A royal biographer claims Queen felt sidelined and worried after a tense 10-minute meeting with Prince Harry over wedding plans to Meghan Markle.
London | June 30, 2025 —Prince Harry allegedly strained his once-close bond with Queen Elizabeth II shortly before his 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle, according to royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith.
In her latest Substack post, Smith claims that the Queen was left “dismayed and worried” after a tense 10-minute meeting in February 2018 during which Harry was reportedly “rude” to the monarch over wedding arrangements. The late Queen, who passed away in 2022, was particularly upset that Harry bypassed protocol by inviting the Archbishop of Canterbury to perform the ceremony without first informing the Dean of Windsor.
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Smith’s claims stem from a 2019 phone call with the Queen’s late cousin, Lady Elizabeth Anson, who allegedly told her:
“We hope but don’t quite think she is in love. We think she engineered it all.”
The Queen was also reportedly disturbed by Meghan’s refusal to disclose details about her wedding dress, as well as rising tensions between Meghan and the Cambridges (Prince William and Kate Middleton).
Though the Queen and Harry reportedly reconciled by April 2018, the royal household was said to remain wary. According to Anson, Elizabeth maintained that “the jury was still out” on whether she liked Meghan.
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In a separate incident cited by biographer Katie Nicholl, the Queen allegedly rebuked Meghan for scolding her wedding caterer, telling her:
“Meghan, in this family we don’t speak to people like that.”
Over the weekend, Prince Harry defended Meghan at the Nexus Global Summit, calling her “the most trolled person in the world” in 2018, as reports about their wedding resurfaced.
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The couple stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and now reside in Montecito, California, with their two children — Archie (6) and Lilibet (4).
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