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Prince William “will not risk” spending time with his brother Prince Harry or Harry’s wife Meghan Markle on their visit to the U.K. this week, a source has told The Daily Beast, because of fears the couple would not respect the confidentiality of any such meeting.
A former royal staffer said: “William and Kate will not risk meeting them.”
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Referring to Harry’s interview with Hoda Kotb when Harry said he was making sure the queen had “the right people” around her and that his grandmother told him secrets she would not tell other members of the family, the source added: “Last time Harry met a member of the royal family he immediately gave an interview to an American TV network about it. Why would William and Kate want to give them ammunition?”
Sources previously told The Daily Beast that it was unlikely Queen Elizabeth would meet Harry and Meghan as the monarch has an exceptionally busy week this week, including anointing a new prime minister at her Scottish estate at Balmoral. The source said then, “Some things cannot be moved.”
That was before a thinly veiled threat to publicise more royal secrets was made by Meghan Markle in her interview with The Cut.
Meghan said that the couple had to leave the royal family because, “just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy” and that she hadn’t signed any confidentiality agreements, adding, “I can say anything.”
The interview has been widely mocked after Meghan said she was told by a South African that her wedding to Harry had prompted the same sort of joy as the 1990 release of Nelson Mandela after 27 years as a prisoner of the apartheid regime.
Meghan claimed a South African cast member of The Lion King told her at the 2019 London premiere of a film version of the musical: “When you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same as we did when Mandela was freed from prison.”
South African cast members have subsequently denied making such comments.
A source at the Palace told the Sunday Times: “The whole thing is just staggering… Nelson Mandela? Who’s next, Gandhi? There are simply no words for the delusion and tragedy of it all.”
And the parlous state of relations between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the rest of the royal family was made further and more painfully clear Monday as it emerged that the Californian residents are unlikely to see any of Harry’s family this week, despite Prince William now living less than 400 yards from Frogmore Cottage, the house on the Windsor estate where Harry and Meghan have been based since arriving in the U.K. on a commercial flight on Saturday.
This weekend it was reported that Charles is “completely bewildered” by Harry and Meghan’s attacks on him and the wider institution.
The Sunday Times said that the royals believe Harry and Meghan are using the “family discord” to elevate their profiles.
A friend told the Sunday Times: “For two years, there has been a steady stream of really challenging things said about a man who cannot [publicly] defend himself by a couple he obviously loves and misses. That is incredibly difficult on a personal level. He is completely bewildered by why his son, whom he loves deeply, feels this is the way to go about managing family relationships.”
A royal source, said: “Everyone hoped they (Harry and Meghan) would go off to be financially independent, pursue their philanthropic endeavors and be happy—and that in going their own way, they might no longer feel the need to rail against the system as much as they still do. But then the star power of them requires an association with the royal family, and the fuel on those flames is the family discord.”
Later Monday, Meghan is due to give the keynote address at a youth charity leadership conference, One Young World. She is likely to be given an enthusiastic reception. Meghan and Harry retain significant support among younger Britons.
The following day the couple are expected in Duesseldorf, Germany, to launch the run-up to next year’s Invictus Games, Harry’s Paralympic-style event for wounded servicemen.
