Meghan Markle was not at Balmoral when Queen Elizabeth passed (Image: Getty)
was absent from s deathbed in Balmoral, and a royal book revealed the reason why.
The Queen, who passed away peacefully on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96, was the UK’s longest-reigning monarch, having served for 70 years.
While the nation mourned, tensions within the resurfaced, and Meghan’s suspected exclusion from became a focal point of speculation.
Robert Hardman’s biography, Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story, delves into the final hours of the Queen’s life and the decisions made by senior royals.
According to the book, Meghan was asked to stay away to avoid family conflict, despite her husband ’s desire for her to accompany him.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral (Image: Getty)
Earlier reports suggested both Meghan and Princess Kate were asked to stay behind, with and traveling alone to Balmoral.
However, Hardman’s book clarified that decision was voluntary, as she felt her priority was to support her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, who were starting a new school.
“It was by luck rather than judgment, but it made it a lot easier to tell Harry that he was coming alone,” Hardman wrote, as Princess Kate’s absence provided a convenient precedent for Meghan’s exclusion.
, who was in the UK with Meghan for engagements at the time, reportedly reached out to to coordinate travel plans.
However, his messages went unanswered. In his memoir Spare, Harry wrote: “I immediately texted Willy to ask whether he and Kate were flying up. If so, when? And how? No response. Meg and I looked at flight options.”
Hardman explains William’s silence: “Clearly, did not regard this as the appropriate moment for the intensely difficult conversation he needed to have with his brother.”
It was then-Prince Charles who ultimately informed that Meghan would not be welcome at Balmoral. Hardman describes Charles’s apprehension before making the call: “We can easily imagine the dread with which the Prince of Wales approached that call.
“The Sussexes’ capacity for taking offence was well known and everyone was conscious that any conversation could end up in the public domain, as, indeed, this one did three months later.”
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Harry’s reaction, documented in Spare, was one of frustration and fury. He recalled telling his father: “I wasn’t having it. Don’t ever speak about my wife that way.”
King Charles reportedly told Harry that the Queen’s health required a calm atmosphere and minimal visitors. He added that Princess Kate would not be attending either, to which Harry replied: “Then that’s all you needed to say.”
The decision to exclude Meghan also stemmed from the unresolved fallout over Harry and Meghan’s 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which they made accusations of racism and mistreatment by the royal family.
Hardman wrote: “The sense of reckless betrayal following the Sussexes’ interview with Oprah Winfrey the year before, and its vague, unanswerable half-claims of institutional racism and hostility towards Meghan, still lingered.”
A source close to the royal family added: “Some of the family were probably ready to give him a piece of their mind.”
Despite the internal drama, Queen Elizabeth II’s final moments were peaceful. An uncovered memo from Sir Edward Young, one of the Queen’s senior staff members, captured the serene nature of her passing.
It read: “Dougie [Glass] in at 3.25. Very peaceful. In her sleep. Slipped away. Old age. Death has to be registered in Scotland. Agree 3.10pm. She wouldn’t have been aware of anything. No pain.”