Some of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's messiest moments with Queen Elizabeth II happened because of their 2018 wedding. As the Daily Mail reported, in journalist Sally Bedell Smith's Substack posts, she revealed that Lady Elizabeth "Liza" Anston, the late monarch's confidant as well as her first cousin, disclosed that Her Majesty had several issues with the Sussexes' wedding. First, Meghan and Harry displeased the queen by failing to get the Dean of Windsor's go-ahead for the location of their nuptials
or their minister.
According to Liza, Harry believed that his grandmother's royal status negated the need for permission, when that wasn't the case at all. Apparently, the queen had a conversation with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex about the issue that left her distraught. "I was shocked when the Queen told me this, how she was so saddened," Liza admitted. "I had no idea about the conversation, that he was rude to her for ten minutes." Moreover, she claimed that Meghan was equally impolite and had dodged her questions about her wedding dress.
In 2022, a bombshell book claimed that the queen disapproved of Meghan's wedding gown for one big reason: The color. In royal expert Kate Nicholl's "The New Royals," she divulged that the monarch would have preferred if Meghan opted for an off-white instead since she felt that it was more fitting for someone who had walked down the aisle before. Over time, though, Her Majesty supposedly criticized more than just the duchess's fashion choices.
Read more: 5 Times Meghan Markle Should've Landed On The Worst-Dressed List
Queen Elizabeth II And Meghan Markle Reportedly Had Numerous Clashes Over The Years
Notably, Queen Elizabeth II was apparently the one royal who wasn't afraid to put Meghan Markle in her place after a rumored mean girl meltdown. In a 2024 chat with The Sun, royal historian Hugo Vickers dished that the "Suits" alum was "very rude" to a gardener at the royal estate. The head gardener ultimately informed the queen about their nasty exchange, and Her Majesty understandably sided with her staff. Vickers added, "[The queen] told [Meghan] off because she obviously didn't like people being rude to staff." The two women are believed to have clashed once again in 2021.
While speaking to British journalist Robert Hardman for his 2024 book, "The Making of a King," an unnamed royal staffer confessed that they had never seen the beloved monarch angrier than in the moments after she learned that Meghan and Harry had borrowed her childhood nickname, Lilibet, for their daughter and publicly stated that she had given them her blessing to do so to boot. The queen openly expressed her dislike for the decision, reasoning, "I don't own the palaces, I don't own the paintings, the only thing I own is my name. And now they've taken that."
Later, a royal insider claimed that Queen Elizabeth II was misled about Lilibet's name. As Nicky Haslam pointed out to the Daily Mail, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had only rang Her Majesty to tell her that they wanted their child to be her namesake, failing to specify that they meant Lilibet, rather than Elizabeth. Despite everything, Meghan insists that she had a good relationship with the late queen.
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