with Harry and Meghan leaving in her final years,” the expert said.

“To cope with that as she was approaching the end, and Prince Philip died, and all this happened right at the end of her life. I think it must have been absolutely heartbreaking for her… probably the thing that people won’t forgive Harry and Meghan for making her last years a bit of a misery.”