King Charles told Prince Harry his wife was not welcome at Balmoral on the day the Queen died, he claims in his new book.
In his explosive new biography Spare, which is due to be released next week but came out prematurely in Spain, the Duke of Sussex claims he told his father: ‘Don’t ever speak about my wife that way.’
Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41, were in London when the Queen’s health deteriorated in September at her home in Scotland.
Senior royals were pictured making hasty arrangements to fly into Balmoral. The Princess of Wales stayed at home with George, Charlotte and Louis while William boarded a flight with Andrew, Edward and his wife Sophie, who was adored by the Queen.
At 1.55pm on September 8, just 90 minutes after Buckingham Palace announced the Queen was unwell, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed the couple would be ‘travelling to Scotland’.
The Duke of Sussex arrived at Balmoral at 7.52pm, after the palace had issued a statement confirming the Queen’s death
Prince Harry put his hand on the shoulder of an Aberdeen airport worker as he head back to London following the death of his grandmother
Prince Harry boarded a British Airways plane at Aberdeen International Airport on September 9 after a 12 hour stay at Balmoral where the Queen died
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had been due to attend the WellChild Awards ceremony in London that evening, but changed their plans to travel to see the Queen.
By 4.39pm, a clarification was issued stating the duke would be travelling alone.
Harry has now claimed that during this window, he was give direct instructions from then-Prince Charles not to bring Meghan.
In a moving passage in his autobiography, the duke describes how he learned of the Queen’s passing after checking the BBC news website.
Upon arriving at Balmoral, he was greeted by Anne, the Princess Royal, who then took him upstairs to a room where the late Sovereign was lying.
He detailed how he told her he hoped she was happy, and that he admired her.
King Charles told Prince Harry his wife was not welcome at Balmoral on the day the Queen died, he claims in his new book
The Queen posed for a photograph in the drawing room at Balmoral shortly before her meeting with Ms Truss, whom she appointed as her Prime Minister this week
At the time, a source claimed Harry was still at Frogmore cottage when he received a call from his father asking for Meghan to stay at home.
‘Charles told Harry that it wasn’t right or appropriate for Meghan to be in Balmoral at such a deeply sad time,’ a source said.
‘It was pointed out to him that Kate was not going and that the numbers really should be limited to the very closest family.’
He left Balmoral after 12 hours mourning his grandmother with his father and brother. He was pictured alone in the back of a Range Rover on his way to Aberdeen airport at 9.20am on September 9.
Prince Harry, pictured with Meghan and the late Queen in 2018, revealed his emotional final words to his grandmother when he visited her body at Balmoral just hours after she passed away
King Charles is still hoping to build bridges with his son Harry, Palace sources say, despite the damaging claims made by the prince in his upcoming memoir Spare (Pictured: Charles, Harry and William at Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997)
An airport worker offered her sympathies as the Prince was about to walk up the steps of a British Airways aircraft.
It’s the latest bombshell development to come out of Harry’s memoir. He also accused his father of worrying he’d be ‘overshadowed’ by Hollywood star Meghan and voicing concerns about having to support her financially.
Harry said Charles warned him his family was ‘not made of money’, and he could not afford to support anyone else.
But Harry felt Charles’s concern was less rooted in economics and more to do with jealousy.
The prince said he considered telling his father the cost of providing Meghan with food and shelter was minimal, given that she did not have a large appetite and could make her own clothes.
Prince Harry received a multi-million pound advance for his memoir Spare (pictured) which went on sale mistakenly nearly a week early in Spain ahead of its January 10 release date
Instead, Harry wrote that it became obvious that his father couldn’t stand someone who would ‘take centre stage’, according to The Daily Telegraph’s interpretation of the memoir, which prematurely went on sale in Spain this week.
The King is said to be hopeful of one day reconciling with his youngest son in spite of the claims levelled against him in the book.
The head of state is said to be willing to take the Duke of Sussex’s call and heal the rift in the hopes that he will attend his Coronation on May 6.
