Have his face distorted with emotion around his grandmother’s coffin and her tears containedwe can only realize the attachment that Prince Harry felt towards Queen Elizabeth II. Considered very closeespecially after the death of Lady Diana when the little prince was only 12 years old, the two had shared many beautiful moments and it was whispered, in the corridors of the palace, that the monarch would have forgiven this rebellious grandson everything.
But recently, things had gotten complicated between them: fallen in love and married to American actress Meghan Markle, Harry had ended up to flee his country and his family to settle with his wife and eldest son Archie in Canada, then in the United States where they still live and have expanded the family with little Lilibet, 15 months. A decision that in reality the queen could never really forgive him!
Indeed, author Katie Nicholl reveals in her new book (The New Royals – Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown) that she refused to broach the subject, “hurt and exhausted” stories around them. Worse still: in August, the Sussex couple had refused to bring Archie and Lilibet to the UK for a great reunion around her attended by all her children, her grandchildren and her many great-grandchildren, a decision she had not understood.
“I don’t want to think about it anymore”
Marked by this refusal, the sovereign would then have simply said to a loved one: “I don’t know, I don’t care and I don’t want to think about it anymore“. A sad reaction when the monarch had made every effort not to break the link with her grandson: indeed, after his departure, she had continued to speak to him regularly during video calls and had sent, to every Christmas and birthday, a gift to children.
They will only have met her once, when they accompanied their parents to the United Kingdom for the first time on the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee last June (under high police protection). The two toddlers had indeed been able to meet Queen Elizabeth II for a few minutes. An interview that had given rise to tension between the 30-year-old and his grandmother: while he had wanted to film the meeting, the sovereign had refused. No doubt, like Prince William, she had also lost some of her confidence in her grandson…
Was she right? We won’t know until early next year, when the publication of Prince Harry’s memoirs, which are already looking explosive…