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Royals ‘quietly pleased’ Meghan missed Prince Philip’s funeral, says book

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Updated on June 16, 2023

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According to a biography, members of the Royal family were “quietly pleased” that the Duchess of Sussex did not attend Prince Philip’s burial because they thought she would “create a spectacle” if she did.

An insider said in April that the Duchess of Sussex had intended to attend the service at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, but that her doctors had not allowed her to travel.

Meghan opted to stay at her and Harry’s property in Montecito, California, owing to the pandemic, according to royal reporter Omid Scobie, who co-authored the 2020 book Finding Freedom. Scobie tweeted at the time, “Prince Harry will attend his grandfather’s funeral on Saturday (following all U.S. and U.K. Covid-19 protocols in the process). “A source adds that Meghan, who is heavily pregnant, made ‘every effort’ to travel but didn’t receive medical clearance from her physician.”

Finding Freedom’s new epilogue claims that Prince Harry and Meghan have no regrets about resigning from their royal responsibilities, and that Meghan found her Oprah appearance “liberating.”

It further suggests that several royals appreciated her absence because they feared she would create a “spectacle” if she were present.

“In truth, several members of the Royal family are understood to have been ‘quietly pleased’ that Meghan stayed in California because they ‘didn’t want a circus’ or, commented one senior royal source, ‘the Duchess creating a spectacle’,” reads the new chapter, which will be included in a paperback edition to be published on August 31.

The book does not say which members of Meghan’s family were relieved by her absence. But it also implies that Harry and Meghan believed courtiers were still leaking material to harm them.

It said: “What has continued to be troubling for the couple, more than a year after their decision, is knowing that courtiers inside the institution are still appearing to actively undermine Harry and Meghan by deliberately leaking information to discredit them.”

Harry’s response to the Queen removing his three honorary military titles once he and Meghan stood down as senior members of the royal family in January 2020 was also detailed in the book. “[Harry was] saddened and disappointed by the decision,” the book reads. “Ten years of service and a lifetime commitment to the military community and this is how it’s been acknowledged by his family.”

Philip, Prince Harry’s paternal grandfather, died on April 9, 2021, at the age of 99.

Meghan watched the service on television and hand-wrote a note on the wreath she and Prince Harry made in Philip’s honor.

Since Harry and Meghan relocated from the United Kingdom to North America at the end of 2019, the funeral was the first time Harry saw the royals in person. Meghan and Harry blasted the royals in a CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey, claiming that numerous royals had “concerns and conversations” over their baby Archie’s skin tone.

The book reignites the feud between the Sussexes and the Royal family over the claim that “concerns” were raised about Archie’s skin colour by quoting “sources close to the Sussexes” effectively demanding an apology.

According to the book, William was “furious” that the royals’ private family members were addressed in the “public domain” in Harry and Meghan’s Oprah appearance. William was “understood to be “furious” that private family problems were being aired in public, and he is unlikely to speak about the accusations made in the interview again.

The Royal Household has also been accused of lying to the press about the couple’s desire for Archie to be given a royal title, and Prince Harry has been described as “saddened and disappointed” by the Queen’s decision to prevent him from laying a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday last year.