Shortly before Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex quit the UK and left royal life behind, an expert has claimed that one particular ‘snub’ from the Royal Family left the couple ‘seething’

When Prince Harry and Meghan decided to leave life in the UK as working royals behind them and start a new chapter in California, the news was initially a shock to many royal fans, but over the course of time, it was revealed that the break had actually been a long time coming.

In the months before their shock announcement that they would no longer be full-time representatives of the crown, or receive public funding, Harry admitted that he and his brother Prince William were “on different paths” after a rift had been reported, and Meghan opened up about how she was struggling to live in the royal spotlight. Whilst it became more obvious that all was not well inside the House of Windsor, a royal expert has claimed that in the final weeks of their time in the monarchy, the Royal Family “snubbed” Harry and Meghan in one major way, and alleged that the couple was left “seething” and considering their options – and Harry talked about the moment in his memoir too.

The expert – Robert Lacey, a royal author and historian – made the claim that when Harry and Meghan were returning to the UK from a six-week break in Canada over the festive period in 2019, the couple were keen to sit down with the late Queen and discuss possible plans for their future and transition away from being full-time working royals – however, Lacey claimed the meeting planned was abruptly adjourned.

“When he had spoken to his father and grandmother on the phone over Christmas 2019, the Prince of Wales and the Queen had both seemed open to the prospect of talking further. Harry should come up to Sandringham when he and Meghan got home early in the new year, they agreed,” Lacey wrote for the Daily Mail. “But when the Prince phoned their offices from Vancouver to get a date in the diary, it seemed that he was not so welcome. Her Majesty would not be available for another month, he was told by her staff. How about 29 January?

“Harry and Meghan were seething as their Air Canada flight made its dawn touchdown in London on that Monday. They toyed with the idea of driving straight from Heathrow to Sandringham — which would certainly have provided a New Year surprise for the Queen.” In his memoir Spare, Harry discussed this incident himself, saying that the late Queen, his grandmother, had offered to let the Sussex family stay at Sandringham with her when they came back on 5 January 2020, when he received a “frantic note” canceling the plan from one of her aides, leaving him to say to his wife “They are blocking me from seeing my own grandmother.”