This royal tea is scalding hot and dripping with drama!
For someone who spent decades keeping a stiff upper lip, Queen Elizabeth apparently had a lot more going on behind the scenes than she ever let on. And now, thanks to a couple of explosive new books, the truth about what really went down before and during Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding is finally bubbling to the surface.
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Like we said, two shocking books are making the rounds right now, y’all. The first is Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story, by Robert Hardman, and the second is Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History, by Hugo Vickers — and they both dive VERY deep into behind-the-scenes moments from her reign.
According to those insiders, what looked like a fairytale day to the world was anything but smooth behind palace doors. In fact, the Queen was reportedly not thrilled from the very beginning. One of the biggest sticking points? Harry and Meghan moving way too fast for her liking. She allegedly asked them to wait a full year before tying the knot, but they charged ahead after just six months. Not exactly the kind of patience Her Majesty was known to admire.
And it didn’t stop there. Meghan reportedly turned down the Queen’s suggestion to work with Lady Anson, a trusted wedding planner with deep royal ties. Awkward…
That decision alone is said to have stung. But the real awkwardness came during what was supposed to be a sweet bonding moment over tiaras. Instead of showing up solo, Meghan brought Harry along, and it completely changed the vibe.
In his book, Hardman wrote:
“It was her lovely way of bonding with the bride. She did it with Sophie [Rhys-Jones, Prince Edward‘s wife] and with Catherine [Middleton]. But there wasn’t that bonding with Meghan because she turned up with Prince Harry.”
Yikes. That’s not exactly how you win over your grandmother-in-law — especially when she’s the Queen of England.
Then came the infamous Tiaragate, which only made things worse. Meghan wanted to practice wearing her chosen tiara ahead of the wedding, but palace protocol got in the way. Angela Kelly, the Queen’s trusted aide and keeper of the jewels, refused to release it without proper authorization and security.
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Harry wasn’t thrilled, but even he hesitated to take it up with his grandmother. In his memoir Spare that was pubbed a few years back, Harry wrote:
“I considered going to Granny, but that would probably mean sparking an all-out confrontation, and I wasn’t quite sure with whom Granny would side.”
Spoiler alert: Granny definitely had a side.
Hardman wrote:
“The Queen took the side of her dresser. She was not pleased that the Prince had been calling around the Royal Household, demanding that the tiara be dispatched forthwith. As the monarch told one of them: ‘It’s not a toy.’”
Mic drop!
And if you thought things cooled off after the wedding, think again. The Queen grew increasingly distant from Harry in later years, especially after he and Meghan stepped back from their royal responsibilities. Calls between them became stiff and uncomfortable. Vickers wrote:
“Whenever Prince Harry called his grandmother, she asked her lady-in-waiting to stay with her.”
And Vickers continued:
“There were lots of one-word answers, ‘yes’ and ‘no.’”
Talk about chilly.
From wedding day tension to tiara drama and icy phone calls, it’s clear this royal relationship was far from perfect. Behind all the pomp and circumstance, there was a whooole lot of side-eye, disappointment, and quiet disapproval.
And honestly? We can’t look away. What about U??
[Image via John Rainford/WENN/Avalon]
