A website designed to clarify the Sussexes' future was “deeply upsetting” to members of the royal family and “hurt the Queen”, a new book has claimed.
Finding Freedom, serialised in The Times and Sunday Times, said Prince Harry and Meghan were forced to take action after a story broke that they were going to stay in Canada permanently.
The book’s authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote that a royal source denied leaking the story, instead blaming the couple “because they were frustrated at the palace in the talks that were going on… They wanted to force the decision, to break it open.”
The couple deny this claim, The Times reports.
On January 8, Harry and Meghan used their Instagram page to share the news of their future plans and launched the website sussexroyal.com.
The book’s authors write: “It offered clarity on their decision to be financially independent, which was not only to have more freedom in their work but to remove the tabloids’ justification in having access to their lives.
The website took everyone by surprise, the authors write. “Aides and family members knew the couple wanted to step back, but the website, which laid out the details of their half-in-half-out model as if it were a done deal, put the Queen in a difficult position.”
Buckingham Palace put out a short statement 15 minutes after the Sussexes made theirs, but aides including the Queen’s private secretary were “furious”. And there was significant reaction from fellow royals, with a source saying the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were “devastated”.
A senior member of the household was quoted in the book as saying: “The element of surprise, the blindsiding of the Queen, for the other principals who are all very mindful of this, rightfully, it was deeply unsettling.
“The family is very private and bringing it into the public domain, when they were told not to, hurt the Queen. It was laying out what the Sussexes wanted in a statement without consulting with Her Majesty first – and she’s the head of the institution.”
The new book also described how relations between the Sussexes and the Cambridges grew so bitter that by March the couples were barely speaking.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex: Prince Harry & Meghan Markle
Finding Freedom claims the couples hardly spoke at the Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey despite not having seen each other since January.
The book’s authors said: “Although Meghan tried to make eye contact with Kate, the duchess barely acknowledged her.”
Mr Scobie told the Times: “To purposefully snub your sister-in-law… I don’t think it left a great taste in the couple’s mouths.”
The authors describe a culture of increasing tension between the Sussexes and other members of the royal family.
They say the Sussexes felt their complaints were not taken seriously and believed other royal households were leaking stories about them to the press.
“There were just a handful of people working at the palace they could trust,” the authors write.
“A friend of the couple’s referred to the old guard as ‘the vipers’.
“Meanwhile, a frustrated palace staffer described the Sussexes’ team as ‘the squeaky third wheel’ of the palace.”
Harry and Meghan “liked being in control of their narrative” in the early days of their marriage, the authors say.
But being told to operate under Buckingham Palace’s umbrella after splitting their household from the Cambridges’ was “a big disappointment to them”.
“As their popularity had grown, so did Harry and Meghan’s difficulty in understanding why so few inside the palace were looking out for their interests. They were a major draw for the royal family,” the authors write.
The book says the Sussexes even considered breaking protocol by springing a surprise visit on the Queen when they believed they were being blocked from seeing the monarch.
A spokesman for Harry and Meghan said the couple did not contribute to the book, but he did not deny the content of The Times’s extracts.
The spokesman told the PA news agency: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not contribute to Finding Freedom.
“This book is based on the authors’ own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting.”
The revelations come after the Sussexes launched legal action in Los Angeles after drones were allegedly used to take pictures of their 14-month-old son Archie.
A complaint filed at the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday claims an unnamed individual photographed Archie at their home during lockdown.
The lawsuit alleges the couple have been hounded across North America by paparazzi and targeted with incessant intrusions into their private life.
Harry and Meghan – who departed the Royal Family in March, saying they wanted a more private life – “seek no special treatment whatsoever” and only want the right to privacy, the lawsuit says.
The couple say they have “done everything in their power to stay out of the limelight” except in relation to their work, which they accept is newsworthy.
The lawsuit is the latest example of the couple’s war against what they describe as an intrusive tabloid media.
Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, over articles which featured parts of a “private and confidential” letter from the duchess to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.