December 20, 2022
Prince Harry’s claims in his Netflix docuseries that the Queen remained ‘silent’ during a family meeting over ‘Megxit’ have been rubbished by an expert.
In his and wife Meghan Markle’s Netflix series, Harry & Meghan, the Duke of Sussex implied that the late Queen sidelined herself at the ‘Sandringham Summit’, which she called to discuss the terms of Harry’s exit from royal life.
Prince Harry had said: “It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me, and my father say things that just simply weren’t true, and my grandmother, you know, quietly sit there, and sort of take it all in.”
Commenting on this claim, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliam told Mail Online: “The Queen knew exactly what she was doing, and she wasn't being manipulated by anyone.”
“I think the idea that the Queen was sidelined at Sandringham was probably a complete nonsense. Harry has painted a picture which isn't going to be challenged simply because the Royal Family are not going to put out a statement about it,” he added.
Fitzwilliam further said: “He paints the Queen as someone who's negative, and in effect, it's offensive because the Queen becomes a puppet in the hands of the others there and also, of course, her advisers.”
The expert added: “The Queen was very wise to do what she did, but the implication that Harry gives is that she was, so to speak, out of it. On the contrary, when she said after Oprah, some "recollections may vary", she was very, very much part of it.”
“And indeed, that phrase has helped to define them in the minds, anyway, of those who are sceptical about their truth. It's absolutely clear, I think, from those who know the Queen, that the Queen knew exactly what she was doing, and she wasn't being manipulated by anyone,” Fitzwilliam concluded in his takedown of Prince Harry’s docuseries.