While Queen Elizabeth II always maintained a poised and reserved image in public, sources claim she didn’t hold back in private when it came to expressing her thoughts on Prince Harry’s relationship with Meghan Markle.
According to insiders, the queen “saw straight through Meghan” and called the couple a “catastrophe” before her death in September 2022. Royal author Sally Bedell Smith says Elizabeth had a notably sharp tongue in the weeks leading up to her passing, particularly when discussing Harry and Meghan’s marriage.
Guests at Balmoral Castle in Scotland reportedly witnessed firsthand how the queen felt. One source shared that during drinks before dinner, Elizabeth told a small group that Harry meeting Meghan had become a “complete catastrophe.” The source noted it was out of character for the queen to speak so bluntly, and given her declining health at the time, she seemed regretful about how everything had unfolded.
Despite Harry and Meghan often saying they had a warm relationship with the late monarch, it appears the reality was more complicated. Insiders said Elizabeth even described Harry as “besotted and weak” in the lead-up to his 2018 wedding and worried Meghan had manipulated him into the marriage. One of her first cousins was quoted saying, “We hope but don’t quite think she is in love. We think she engineered it all.”
Back in 2020, when Harry and Meghan announced they would step away from their full-time royal duties and later moved to California, Elizabeth tried to find a compromise to keep them within the fold. Although she publicly offered kind words, saying, “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved members of my family,” it was clear she wanted to stop Megxit from happening.
