The real reason why Princess Kate didn’t accompany her husband Prince William to Balmoral as Queen Elizabeth died has finally come to light.
It was widely reported at the time that Meghan Markle had been asked to stay away by then-Prince Charles and let Prince Harry visit his grandmother alone. The understanding among both the public and the Sussex couple was that Kate had been instructed to do the same.
However, a new biography of King Charles’s accession to the throne has revealed that this was not the case, and Kate had not been asked to stay home.
Written by royal biographer Robert Hardman, the book highlighted that the decision to remain in England was Kate’s decision, as she felt she needed to support her three children as they began to attend a new school.
In those tense few days in September 2022, William rushed to Balmoral with the then-Earl and Countess of Wessex and the Duke of York, whilst Kate stayed home to look after their children. An insider has claimed that this “luck” – Kate’s helpful decision – helped calm Prince Harry down as Charles informed him Meghan would be banned from Balmoral during the Her Majesty’s final moments.
As reported by the Daily Mail, this then-insider claimed: “It was by luck rather than judgement, but it made it a lot easier to tell Harry that he was coming alone.”
Prince William was understandably distant from his brother during this difficult time. Despite the Sussex couple being in the UK at the time, and Prince Harry allegedly texting Prince William about his travel plans, no direct contact was made.
On this, Mr Hardman wrote: “Clearly, Prince William did not regard this as the appropriate moment for the intensely difficult conversation he needed to have with his brother.”
According to Mr Hardman, Buckingham Palace treated any conversation with the troublesome Sussex couple with trepidation. As the then-Prince of Wales informed his younger son that Meghan was not welcome at Balmoral, he was apparently full of “dread”.
Mr Hardman wrote: “We can easily image the dread with which the [then] Prince of Wales approached that call. The Sussexes’ capacity for taking offence was well known and everyone was conscious that any conversation could end up in the public domain – as, indeed, this one did three months later.”
Recounting the conversation in his bombshell memoir Spare, Harry’s fury was obvious. He recalled: “I wasn’t having it. Don’t ever speak about my wife that way.”
It was reportedly the news that Princess Kate would also be staying home that calmed Harry down, allowing King Charles to focus on saying goodbye to his mother rather than petty infighting.
Pacified by the idea that Meghan was not being singled out, Harry wrote: “Then that’s all you needed to say.”
However, Hardman has revealed that this was absolutely not the case.
“She had certainly not been asked to stay away,” he writes.
With Princes George and Louis, and Princess Charlotte, beginning at Lambrook School on the 7th of September, Princess Kate had decided that the children needed at least one parent with them on such an important day.
