Since they stood down as senior royals in January 2020, Harry and Meghan's bond with the royal family has been difficult, but the couple tried to maintain a good relationship with the monarch.
Throughout the years, Queen Elizabeth and her grandson Prince Harry maintained a strong connection up until the monarch passed at the age of 96. According to PEOPLE, Robert Hardman—historian and author of Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II— remarked that the late Queen "adored Harry right to the end," and so did Harry. "I think she was one of the conduits between Windsor and California, and it would have been one of her dearest wishes that [the family] patch things up," Hardman added.
Since they stood down as senior royals in January 2020, Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle's bond with the royal family has been difficult, but the couple tried to maintain a good relationship with the monarch. After their March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, the situation worsened, creating tensions within the family, reports Business Insider.
The Sussexes had shared in the interview that the royal family had made racist comments about their three-year-old son, Archie, before his birth. The family had ignored Meghan's mental health and wellbeing, with Kate Middleton making the Suits actress weep in the week leading to her wedding. Finally, they cut them off financially after they took a step back from their royal duties.
Harry clarified that his grandparents weren't the royals to make racist remarks about Archie following his interview with Winfrey, and he and Meghan revealed that they spoke to the Queen on FaceTime. They gave their daughter the name Lilibet, which was the family nickname for the monarch. The Sussexes reportedly stayed close to the Queen in the years preceding her passing.
Harry and Meghan, joined William and Kate, both 40, for a walkabout at Windsor Castle, two days after Queen Elizabeth passed away. They greeted spectators and took in the flowers and other tributes left for the late Queen. "It was awkward. Both couples found it hard," an insider told PEOPLE. "They were in a stoic spirit of just getting through it for the Queen."
A royal insider previously told PEOPLE that Prince William believed the walkabout to meet the people "was an important show of unity at an incredibly difficult time for the family." Another palace insider agreed, adding, "It's such an extraordinary historical moment and also a deeply personal one for the family that you'd hope and think that all members of the family would unite and support [King Charles III] especially. And perhaps some of those wounds can be healed in the process."
In his first speech as king, King Charles III also expressed his affection for the couple and allowed Harry, who is no longer a working royal, to wear his military uniform during a vigil for the Queen.
Samantha Cohen, the Queen's former assistant private secretary, said that the royal family as a whole "looked tired" amid the loss of their matriarch, not knowing what might happen next. "Now it's real, and the real mourning starts. The reality of life without the Queen starts now," Cohen added.
References:
https://people.com/royals/queen-elizabeth-adored-prince-harry-until-end-says-royal-historian/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2lFvFhWE2Y
Cover Image Source: (L) Getty Images | Yui Mok; (R) Getty Images | Paul Grover
