When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quit royal life five years ago it sent shockwaves across not only the world, but the Royal Family too. While the late Queen Elizabeth II seemed to be understanding about what the couple wanted, it is believed that she was very upset by her grandson’s decision, which also saw him move across the pond to America.
Although the late monarch kept up a smile on the public stage, one royal author claims she was “exhausted” by the situation, which was famously informally dubbed “Megxit”. It is believed that she also once told a royal insider when asked about the situation: “I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
This was claimed in royal expert Katie Nicholl’s book The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown.
In the book, it was claimed that an insider – who spoke about the late Queen’s reaction to ‘Megxit’ – said: “She (the late Queen) was very hurt and told me, ‘I don’t know, I don’t care, and I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
While she may have been upset about the situation, Prince Harry’s grandmother made a conscious effort to stay involved in the couple and their children’s lives, even when they set up home thousands of miles away in Montecito, California.
It is believed that the then-monarch would regularly facetime Harry, 40, and Meghan, 43, and would get to know their children Prince Archie, now six, and Princess Lilibet, now four, over video call.
It is also believed that she would send gifts to the children for their birthdays, with the late Queen having famously sent Archie a waffle maker so Meghan could make him his favourite waffles for breakfast.
Queen Elizabeth also managed to spend some time with the couple and their children in person after they quit royal life in 2020. This included a special moment in 2022, when the family spent time with the late Queen for her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
It is believed this was the only time the late Queen saw their daughter Princess Lilibet, whose name was a nod to late Queen’s special childhood nickname.
While Her Majesty did get to spend time with her great-grandchildren, it is believed she still experienced some sadness about the fact she did not get to see them often, as well as the fact that they did not attend a sleepover weekend at Balmoral Castle.
The author said in the book: “It was a source of sadness to the Queen that she got to see so little of Archie and Lilibet and that Harry and Meghan were not able to join her for a weekend at Balmoral in August when the Queen used to host a ‘sleepover’ for all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”