Meghan Markle and Prince Harry recently celebrated the third birthday of Princess Lillibet by throwing a massive party at their mansion and inviting many Hollywood celebs — but it all took place under the morbid shadow of King Charles taking a page out of Queen Elizabeth’s diary and taking it even further in his drive to alienate his son and daughter-in-law.
According to Royal biographer Christopher Andersen, the couple swallowed the first “bitter pill” back in 2022, a few months before Queen Elizabeth‘s death, when she “personally intervened” to ban Lillibet from being photographed with her during her first meeting with her great-grandmother. At the time, it was reported the reason was the Queen’s bloodshot eye, but if Anderson is to be believed, the reason was Sir Edward Young, the Queen’s private secretary aka one of the infamous “men in grey.” She was acting on his advice to deny Meghan and Harry’s request for her to take a picture with her great-granddaughter.
“That spoke volumes, it was a really bitter pill for Meghan and Harry to swallow. You have to remember, Archie was photographed with the Queen, and Prince Philip, and Doria Ragland when he was two days old.
It’s a tradition to be photographed with the monarch when you’re a grandchild or a great-grandchild. But this was a really different feeling.”
Whosoever took the decision, it was the Queen who shunned her grandson and his family since they had stepped down as senior royals. And now, King Charles is actively channeling his late mother’s choice — after shooting down Harry’s request to meet him when the latter was in the country for the Invictus Games, he has now refused to invite his son and daughter-in-law to the Trooping Colors event for the second year in a row (via People).
Adding further insult to injury are the reports that the King didn’t want to “completely ignore” Lillibet on her birthday and sent her a gift along with a message. Sounds somewhat sweet, right? But as shared by Royal author Tom Quinn (via The Mirror), Charles is withholding a precious gift for his grandchild and won’t be giving it to her “unless and until the family feud dies down.”
But King Charles keeps batting away Harry’s hand of reconciliation
So far, the only 100% official reports have been about Charles snubbing Harry and his son trying his best to really end the tension between them. As reported by People, the Duke of Sussex has declined the invite to the wedding of the Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor, who is Harry’s close friend and his son, Archie’s godfather.
Evidently, it was an “understanding between the two friends,” keeping many points in mind, the primary being the fact that Harry and William’s combined presence at the wedding would create unnecessary tension and would take focus away from the about-to-be married couple.
The Royal drama limits Charles from focusing on the real parasite
AKA Prince Andrew. There have been numerous rumors and reports of Andrew getting on Charles’ nerves as he refuses to vacate the Royal Lodge, which is reportedly in dire need of repairs, and move into Harry and Meghan’s Frogmore Cottage property. As per The Times (via SheKnows), Charles’s threat to cut his younger brother’s security funding is not working as Andrew was given the mansion on lease by his mother and he still has 50 years left on it.
But why is it not working? Charles is the King, and Andrew has to rely on the monarch for money, then why is this particular tussle gone on for so long?
Until last year, there had been alleged reports of Andrew threatening to write a memoir of his own and expose a lot of secrets since he has “access to information that could prove embarrassing to Charles and, indeed, the whole family.” Of course, nothing of the sort ever cropped up, but Charles knuckling under his younger brother, who has become a royal headache and the source of reputation-maligning scandals, time and time again? Is it just the love of a brother or the fear of a scared King?
Nobody knows for sure, but somehow, dealing with the true parasite raising his blood pressure has taken a back seat for Charles who would rather invest his energy in keeping Prince Harry and Meghan Markle away from the Royal family.