Truth about Queen and Meghan Markle, exposed by my extensive research. RICHARD EDEN’S sources raised upsetting questions about her and Harry’s behaviour. Now he lays bare most disturbing comment of all

When I wrote a Daily Mail column last November about what the late Queen Elizabeth really thought of Meghan Markle, I was deluged with abuse from the ‘Sussex squad’, the collective noun proudly used by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s most devoted supporters.

They accused me of slandering the American former actress who, they claimed, had enjoyed a warm relationship with the grandmother of her husband, Prince Harry.

I wrote the column based on extensive research undertaken for an edition of my YouTube video series, Reading The Royals, which had raised some troubling questions about the Sussexes’ behaviour.

And so I was not surprised to read this week that the Queen had shared her concerns about Meghan with her first cousin, Lady Elizabeth Anson, who was one of her closest confidantes.

I saw signs of the Queen’s deep affection for her friend at a number of London events organised by Lady Elizabeth, a successful party planner.

I’ll never forget one party, at the Goring Hotel, the Belgravia hotel a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace where Catherine Middleton and her family stayed before she married Prince William at Westminster Abbey in 2011.

The Queen was rumoured to be due to attend this particular party but I was sceptical because I knew that she was going to a preview of the Chelsea Flower Show earlier that day.

This was in her later years, and I presumed that the last thing the Queen would want to do after a few hours inspecting the vast flower show in west London would be to go to a party.

Meghan on her first official engagement, a visit to Chester with the Queen in June 2018

How wrong I was. So devoted to her friend and cousin was the Queen that not only did she pop in to Lady Elizabeth’s party, but she stayed chatting to guests for hours.

The embarrassing truth is that I wanted to leave the party, having been there for some time, but didn’t feel I could while our elderly monarch was still in full swing.

Given her evident devotion to Lady Elizabeth, her remarks to her cousin about her grandson Harry and his choice of bride revealed this week by respected royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith should not come as a surprise.

The journalist and author says Harry ‘blew’ his relationship with the Queen as he prepared to marry Meghan, who also upset the monarch by refusing to reveal what her wedding dress looked like.

The Queen was said to have been ‘very worried’ about her ‘besotted and weak’ grandson and was concerned about some of their decisions relating to the ceremony at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in May 2018.

Her Majesty reportedly confided in Lady Elizabeth that Harry was ‘rude to her for ten minutes’ in one meeting and that ‘Meghan and William and Kate were not working well’ together, adding that it was ‘particularly… the two girls’ who didn’t get on.

The ‘jury was out’ on whether the Queen really liked her grandson’s then bride-to-be, Bedell Smith claims, and the monarch felt ‘left out’ of the planning for the wedding by Harry, who tried to ‘patch up’ their relationship in the weeks before walking down the aisle.

The duchess reportedly upset the monarch by refusing to reveal what her wedding dress looked like

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Lady Elizabeth herself allegedly said just days before Meghan and Harry’s wedding: ‘We hope but don’t quite think she is in love. We think she engineered it all.’

Despite the Queen’s apparent reservations about Harry’s choice of bride, she went out of her way to welcome her into the Royal Family. Indeed, she cast aside royal conventions to do so.

For example, while other women who had married into the Windsors, such as Kate Middleton and Sophie Rhys-Jones, had to wait until after their weddings to be invited to spend Christmas at Sandringham, Meghan was allowed to join Harry in 2017, five months before the big day. It was an unprecedented and highly personal gesture by the Queen.

Meghan later said on her Netflix series, Harry & Meghan: ‘I remember so vividly the first Christmas at Sandringham, calling my mom, and she’s like, “How’s it going?” and I said, “Oh, my gosh, it’s amazing.” It’s just like a big family, like I always wanted. And there was just this constant movement and energy and fun.’

The Queen gave Meghan the Duchess of Sussex title, and invited her granddaughter-in-law to accompany her on a solo visit to Chester just weeks after the royal wedding, prompting Meghan to tell Oprah Winfrey in 2021: ‘The Queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me.’

Other thoughtful gestures by Her Majesty included handing Meghan a role as royal patron of the National Theatre and giving her important positions within the Commonwealth. Meghan was also named Vice President of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust in 2018.

The fact that less than two years after her wedding, Meghan was already quitting royal duties to seek her fortune overseas shows how astute the Queen was to have private reservations about her.