Queen wants to ‘clip Prince Harry’s wings’ says expert
Each year, the Queen spends Christmas and New Year at Sandringham House in Norfolk with her family and is the last to head back to London. In fact, she stays at Sandringham until February 6, the date of her father’s death and her accession to the throne. It is generally considered her down time before she heads back to duties at Buckingham Palace.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’ bombshell decision to step down as senior royals in early January last year was a “shock” to everybody involved, according to a royal expert.
They reportedly released their personal statement without warning the Queen beforehand, forcing Her Majesty, Prince Charles and Prince William to hold a crisis summit at Sandringham.
During this, they hashed out with Harry what his future with Meghan would look like.
Pod Save the Queen is hosted by Ann Gripper and features Daily Mirror royal editor Russell Myers.
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Meghan and Harry disrupted the Queen’s January (Image: GETTY)
The Queen spends Christmas and New Year at Sandringham House in Norfolk (Image: GETTY)
Ms Gripper interviewed Robert Lacey, author of ‘Battle of Brothers: William, Harry and the Inside Story of Family in Tumult’ towards the end of last year, in which they discussed this period.
Mr Lacey said: “I think it was a shock to everybody.
“The Sandringham Summit, as it has become known, was not how the Queen planned to spend her New Year at Sandringham!”
He added the royals had been discussing an alternative future with the Sussexes for a little while, with the Queen herself promoting a so-called ‘Commonwealth Strategy’, based on her experience in Malta with Philip before she became Queen.
The Queen loved her time in Malta with Philip (Image: GETTY)
She suggested Meghan and Harry might prefer to live in a Commonwealth country where they could still carry out duties, but with increased privacy.
Her Majesty even brought in several trusted courtiers to organise this for them.
Mr Lacey said: “Harry and Meghan were actually planning to sit down with the Queen and the rest of the family and sort out their wish to be different sorts of royals and to take up the idea which came from the Queen herself that they should live in a Commonwealth country.
“So far as we know, here we are towards the end of 2020, these events we’re talking about happened at the beginning of 2020, and it would seem that a year before that or so the Queen realised that things were going wrong.
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“She brought in her former private secretary Christopher Geidt, a particularly trusted and experienced figure, to help Meghan and Harry in the whole situation.
“They decide this plan along with Sir David Manning, who has until then been a sort of mentor to the two princes, and they came up with this idea that I call ‘Commonwealth Strategy’, which seems to have derived a lot from the Queen’s own experiences in Malta, when the Duke of Edinburgh was serving in Malta after the war and before the Queen so unexpectedly came to the throne.
“I don’t know if it was her idea, but she is certainly credited with saying that she thought the experience she had in Malta served her and the Duke of Edinburgh as very good preparation and a sort of relief from the royal scene ‒ perhaps Harry and Meghan would benefit from the same.
“With that suggestion in mind, they went on their tour to Africa last year ‒ that was the tour on which of course at the end they gave the interviews that revealed to the world what some had suspected but couldn’t quite imagine was true, that there was some sort of diversion of paths between William and Harry.
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“And that was where the story continued.”
After the Africa tour, the Sussexes took a six week break in Canada over the holiday period, and then unexpectedly dropped their unprecedented announcement on Instagram on January 8.
The Royal Family were said to be “hurt” by their decision, and William was especially unhappy that they chose to announce it before running it by the Queen, and a day before Kate’s birthday.
Nevertheless, they finally managed to work out what the new progressive role would look like and they officially stepped down at the end of March.
The Queen insisted that she supported her grandson’s decision.
Meghan and Harry moved to Canada briefly, then stayed at a friend’s house in Los Angeles, before buying a huge mansion in Santa Barbara.
They were also clear that they wanted to be financially independent and set about organising their commercial interests, including signing a deal with Netflix and starting their own Spotify podcast.
They have also launched their new non-profit, called the Archewell Foundation, and have spoken out on issues such as voting and Black Lives Matter.
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