If the fakakta “secret peace summit” story did anything positive, it got that stupid Lady Liza Anson story off the British tabloid rotation for several days. A few weeks ago, royalist Sally Bedell Smith spilled some extremely stale tea on her Substack. The stale tea: Bedell Smith used to talk to Lady Liza Anson constantly, and Lady Liza was constantly bitching about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Not just that, but Anson was constantly recounting all kinds of crazy sh-t about how Queen Elizabeth II hated Meghan and Harry. Lady Liza died in 2020 – QEII died in 2022. Their ghosts are still super-salty that Meghan wore white at her wedding, apparently. Well, Waity hagiographer Katie Nicholl wants everyone to know that Lady Liza was one of her “royal sources” too. Nicholl has written a new piece for Vanity Fair, confirming Bedell Smith’s triple-hearsay and adding her own remembrances of Lady Liza’s gossip about Harry and Meghan. Some highlights:
Nicholl regularly used Lady Liza as a royal source: During my twenty-year long career as a royal correspondent, I spent many hours in the company of Lady Elizabeth, a professional party planner, at her Ladbroke Grove home. Over tea in her “egg room,” which had the most incredible collection of painted decorative eggs, Lady Elizabeth painted a charming portrait of the late Queen; she adored her cousin, and they would gossip on the phone like old friends. Lady Elizabeth was a wonderful raconteur, which the Queen adored. The truth is the Queen herself loved a good catch up.
Liza went to her grave fussing about the Sussexes: Whenever we spoke about the Queen, Lady Elizabeth would refer to her as “Jemima” or “the number one lady,” and she told me how hurt the Queen was by Harry’s behavior in the final years of her life and how much Harry changed after he met Meghan. Now I can reveal more about how the Queen really felt about Harry and Meghan and why she was so disappointed in Harry in the twilight years of her life. Lady Elizabeth told me that the Queen felt her once close relationship with her grandson would never be the same again. “She couldn’t understand how Harry, who had loved his military career, and been devoted to duty could change the way he did,” Lady Elizabeth told me back in 2020. “It’s so sad that at her age, having managed the most amazing reign, it has been sullied. He has hurt her beyond belief.”
Liza claims QEII was terribly hurt that the Sussexes moved out of the UK: [Liza] also shared that the Queen was deeply disappointed and hurt when Harry and Meghan made the shocking decision to leave Britain. They returned to Britain for a final engagement, Commonwealth Day—in March 2020. “The Queen had hoped that they would bring Archie over. She was very disappointed they didn’t,” Lady Elizabeth told me at the time. She was hurt when they left Britain, and how they left so suddenly.
QEII was mad about Frogmore Cottage: She added that Frogmore Cottage, the Queen’s wedding present to the couple, “was a big give. Her entrance into that garden is past their cottage. It really was in her backyard so she was giving up her solitude and privacy when she gave up the cottage. We all thought it was very big of her. Jemima said: ‘I hope they’ll respect it.’”
QEII had old-fashioned opinions about Meghan’s wedding dress: In The New Royals, I revealed how the Queen was “surprised” that Meghan had chosen to wear white, given she was a divorcée and marrying for the second time. Now Bedell Smith has revealed, “Meghan wouldn’t tell her about the wedding dress.” The monarch did not think Meghan should have worn a veil.
QEII was pissed about Harry speaking to the Archbishop of Canterbury: Like Bedell Smith, I was also told that the Queen was upset during the planning of their wedding. Harry and Meghan were intent on doing things their way, even if it came to breaking with traditions. Lady Elizabeth also told me that the Queen was upset that Harry went straight to Justin Welby, then the Archbishop of Canterbury to ask him to conduct the wedding without first going to the Dean of Windsor, which was the correct protocol for a wedding at St George’s Chapel.
Most of all, Liza was mad that the Sussexes didn’t hire her to plan their wedding: I was told that the Queen had enlisted her cousin to assist with the wedding plans, in particular the flowers, given Lady Elizabeth’s excellent contacts and experience organizing weddings in palaces and royal chapels. Lady Elizabeth had planned many royal celebrations, including the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations, the Queen and Prince Philip’s 70th wedding anniversary, and William and Kate’s wedding. But after meeting with Meghan, Lady Elizabeth, was told her services were not required.
QEII was mad about Zoom: In April 2020, Lady Elizabeth told me the Queen was sad she had only seen Archie once or twice, and had to see her great grandson growing up on Zoom rather than in person once the couple moved to California. “She was quite surprised to hear from Harry on Zoom, it was all new to her, but it was the only way for her to see her great grandson. She told me that Archie has red hair.”
Alright, fine, if we’re going to gossip about two dead women, let’s really get into it. “She couldn’t understand how Harry, who had loved his military career, and been devoted to duty could change the way he did.” What does Harry’s military career have to do with anything? What specifically was his “duty” to his grandmother? To never marry, to never stop being his brother’s support and punching bag? “It’s so sad that at her age, having managed the most amazing reign, it has been sullied.” Again, let’s be specific: how exactly did “Harry marrying a Black woman” sully QEII’s reign? Did Harry have a “duty” to marry a white woman or something?
“The Queen had hoped that they would bring Archie over…” Keep in mind, this was around the same time that the Windsors were withdrawing the Sussexes’ security. One of the smartest things Meghan and Harry did was not bring Archie back to the UK in 2020. They purposefully kept their child far away from Harry’s family because the Windsors could not be trusted. Frogmore Cottage “was a big give. Her entrance into that garden is past their cottage. It really was in her backyard so she was giving up her solitude and privacy when she gave up the cottage.” ARE YOU JOKING?? The poor queen GAVE UP HER SOLITUDE by renting a small shack to the Sussexes, a shack which was in the backyard of her enormous 1000-room Norman castle?? These people lost their everloving minds about the Sussexes.
The thing about the Dean of Windsor is so petty and nitpicky, it throws the entire narrative out of perspective. It really shows that Lady Liza was just f–king furious about every single little thing involving the Sussexes. Imagine being the whole-ass queen of a tattered empire and throwing a hissy fit because your grandson contacted the “wrong” member of CoE clergy. I strongly suspect that if Harry *had* spoken to the Dean of Windsor first, everyone would have been mad about that because how dare he not speak to the Archbishop?? But yeah, the part about the Sussexes not hiring Liza is the reason for 99% of this.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
