RICHARD EDEN: Troubling Harry and Meghan ‘behind the scenes’ whispers from the Palace. Royal officials are terrified to speak about them… but one breaks their silence to confide in me
Queen Elizabeth was rarely criticized during her record-breaking 70-year reign. But he has faced some damning judgments since his death for failing to rein in his scandal-prone son Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (as he is now known).
In my opinion, this criticism is wrong and unfair. The Queen’s conventional wisdom is also evident in her dealings with another member of her family challenger to the monarchy: his grandson, the Duke of Sussex.
At a time when his grandmother’s health was already declining, Prince Harry tried desperately to persuade her to accept his wish, and especially that of his wife Meghan, to be allowed to earn money while fulfilling her royal duties.
However, in one of the last major decisions of her reign, the Queen had made it clear to Harry at the ‘Sandringham summit’ in 2020 that he and his American wife would not be allowed ‘half in, half out’ roles in ‘The Firm’.
He realized that this could seriously damage the reputation of the Royal Family. The public, whose tax dollars support the royal family, will not know whether the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are acting out of duty or to further their business interests.
The wisdom of the Queen’s decision will be seen when Harry and Meghan visit Australia next month. They will undertake a mix of philanthropy and money-making that seems tacky even by the couple’s standards.
The Duchess of Sussex will appear at the ‘Meet Meghan’ photo opportunity event in Sydney with promotional material highlighting her royal title, where the former actress will be the central attraction of a ‘VIP experience’ where tickets are £1,705. This will be part of the weekend’s events, which includes a ‘group photo with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’. ‘VIP’ treatment includes two nights hotel accommodation in twin beds.
Publicity of the event led one well-placed royal insider to compare Meghan to Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, who was once described as ‘rude, rude, rude’ by Lord Charteris, Queen Elizabeth’s private secretary. The source told my colleague Rebecca English: ‘She’s actually Fergie.’
The Queen made it clear to Harry at the ‘Sandringham summit’ in 2020 that he and his American wife would not be allowed ‘half in, half out’ roles in ‘The Firm’.
It seems Meghan and Harry are being forced to enter into such embarrassing deals as their lucrative contracts with US media giants Netflix and Spotify have dried up. This week the California-based couple felt the need to make public statements condemning both a Variety magazine article about their difficulties at work and a highly unflattering new book about them by British author Tom Bower.
The article in Variety is particularly notable because the ‘Hollywood Bible’ generally does not dare to antagonize the very people it might want to include in the future. The magazine published a flattering interview with the duchess in 2022, and this interview was promoted on its cover with the title “Meghan moment.” Frankly, he decided that his moment had passed and he wasn’t going to rush back.
Among the allegations in Bower’s book Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family are that Meghan asked Balenciaga’s new creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli if she could attend his catwalk show at Paris fashion week in exchange for the brand spending $250,000 (£188,000) on her.
It wasn’t long ago that ‘sources close’ to Sussex claimed fashion houses such as Gucci and Dior were lining up to pay her millions to be their ‘ambassador’. Needless to say, this never happened.
Palace officials might be expected to observe the Sussexes’ apparent reversal of fortunes with a sense of schadenfreude, given Queen Elizabeth’s concerns, the couple’s subsequent insults towards the Royal Family, and their indiscretions both in interviews and in Harry’s memoir, Spare.
In fact, I was told the opposite was the case. Courtiers hoped Meghan would make a fortune from her lifestyle company As Ever so she wouldn’t need to trade with her royal connections. Netflix’s confirmation that it is withdrawing from its relationship with the brand shows that it does not believe the project will be successful.
The Sussexes’ business struggles mean they will be more determined than ever to highlight their royal connections. That’s why ‘Project Dissolution’, described as a plan to return them to the Royal Family, is intensifying. Harry is said to be confident that taxpayer-funded security will automatically be restored when he arrives in the UK this summer with Meghan and their two children to promote the Invictus Games in Birmingham next year.
Royal officials are afraid to discuss the Sussexes but a source tells me: ‘There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that people don’t know.’
These are worrying words for all of us who believe Harry and Meghan have brought nothing but trouble to the Royal Family.
