Battle of Brothers, written by Robert Lacey, claims the Royal Family were “hopping mad” over Harry and Meghan’s plans to commercialise the Royal Sussex title. A senior palace source described negotiations with Harry and Meghan over the details of “Megxit” as being akin to dealing with “a hard-nosed Hollywood lawyer”. The sources said: “The Sussexes wanted guarantees on every single point as if it were a contractual negotiation.”
The book tells how during negotiations the Queen also got tough.
The book states how “there were some matters on which Elizabeth II would not compromise, and chief among them was the authority of the crown”.
“The Sussex family had been ‘non-personed’ as effectively as the Soviets non-personed Trotsky and Khrushchev, another charming custom, of course, that had been developed by the Kremlin”.
On top of this palace aides close to the Queen thought Meghan showed a “bizarre tone-deafness” and was “miserably self-indulgent” when the Duchess of Sussex was interviewed by ITV’s Tom Bradby during their tour of Africa last year.
Before the so-called ‘Sandringham Summit’ Prince William was so angry at Prince Harry over the Megxit negotiations that he refused to have lunch with his brother and the Queen.
Prince Harry then was left to dine with their grandmother alone.
The new royal biography describes Prince William’s fury at Harry and Meghan’s decision to quit the UK and abdicate their royal duties.
Mr Lacey’s new book is seen as telling the palace’s side of the story as compared to the Finding Freedom biography of Harry and Meghan that was published earlier in the summer.
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Harry is said to have become incensed when he saw an official picture of his nephew Prince George with William, Charles, and the Queen, which was released by Buckingham Palace early in 2020.
The prince, it is claimed, took this picture as a signal from his brother and the rest of the family of his place within the order of succession among the Windsor’s.
The biography goes on to show how another signal was detected that showed the reduced standing of the Sussexes within the Royal household.
The book claims the Queen deliberately chose not to include a picture of Harry and Meghan with their son Archie, her eighth great-grandchild, on the table during her Christmas broadcast last December.
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The book describes the Queen as making only a brief acknowledgement of her new grandson, with no mention of his name.
The Queen said: “Prince Philip and I have been delighted to welcome our eighth great-grandchild into our family.”
However, another theory of the missing photo of the Sussexes on the Queen’s Christmas desk was that it was really a choice by that year’s TV producer.
The book also describes the significance of the absence of a picture of Meghan and Harry’s baby Archie Harrison as.
It points out how it was”unheard of for the royal Christmas desk not to feature” a picture of the new royal grandchild”.
