Prince Harry and Meghan Markle grated on Queen Elizabeth’s nerves — so much that the late monarch pawned her grandson and his wife off on an equally annoyed Prince (now King) Charles, according to a new book.
Author Robert Jobson writes in “The Windsor Legacy” how the queen had warmly welcomed Markle into the family, viewing her “dual heritage, beauty, and communication skills” as assets.
By the time the Sussexes stepped down as working royals and decamped to California in 2020, the queen publicly wished them well, but, in private, was “tired of the drama.”
So much so, Jobson claims, that she eventually ordered Harry’s calls be redirected to his father, Charles.
But a tired Charles also reportedly grew weary after his son “swore at him and demanded funds,” according to the book.
“I’m not a bank,” the now-king allegedly declared to his friends.
A source close to Harry dismissed Jobson’s book, telling Page Six that the duke is “not a big fan of fiction.”
The book claims the queen was puzzled by her grandson’s behavior during negotiations for his and Markle’s exit, describing things as “quite mad.”
“She made it clear to those close to her that privately she felt let down by the Sussexes’ departure,” Jobson writes, “which she saw as short-sighted and a missed opportunity.”
There were allegedly issues even before the couple was married in 2018.
Like the queen, Charles initially appreciated Markle and thought she was good for his son.
“But by the time of the engagement announcement,” Jobson writes, “his enthusiasm seemed to have waned. When staff offered their congratulations, his response was notably restrained.”
Harry, Jobson claims, got into a spat with the queen’s trusted dresser, Angela Kelly, over a tiara that his fiancée wanted to wear for their wedding. When the queen found out what happened, “she was very disappointed.”
The couple reportedly dealt with their stress by receiving treatments from celebrity acupuncturist Ross Barr, but the book reports staff noted that Harry “stayed on edge, petulant and short-tempered.”
While other reports claimed that it was Markle who was demanding, according to the book “it was Harry, trying too hard to make everything perfect, who was the one making waves.”
Jobson writes that the queen also found Harry’s older brother, Prince William, at times troublesome.
In July 2022, months before her death, she was scheduled to attend the official opening of a new hospice near Windsor. Feeling frail, she asked William to stand in for her — but the future king “cried off, citing fatherly duties.”
The queen was reportedly “irritated and scoffed, wasn’t that what nannies and policemen were for?”
She ultimately went with her daughter, Princess Anne, by her side. It was the queen’s last public engagement before passing away on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96.
Page Six has reached out to representatives for King Charles, Prince William and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
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