King Charles ‘never understood’ Meghan Markle but Queen Camilla saw through her ‘performance’ – as royal expert reveals what really happened at Castle of Mey in 2018

Shortly after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle became the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, they were invited to Castle Mey in Caithness by King Charles.

At the time, the newlyweds reportedly went on long walks with Charles and Camilla, enjoying ‘good food and quality family time’ at the Queen Mother’s beloved former Scottish home.

Writing in his memoir Spare, Prince Harry noted that the ‘bond between Meg and Pa’ had ‘always been strong’ but that their relationship ‘got even stronger that weekend’.

She claimed that then-Prince Charles was delighted to learn that his daughter-in-law shared the same birth date as her grandmother: August 4.

Harry told how Charles, who celebrates his 77th birthday today, began ‘showing off, showing off for Meg’ when he discovered the connection between the late Queen Mother and ‘my bride’.

But Meghan’s first visit to the Highland estate was fraught with tension, with the King’s “bewilderment at the Americans” becoming increasingly apparent, according to author Tom Bower.

Writing in Revenge magazine, Mr Bower said Charles had become fed up with Meghan’s reluctance to reconcile with her father, Thomas Markle, so he had stopped routinely attacking the Royal Family in the press.

The royal biographer added that while media reports at the time highlighted that Charles ‘got hooked on Meghan’ during the visit to the Castle of Mey, the King ‘never really understood her or what she wanted’.

‘That week, his discomfort with Thomas Markle’s TV appearances, particularly his criticism of the Royal Family, came to a head,’ he wrote.

Charles reportedly ‘scolded’ Harry and insisted that Meghan visit her father, who was living in Rosarito, Mexico at the time, to ‘stop this’.

Thomas Markle, a retired TV lighting director, had been a thorn in the side of the Firm since Harry and Meghan’s wedding at St George’s Chapel that summer, when The Mail on Sunday revealed he had staged paparazzi photos for money.

On May 19, 2018, five days before he was to walk Meghan down the aisle, American media reported that Thomas, then 73, had undergone heart surgery and withdrew from the wedding so as not to “embarrass the royal family or his daughter.”

The following month, Thomas approached Piers Morgan for his first TV interview on Good Morning Britain; Here she claimed she asked Harry to swear he would never hit his daughter before giving the prince his blessing for their marriage.

Thomas later told The Sun he had been ‘shunned’ by his daughter over the paparazzi photo scandal and begged Meghan to contact him so they could ‘heal’ their relationship.

“I don’t care if this comes at the expense of the Royal Family,” he continued, before escalating his verbal attacks.

At the time, the newlyweds reportedly went on long walks with Charles and Camilla, enjoying ‘good food and quality family time’ at the Queen Mother’s beloved former Scottish home. Prince Harry and Meghan with King Charles (left) – the then Duchess of Cambridge (right) with her daughter Princess Charlotte during Connecting the Colors in June 2018

The duchess’s father, who now lives in the Philippines, lashed out at the media, saying his daughter looked ‘frightened’ in her new role and noted her ‘painful smile’.

“This really worries me,” he told The Sun. ‘I think he’s under a lot of pressure. There’s a high price to pay for marrying into that family.’

In a nearly nine-hour interview with The Mail on Sunday, he criticized Meghan’s ‘sense of superiority’, saying: ‘I made her the Duchess she is today’ and warned she would ‘unburden’ the Royal Family.

During the extraordinary meeting, he told this newspaper that Harry’s mother Princess Diana would ‘hate’ Meghan’s behavior towards her father and reiterated that Meghan had stonewalled him.

‘I don’t care if Harry never talks to me again. I will survive… Who cares about a dusty old crown these days?

‘Okay, maybe it’s polished, but it’s an old institution stuck in its ways.’

Mr Bower said his lengthy interview with The Mail on Sunday was published on July 28, when the Sussexes arrived in Scotland for what was supposed to be a relaxing holiday at the Castle of Mey.

But Charles was unhappy with Thomas’ claims, as Mr Bower noted: ‘That week, Thomas Markle’s discomfort with TV interviews, particularly his criticism of the Royal Family, came to a head.

“Can’t he just go and see her and put an end to this?” Charles “scolded” Harry, Mr. Bower continued.

