According to a new book by veteran royal writer Hugo Vickers, Meghan Markle was vetting every public speech Prince Harry delivered as early as October 2018. It was just months after their wedding. That left the Duke of Sussex looking like a man who had completely lost his footing, the book claims.
The detail, reported by Page Six, comes from Vickers’ new book Queen Elizabeth II. The longtime friend of the royal family paints a picture of a prince who was struggling well before the world knew anything was wrong.
“Observers noted that ‘s speeches already had a Californian ring to them. In October 2018, they had visited Australia, deemed a successful tour, but every speech that Harry made was vetted by Meghan,” Vickers writes.
The consequences of that arrangement, Vickers suggests, were visible to anyone paying attention. By the following year, Harry appeared to be a shadow of his former self in public.
“He appeared uncomfortable and the rapport between them looked nil. He seemed unhappy on Easter Day, and in a general sense a man who had ‘bitten off more than he could chew’,” Vickers writes.
The speech-vetting revelation is far from the only explosive claim in the book. Vickers also recounts that Markle, 44, was reprimanded by Queen Elizabeth herself for being rude to the Windsor gardeners. This remarkable detail counters the careful image of warmth the Duchess has always projected publicly.
There was also the matter of the car parking. Harry and Markle moved into Frogmore Cottage in April 2019. It’s the Windsor Estate home gifted by the Queen on their 2018 wedding. Markle apparently took issue with cars being visible from the house’s windows.
There’s a nearby sports ground. Royals from to young Prince George used to play cricket there. Household staff, too, maintained a cricket team. It was just a five-minute walk away.
The property was already being heavily fortified with extra fencing and security gates. Still, Markle reportedly banned cars from the grounds entirely because they were within her line of sight.
“The Duchess of Sussex refused to have cars on the sports ground because she could see them from nearby Frogmore Cottage,” Vickers claims.
The Sussexes formally stepped down as working royals in January 2020. They relocated permanently to California three months later.
They were asked to vacate Frogmore Cottage in March 2023. It was shortly after the publication of Harry’s explosive memoir, Spare.
Megxit: The backstory
On the question of Megxit, ’s royal exit, Vickers is equally revealing. He writes that Harry was “reluctant” to leave the royal family. He pushed for a half-in, half-out arrangement. He wanted to remain self-financing while continuing to work for the institution, according to the book.
That proposal was firmly rejected at Sandringham, where the three senior private secretaries delivered a blunt verdict.
“Prince Harry went to Sandringham for the meeting and was told it was either all in or all out. He returned to Canada — reluctantly out,” the royal author writes.