The Royal Family has so far remained silent on the explosive revelations, and palace sources say the mud slinging must come to an end before any reconciliation could take place.
Published extracts include an alleged physical altercation between William and Harry, details of the feud between Meghan and Kate and admitting he took cannabis, magic mushrooms and cocaine.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex plunged the monarchy into crisis during the twilight years of the Queen’s reign after sensationally quitting frontline royal duties and moving to California – a saga which precipitated the rift between Harry and William, allegations of racism against the royals and claims the Firm failed to help a suicidal Meghan.
He went on to tell Oprah that he loved his brother but their relationship was ‘space at the moment’, adding ‘time heals all things, hopefully’.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave after a service of thanksgiving for Queen Elizabeth during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations last June
King Charles feared being ‘overshadowed’ by Meghan Markle and was worried about having to pay for her upkeep as he said Royal Family is ‘not made of money’, Prince Harry says
By Ryan Hooper for The Daily Mail
King Charles feared being ‘overshadowed’ by Meghan Markle and expressed concerns about having to support her financially, according to Prince Harry.
Charles said he was already worried about the cost of helping William and Kate as Harry’s relationship with Meghan blossomed – and asked whether the Suits actress wanted to continue in her profession, the duke claimed.
In his Spare memoirs, Harry said Charles warned him his family was ‘not made of money’, and he could not afford to support anyone else.
But Harry felt Charles’s concern was less rooted in economics and more to do with jealousy.
King Charles allegedly feared being ‘overshadowed’ by the Duchess of Sussex, and expressed concerns about having to support her financially, Prince Harry claimed (Pictured: The then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III talking with the Duchess of Sussex and the Duke of Sussex and the then Duke of Cambridge (left) as they attend the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, London in March 2019)
Writing in his memoirs, Spare, Harry said his father then warned him that his family was ‘not made of money’, and that he could not afford to support anyone else
The Duke of Sussex said that his father had a healthy income from the ‘lucrative’ Duchy of Cornwall estate.
And he added that Charles did not support either the Sussexes or the Cambridges financially, with the exception of gifts.
He said those gifts were in recognition of his sons’ dedication in carrying out royal engagements.
But Harry likened the set-up to being kept ‘in a golden cage’, unable to move and being ‘fed and clothed’ in return by their guards.
The prince said he considered telling his father the cost of providing Meghan with food and shelter was minimal, given that she did not have a large appetite and could make her own clothes.
Instead, Harry wrote that it became obvious that his father ‘couldn’t stand’ someone who would ‘take centre stage’. He felt convinced Charles was concerned Meghan would ‘overshadow’ him and Camilla.
The reality, Harry claims to have realised, was the King could not face ‘a novel and resplendent’ royal who would take the limelight from him and Camilla and ‘dominate the monarchy’, according to The Daily Telegraph’s interpretation of the memoirs which prematurely went on sale in Spain this week.
The Duke of Sussex claimed his father said he was already worried about the cost of helping William and Kate as Harry’s relationship with Meghan blossomed, and asked whether the Suits actress wanted to continue in her profession (Pictured: The trio at Meghan’s first Trooping The Colour in 2018)
The duke said his father experienced such a thing before, and ‘had no interest’ in letting it happen to him again.
The book does not explicitly state who had previously overshadowed his father, although Harry’s mother Diana, the late Princess of Wales, was dubbed the People’s Princess due to her strong affinity with the public.
Charles is believed to be worth £900million after the death of his beloved mother Queen Elizabeth last year. Meanwhile, his son William, now Prince of Wales, is predicted by The Sunday Times to be worth £1billion after inheriting his father’s Duchy of Cornwall estate.
In addition, Harry and Meghan are estimated to be worth £20million, although brand experts have said that their new life in the US, coupled with their royal connection, could earn them many times that number.
According to the latest figures, the Royal Family’s cash and assets have been estimated to be between £20billion and £24billion.
However, this includes £1.4billion of property such as Buckingham Palace, which only belongs to the monarch in an official capacity.
The Crown Estate of property and land is worth £16.5billion.