Writer Tom Bower claimed Meghan’s first visit to the Highland estate was full of tension and the King’s “bewilderment with the Americans” became increasingly apparent. Picture: A view from Mey Castle

Meghan reportedly felt that her mother-in-law “fundamentally did not understand” her situation with her father, despite Harry “explaining the situation endlessly” about Thomas’ behavior.

But Mr Bower claimed the Duke had ‘hidden critical details’, such as Thomas’ anger at being thwarted by his daughter.

Instead, he suggested Meghan had privacy concerns.

Sometimes, Harry said, his wife suspected “her phone had been stolen.” [not] other times he believed his email account had been ‘compromised’.

“Charles could not have known that neither justification was true,” Mr. Bower wrote in his book about the dispute within the Royal Family that became known as Megxit.

As time went on, Charles began to be ‘troubled’ by the ‘inconsistencies in Meghan’s excuses’ for not seeing her father and resolving the dispute, which was beginning to affect the Firm’s reputation.

While she was still with Harry and Meghan at the Castle of Mey, the late Queen Elizabeth joined her son for a conference call with Meghan and Harry in a bid to persuade the Duchess to ‘fly to America for reconciliation’.

According to Mr Bower, Meghan flatly rejected the suggestion, claiming such a meeting would cause a ‘frenzy of media attention and interference’ and would ultimately do more harm than good.

“His argument avoided the facts,” Mr. Bower said. “I had no secure way of communicating with my father,” he claimed, adding: “We couldn’t trust that he had my father’s phone.”

‘That didn’t stop him from contacting her.’

Writing in Revenge magazine, Mr Bower said Charles had become fed up with Meghan’s reluctance to reconcile with her father, Thomas Markle, so he had stopped routinely attacking the Royal Family in the press. The current King is seen with his wife Camilla at Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding in May 2018.

The royal biographer added that although media reports at the time emphasized that Charles had become ‘attached to Meghan’ during his visit to the Castle of Mey, the King ‘never really understood her or what she wanted’.

Mr Bower claimed both Charles and the late Queen immediately realized that Meghan’s excuse was ‘excessive’ and that the conference call ended with ‘both senior royals astonished’ by Meghan’s behaviour.

Meghan, on the other hand, complained during her visit to the Scottish castle that the Royal Family “fundamentally does not understand” her father’s situation.

Mr Bower said Camilla, who has “nothing in common” with the former Suits actor, said Harry was “concerned about his future” with Meghan.

Camilla, who grew up on a large country estate in Plumpton, East Sussex, and was very comfortable ‘sliding through the mud in the Barbour and rubber boots’, was reportedly suspicious of the Los Angeles-born actress’ ‘flirty smiles and tactile performance’.

During their time together at Castle Mey, Camilla got the impression that Meghan was not the type of person who would “sacrifice her independence to quietly serve as a team player.”

Writing about their holiday at the Castle of Mey in his memoir Spare, published in January 2023, Harry recalled how Charles regaled the couple one night with a story about “selkies” or “Scottish mermaids”.

During their ‘pre-dinner cocktails’, Charles told Harry and Meghan that the mythical creature ‘takes the shape of a seal’ and swims along the shore outside the castle, adding: ‘So, you never know when you see a seal… Sing to it. They often respond to the song.’

Harry said they ‘talked a bit about the stress we were under’ during dinner but ‘the good vibes continued’ the next day.

He added that the Queen called Meghan while she was in Caithness and suggested she write a letter to her father, Thomas.

My father agreed. ‘It’s a great idea.’

The duke also told how Harry “serenaded” the seals on a “cold day” at the beach, on his father’s advice, but received no response.

‘Meg joined me and sang to them and now of course they sang back,’ he wrote.

‘It’s truly magical. ‘Even the seals know that,’ Harry added. ‘Suddenly, heads all over the water started to lift up and sing to him.’

Harry was so pleased with what he saw as a ‘good omen’ that he took off his clothes and went swimming with the seals.

Charles’s chief then told Harry that singing to the seals was an “extremely bad idea”.

‘This part of the Scottish coast was teeming with killer whales, and singing to the seals was like calling them to their blood-soaked death,’ said the chief.

Less than two years after that break, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the Royal Family and moved to Montecito, California, where they currently live with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.