Prince Philip Warned Queen Elizabeth to Be ‘Cautious’ of Meghan Markle and 4 Other Bombshell Claims in New Royal Biography
Another day, another book on the British royal family. After the drama surrounding Omid Scobie’s Endgame and claims in a King Charles III biography comes yet another tome with bombshells. This time, it’s royal biographer Ingrid Seward’s My Mother and I, about the king and his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Excerpts ahead of the book’s release include bombshell claims about everyone from the late monarch and Princess Diana to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Here are just a few.
1. Royal biography bombshell: Prince Philip warned the queen about Meghan Markle
According to an excerpt of Seward’s biography published by the Daily Mail, Prince Philip, who died in April 2021 at the age of 99, wasn’t exactly a fan of the Duchess of Sussex.
While Queen Elizabeth “approved” of Meghan “from their very first meeting,” Seward wrote, Philip had reservations. “One of the few wary of succumbing to her charm offensive, however, was Prince Philip,” the author wrote.
“While the Queen continued to champion Harry’s new love, he warned his wife to be cautious. It was uncanny, he told her, how much Meghan reminded him of the Duchess of Windsor.” As in Wallis Simpson, for whom King Edward VIII abdicated the throne, putting Queen Elizabeth squarely in the line of succession.
“Queen Elizabeth II was perfectly aware of what Philip meant when he drew parallels between Meghan and Wallis,” Seward explained. “Indeed, much later, she would remark in her clipped way that perhaps Harry had been ‘too in love’ with the American actress.”
2. Royal biography bombshell: Queen Elizabeth thought Meghan’s wedding dress was ‘too white’
It seems Queen Elizabeth wasn’t exactly a fan of Meghan’s white Givenchy wedding gown. According to My Mother and I, the queen made just one remark about the now-42-year-old’s wedding dress to marry the Duke of Sussex on May 19, 2018.
Per Seward, the queen wasn’t so sure about the color of Meghan’s gown. “Lady Elizabeth [Anson] told me that the Queen had made only one remark to her about Meghan and Harry’s wedding, which was that the bride’s Givenchy wedding gown was ‘too white,’” she said.
“In the monarch’s view, it was not appropriate for a divorcee getting remarried in [a] church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal,” the author wrote.
3. The queen wasn’t ‘comfortable’ with King Charles walking Meghan Markle down the aisle
Elsewhere on the top of Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding, Seward shared another bombshell claim that the queen didn’t like her son, now-King Charles, walking the bride down the aisle.
“Nor was the Queen comfortable with the Prince of Wales’s decision to stand in for Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, and walk her down the aisle,” she wrote.
Furthermore, the queen was said to also be “concerned” about her husband, Philip, deciding to
“hobble down the aisle” sans a cane “despite having had a hip replacement just five weeks before.”
4. Royal biography bombshell: Royal wedding, Oprah interview damaged the queen’s relationship with Harry
The queen’s relationship with Harry took a few hits, namely with the royal wedding and subsequent 2021 Oprah interview following the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s relocation to California.
“According to Lady Elizabeth, the Queen was dismayed by Harry’s high-handed attitude both before and after the wedding, and their relationship was ‘quite badly damaged by it all.’”
“It was even more damaged when Harry decided to give up being a working royal and leave the country — a decision, said Lady Elizabeth, that the Queen never truly understood.”
Then came the Oprah interview, which left the queen “upset” with Harry’s “attitude,” Anson told the author.
“However much she loved Harry — and she did — she couldn’t condone the way he was speaking about the institution of the monarchy she’d spent 70 years preserving,” Seward wrote.
5. Queen Elizabeth thought Princess Diana was ‘far better suited’ to marry Prince Andrew, not Charles
My Mother and I also touched on the marriage of then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The bombshell claim? That the queen, “alert to a possible new woman in her son’s life, had just two reservations.”
“She wondered whether anyone that young could differentiate between the man and the prince. And she couldn’t help thinking that the Spencer girl would be far better suited to her younger son, [Prince] Andrew.”
The Duke of York went on to marry Sarah Ferguson in 1986 before divorcing 10 years later. Meanwhile, the Queen Mother — Queen Elizabeth’s mom — went for a “more positive approach.” She invited King Charles and Diana to Birkhall, her then-home on the Balmoral estate. During the visit, the bride-to-be appeared to be, per an insider, “oozing charm.”
My Mother and I debuts on Feb. 15, 2024.
