In July 2022, Queen Elizabeth II headed to Scotland for her annual summer retreat at Balmoral. It would be her final visit to Scotland, and that September, she passed away peacefully in her room in the Balmoral castle. QEII knew she was in poor health and everyone else knew it too. That July, reports circulated that she wanted the whole family to visit Balmoral one last time that summer, and the Sun even reported that QEII wanted to see Prince Harry, Meghan and their children. Months after she passed away, Prince William and Kate’s office published a photo from the summer of ‘22, allegedly taken by Kate. It showed QEII surrounded by her great-grandchildren (and two grandchildren), as you can see above. A sidenote about that photo: in 2024, photo agencies cited the photo as yet another example of Kate manipulating photos and handing them out to the press without acknowledging the editing. But I digress. According to Robert Hardman’s new biography of QEII, she… asked all of her great-grandkids to come to Balmoral that summer.
Queen Elizabeth wanted to ensure that her great-grandchildren would have happy memories of her during what proved to be her final summer, royal biographer Robert Hardman claims in a new book.
In an excerpt of Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story, out April 9, Hardman writes that the Queen wanted to see her great-grandchildren at Balmoral Castle in Scotland when she headed there for her traditional respite in the summer of 2022.
“The Queen wanted all the great-grandchildren to come up to Balmoral at some point over that summer, even if the Sussexes might not be able to make it,” Hardman writes, according to an excerpt published by the Daily Mail on April 6, referring to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and their children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from their royal roles in the U.K. in 2020 and moved to California, but they brought their children to the U.K. in June 2022 for the celebrations commemorating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
“‘She wanted to make sure that they all had a really happy memory of her,’ explained a friend of the family,’ ” he wrote.
Something I find interesting is that it’s been nearly four f–king years and they still can’t say “of course QEII invited the Sussexes to come over that summer.” Harry and Meghan had just brought the kids to England that June, and you know why? Because QEII personally invited them and guaranteed their safety. Harry got to introduce Lili to her great-grandmother in June – but did QEII make a point of inviting the Sussexes to come back just a short time afterwards? The Sussexes arrived back in England in late August as well, and Harry wrote in Spare that he spoke on the phone to his grandmother when he arrived in the UK. I guess my point is… yes, we get it, QEII wanted family around her that summer, but no one is willing to say that she actually invited the Sussexes. In fact, everyone around QEII insists that she f–king hated Harry and Meghan and she didn’t want to be alone with them! So which is it – a guilt trip over Harry & Meghan denying QEII’s final wish for a Balmoral visit, or an acknowledgement that she never really invited them because she didn’t want to see them?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar, Kensington Palace.
