I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I read Paul Burrell’s book, the one he wrote after his trial and late “rescue” from QEII. Burrell was Princess Diana’s butler, having worked his way up from Buckingham Palace footman. Diana “got” Burrell in the separation and divorce, and Burrell was one of the few remaining longterm employees when she died. Burrell traveled to Paris when Diana died too. Years after her death, he was charged with stealing Diana’s property, including letters, clothes and personal items. Only Burrell told QEII in 1997 that he was keeping some personal items for William and Harry, mostly because he was worried that Diana’s mother Frances Shand would destroy everything. At the end of the day, QEII and the other royals stood up for him and he was cleared of all the charges. Burrell then turned into some kind of “royal expert,” getting paid for commentary and his books. Well, he’s got a new book, and the Mail published two big excerpts from it, the bulk of which is about (you guessed it) Harry and Meghan.
QEII’s warning in 1997: I talked of the many people with whom I had spoken and seen, at which point she offered me a stark warning: ‘Do be careful. There are forces at work in my country of which even I have no knowledge.’
Burrell believes that Meghan was mad about living in Nottingham Cottage: But how could it have gone so horribly wrong? And how did the couple squander so much goodwill from the Royal Family and the nation so quickly? In the early days of their engagement, Harry and Meghan were given Nottingham Cottage, a rose-covered, one-level house with two bedrooms, a sitting room and a kitchen, which faced the front door of his mother’s apartments at Kensington Palace. It was small but cosy and enough for a couple embarking on a journey through life.The fairy-tale cottage wasn’t a royal residence though, as Meghan discovered when she and Harry were invited to dinner with Harry’s brother and his wife, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at their home, apartment 1A in Kensington Palace. This was the former residence of Princess Margaret, the Queen’s sister, and was very much a palace. They even had a ballroom. The Cambridges had a corner of the state apartments so that they could entertain.”
The problem was that Meghan is American: Perhaps the problem was that Meghan would always have second billing to the future Queen Catherine. Being American, she struggled to understand the culture of the Royal establishment with its rules and protocols.
Diana would have wanted Harry to be William’s wingman: But I was shocked and saddened to hear that they were to leave the Royal Family in January 2020. Diana would have wanted Harry to stay to protect and defend his brother and be his wingman all the way to the throne. If only she had been here to advise her second son, history may have been different. They could have had it all. The Queen was of the same opinion. She wanted them to stay but she was born into an Edwardian court and was nearly 60 years older than Harry. Her Majesty had lived in a different world from her grandson. How could the Queen understand all of Harry’s problems? She couldn’t.
QEII didn’t want the Sussexes to leave: She did not want ‘Megxit’ as it was dubbed, as she knew they would be estranged from her world. The Queen even said to Meghan: ‘You can go back to acting if you want to.’ She was willing to bend the rules for Meghan, and offered to talk to her whenever she had any problems. Who could forget that it was the Queen who took Meghan on her first engagement and showed her the ropes to make sure she settled into Royal life?
Harry should become an American citizen: Harry is now in an exile of his own making. He has become an American resident and has severed links with the Royal Family, the crown and the country. His wife is American, his children are American – so perhaps he should be American too.
Harry should have moved to Canada or Australia: It is such a shame because William and Harry with their wives were the ‘Fab Four’ and certainly for a time Harry and Meghan were ‘the golden couple’. They had everything. I had Harry marked down for Governor General of Australia or Canada and then they could have lived in their own royal domain. It would have been as if they were king and queen in their own country and they could have travelled the world for their own causes. I think the problems came partially from Meghan being American. It is a different culture, different lifestyle and she had different goals. In the end it really boils down to money. As royals, they could never be fabulously wealthy like the friends they keep, such as Tyler Perry, although they could be fabulously famous. They could never fulfil all of their dreams by being inside the Royal Family. So they thought that they could make a life outside of it and make their own rules where they wouldn’t have to answer to anyone.
QEII, Lilibet & Archie: Fortunately, the Queen did get to meet Prince Harry’s children; Prince Archie who was born in May 2019, and Princess Lilibet who was born in June 2021. It was Lilibet’s first birthday on the Saturday of the weekend of the Platinum Jubilee celebration in June 2022 and Netflix was in tow at Frogmore Cottage to record the event. Harry and Meghan invited the Queen and all the younger members of the family to a tea party. Her Majesty declined, instead inviting them to tea in the Oak Room in Windsor Castle without the Netflix crew. The rest of the Royal Family were congregating for a buffet tea when the Sussexes arrived. They walked up to Windsor Castle, went through the dog door and up the spiral staircase into the Queen’s apartment….When Harry and Meghan appeared in the Oak Room the family parted like the Red Sea so that the Sussexes could take centre stage with the Queen. Some members of the family left the room in disgust and wouldn’t return until they had left 30 minutes later.
The Sussexes snubbed QEII: The Queen played with the children and chatted with Harry and Meghan. She thought everything was fine but little did she know. On the Sunday of the weekend of the Platinum Jubilee celebration, the Queen had arranged for the chef to make her favourite chocolate cake, a Sachertorte, with one candle on top for Lilibet’s birthday. She had hoped that her favourite grandson and his wife would join her for tea. But she was left disappointed when she was told they had left already. It might have been a breakdown in communication, that Harry and Meghan weren’t aware of her plans. It’s a shame the tea didn’t happen as Meghan never saw the Queen again – while Harry saw her next on her deathbed.
I barely have the energy to fact-check all of this BS. It’s really disappointing, and I once again wonder why these people don’t understand that there’s a whole world of royal commentary out there which doesn’t involve supplicating themselves to the courtiers? Okay, so let’s do this. The Sussexes didn’t travel to the UK with a Netflix crew for the Jubbly in 2022. QEII invited the Sussexes to the UK, she gave them security and she met with them privately, not with the wider family. The Sussexes also threw a small birthday party for Lili at Frogmore Cottage, and Misan Harriman took some photos. Also: the reason why Harry wasn’t made the governor-general of Canada or Australia was because of William’s jealousy, paranoia and rage. William is the one who wanted to ship the Sussexes off to Africa. And the sh-t about Meghan not wanting to live in that little shack… Jesus, how many times are they going to do this?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Misan Harriman for the Sussexes.
