Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were causing a royal stir long before the Suits star joined the British royal family in 2018, according to Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand’s book, Finding Freedom.
“It was a critical moment that had been in the works for months,” the authors wrote about the 2016 incident. “A statement from Kensington Palace condemning the Press and, in the same breath, confirming Harry’s new girlfriend would all but eliminate coverage of Prince Charles’s tour of the Gulf.”
Harry began dating the actress during the summer of 2016, with their relationship being picked up by the media by that autumn. The future monarch was preparing to meet with the King of Bahrain shortly before the impromptu announcement.
“The team at Clarence House, which had spent months putting together Prince Charles’ tour in the hopes that it would be covered significantly, was crushed,” Scobie and Durand added. In addition to this bombshell, the tome also revealed the then-fourth in line to the throne would “question” anybody who he thought was “judging” Meghan based on assumptions about race or class and regional snobbery.
The writers explored how the fiery-haired prince was “poised for an outright war” with the press, which one palace insider revealed was “almost as if it was something he wanted or had been dreaming about ever since his mother died — Meghan was simply a pawn and catalyst.”
The then-Prince of Wales was said to be “disappointed” the revelation took clicks away from his tour, but “understood that the situation with Meghan had reached a tipping point.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex-to-be announced their engagement in November 2017 before marrying in a “ratings bonanza” of a royal wedding in May 2018. The pair left the royal family in early 2020 and have made “monetized attacks” on the monarchy ever since.
This insight comes amid Harry’s upcoming solo visit to Britain on May 8 to attend an anniversary service for the Invictus Games at London’s iconic St Paul’s Cathedral.
It is not known if the prince will meet with his father, but those close to his brother, Prince William, and sister-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales, claim a reunion with the Wales duo is not happening.
“[Harry is] just another person who sold his story to the papers,” a mutual friend of the royal brothers who has not spoken to Harry since he left Britain in 2020, told an outlet. “A ‘get well soon’ message is neither here nor there. But the whole situation doesn’t use up a huge amount of their mental energy anymore. William and Kate have accepted it and moved on. Cancer puts things in perspective. William respects his father’s wish to reconcile with his son, but his focus now is on protecting his family from stressful situations.”
