Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip Were ‘Disappointed’ Over Prince Harry and Meghan’s Holiday Snub, Royal Expert Says
Once upon a time, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were seen smiling along with many other British royals as they made their annual walk from the Sandringham House to church for Christmas Day service. But after two years of spending the holidays together, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex opted to stay in North America and celebrate the Christmas period away from the royal family.
Some royal watchers were a bit surprised by that as they assumed that Meghan and Harry would continue the tradition of staying with the prince’s family given his grandparents’ advanced ages. Now, a royal expert is weighing in about how “disappointing” Harry and Meghan’s holiday snub was for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
The queen allowed Meghan to do something she never let other royal fiancées do at Christmas
Meghan and Harry announced to the world that they were engaged in November 2017 and a month later, the Suits star was celebrating Christmas in Norfolk with the entire royal family.
It was actually a huge deal that the queen allowed Harry’s bride-to-be to join the festivities because royal fiancées before her, like Kate Middleton, were not allowed to spend the holiday at Sandringham until after they were married. Once Meghan and Harry tied the knot in 2018, they were at the queen’s Norfolk residence again for the second year in a row. But that was the last year the Sussexes would spend in Sandringham.
Weeks before they announced they were stepping down as senior royals, the couple stayed in Canada during the holidays.
Expert says the queen and Prince Philip were ‘disappointed’ by Harry and Meghan’s holiday snub
During a recent documentary titled Harry & Meghan vs. The Monarchy, veteran journalist Richard Kay stated that Christmas is a big deal for the royals. He reflected on the Sussexes’ absence in those years before Prince Philip died. Kay opined that not having the whole family there to celebrate with the monarch and her husband at their age was likely difficult for them.
“Christmas is a very, very important part in the queen’s calendar,” Kay said (per Express). “She likes to draw her family around her. She and Prince Philip were getting older. They knew that there wouldn’t be too many more Christmases and they must have been disappointed.”
However, relationship psychologist Anjula Muntanda sees things differently and suggested that perhaps the Sussexes needed to “remove themselves from a situation that they found difficult and painful.”
Muntanda explained: “What you do sometimes, psychologically for yourself, is you remove yourself from a situation that you find difficult and painful, and put yourself in a space that you feel might be more nurturing and safe and secure.”
The Sussexes have spent Christmas in California since their exit
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex celebrated Christmas in their Montecito home for the first time in 2020. One story that emerged about that Christmas in Santa Barbara is that Harry was mistaken for a tree salesman.
According to Express, the pair visited a store just a few miles from their house called Big Wave Dave’s Christmas Trees & Pumpkin Patch. The couple reportedly thought they had the all-clear that the store was empty so they could go in and shop. However, there was still one family inside and that’s when someone mistook Harry for a tree salesman.
James Almaguer, who is a sales associate at the shop and was there the day Harry and Meghan were, relayed the story and said that a child still inside the store walked up to Harry and asked him if he was a worker. Almaguer then gave his impression of the Sussexes saying: “They seemed like very nice people, honestly. Meghan sounds very kind and Harry sounded and acted like a chill lad honestly. I’m really glad they liked our trees.”
