Prince Philip Was 'Furious & Deeply Hurt' That Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Didn't Tell Senior Royals They Were Stepping Down, Author Claims
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced that they were stepping down as senior members of the royal family in 2020, Prince Philip was less than pleased with the news.
According to Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan author Christopher Andersen, Philip, who died in April 2021, was "furious and deeply hurt" that the couple didn't inform senior royals before they shared the news with the public.
Philip told Queen Elizabeth, "This shows a complete lack of respect."
"It appears as if we were wrong about her all along," Philip apparently told one of his staff members, referring to Meghan.
Philip and Meghan, 40, had a good relationship, but after Megxit, the late Duke's views changed.
Philip told his grandson that his decision to leave the royal family and move to California was "not the right thing, either for the country or for themselves."
“Harry had only succeeded his grandfather as Captain General of the Royal Marines in 2017. Philip had done the job for 64 years. Harry had barely managed 30 months. The Duke of Edinburgh was not pleased, nor did he believe that Harry and Meghan were doing the right thing," his official biographer, Gyles Brandreth revealed.
The Queen's husband was also not a fan of Harry and Meghan's tell-all, in which they spoke their truth about the royal family.
“I know from someone close to him that he thought Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was ‘madness’ and ‘no good would come of it,’” Brandreth added. “I was not surprised because that is exactly how he described to me the personal TV interviews given by Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, back in the 1990s.”
To make matters worse, the interview, which aired in March 2021, went live when Philip was in the hospital — something people were outraged about. “The fact that the Meghan and Harry interview was aired while Philip was in hospital did not trouble him. What did worry him was the couple’s preoccupation with their own problems and their willingness to talk about them in public," Brandreth said. “‘Give TV interviews by all means,’ he said, 'but don’t talk about yourself.' That was one of his rules. I know he shared it with his children. I imagine he shared it with his grandchildren, too.”
