After 73 years of marriage, Queen Elizabeth II is very protective of her husband, Prince Philip, and she will go the extra mile to make sure he is shielded from devastating news.
Ingrid Seward, the author of the biography Prince Philip Revealed, had insider details about the rushed and heated meeting that the Queen had with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after they announced to the world that they were leaving the royal family.
The editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine explained that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex alerted the Queen just ten minutes before sharing the shocking news.
Immediately, her majesty put in motion a crisis meeting to find an exit plan where Harry and his wife could get their wish without destroying the Monarch.
Seward claimed that the Queen was aware that the couple’s decision would hurt and anger Prince Philip, so she made sure he was kept in the dark.
The Queen asked Penelope Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, to discreetly take Prince Philip for a drive as she privately dealt with Meghan and Harry.
The Monarch did not want her spouse to be bothered by Harry and Meghan’s shenanigans. The book revealed that the Queen knew the pair was unhappy in London, but she never imagined they would take it this far.
The Queen excluded her husband from the crisis summit because he would not accept their decision to step back from royal duties and abandon their family.
Seward wrote: “The Queen refused to allow their shenanigans to get to her husband. So, when she called an emergency summit at Sandringham on January 13, attended by her son the Prince of Wales and grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry, as well as their senior advisors, she asked one of her house guests, Countess Mountbatten, to drive him away from the house at least for the duration of the meeting.”
She continued: “While they sat in the long library on the ground floor and thrashed out a solution that would allow Harry and Meghan their freedom without bringing the royal family and the Crown into disrepute, Philip remained out of the way.”
Seward went on to explain what Philip’s state of mind was upon discovering the truth about his grandson: “It must have come as a heavy blow for Prince Philip to know that his grandson would be more or less giving up his homeland and everything he cared about for a life of a self-centered celebrity in North America. Philip knew leaving was not a decision that Harry made lightly and could not grasp exactly what it was about the family firm that made his grandson’s life so unbearable.”
She added: “As far as Philip was concerned, Harry and Meghan had everything going for them: a beautiful home at Frogmore, their healthy son, a unique opportunity to make a global impact with their charity work. For a man whose entire existence has been based on a dedication to doing the right thing, it appeared that his grandson had abdicated his responsibilities for the sake of his marriage to an American divorcée in much the same way as Edward VIII gave up his crown to marry Wallis Simpson in 1937.”
People in the know say Prince Philip still has a hard time accepting Harry’s decision.
