A royal author has claimed that a close friend of the late Queen was left dismayed in the run up to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding seven years ago
Prince Harry and the late Queen (Image: Getty Images)
The late Queen became “very worried” about Prince Harry who almost ‘blew’ his relationship with his grandmother, it has been claimed. It has been seven years since Harry and Meghan tied the knot at Windsor Castle in May 2018, in a fairytale wedding attended by the whole of the Royal Family.
Preparations for the wedding are known to have become particularly tense due to Meghan’s father deciding not to attend at the last minute and a disagreement between the bride and Princess of Wales over bridesmaids’ dresses. But now a royal author has claimed that a cousin and so-called close confidant of the late Queen told her that the former monarch was left “very worried” about her ‘weak’ and ‘besotted’ grandson.
Harry and Meghan with the late Queen(Image: Getty Images)
Writing on her Substack, royal author Sally Bedell Smith claims that before her death, Lady Elizabeth Anson, a cousin of Elizabeth II and a high-society party planner, told her behind-the-scenes details about the run-up to the wedding.
It comes after Harry allegedly left the Queen shocked when he asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to perform the ceremony without asking the Dean of Windsor first – given the wedding was taking place in St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
According to Bedell Smith, Lady Anson said that due to this, Harry had “blown” his relationship with his grandmother. She writes that Lady Anson told her several months before the wedding: “She [the Queen] said she was really upset. I was shocked when the Queen told me this, how she was so saddened. I had no idea about the conversation, that he was rude to her for ten minutes.
“They had tea with her the day before yesterday. She was trying to find out about the wedding dress, and Meghan wouldn’t tell her.”
Just weeks before the wedding, the author claims Lady Anson said the late Queen was “very worried”. And she said: “Harry is besotted and weak about women.”
The late Queen with her cousin and close confidant Lady Anson (Image: Max Mumby)
However, the author later claims that several weeks closer to the nuptials, Lady Anson told her that Harry and his grandmother had “patched things up” after he let her into the details of what they had planned for their wedding.
But the former party planner is also said to have warned: “It’s worrying that so many people are questioning whether Meghan is right for Harry. The problem, bless his heart, is that Harry is neither bright nor strong, and she is both.” And added: “Meghan is clearly brighter than Harry, but she has to be careful not to overshadow him.”
The Mirror has contacted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for comment. Meanwhile, a source close to the couple to MailOnline said the claims were “just gossip”.
Lady Anson was the daughter of Thomas Anson, Viscount Anson, and his wife, Anne Bowes-Lyon, who would later become Princess Anne of Denmark when she remarried. She was a niece of the late Queen Mother and was a close friend of the Queen and responsible for arranging many of her private parties.
She founded the firm Party Planners in 1960 and went on to arrange events for a number of people in the royal houses as well as the Queen. Notable events Lady Anson planned include Sting’s wedding, Margaret Thatcher’s 70th birthday party and the Queen’s 80th birthday party.
