Prince Charles’ deal to keep Meghan Markle away from dying Queen Elizabeth revealed

Kate Middleton was apparently asked to not travel to Balmoral when the late Queen died so that it would be easier to tell Meghan not to come. Photos / Getty Images

New details about the drama surrounding who was ultimately with the late Queen Elizabeth for her final hours – and why Meghan Markle’s rift with the family meant Kate Middleton had to stay home.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Kate reluctantly stayed back as Prince William raced to Balmoral amid news the monarch’s health was failing, travelling on a private jet with his uncles Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, along with Edward’s wife, Sophie.

The publication reports that as the family gathered in the Scottish Highlands on September 8, Charles struck a deal with his son and daughter-in-law to keep Kate at home in a bid to prevent Meghan coming with Prince Harry.

At the time, Meghan and Harry – already largely estranged from his relatives – were in Europe on a whirlwind work trip.

The couple's did a walkabout at Windsor Castle following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, in Windsor on September 10, 2022. Photo / AP

Royal author, journalist and commentator Robert Jobson explained that, as relatives rushed to the queen’s side, Charles asked his son not to bring his wife, explaining: “’If Catherine doesn’t come, Meghan can’t either, it’s not appropriate for wives to attend.’

“Harry was insisting Meghan travel with him to Scotland as the Queen’s life ebbed away but the King said it was only for the children and grandchildren to be with the Queen,” Jobson said.

“Privately, he wanted to say Meghan was not welcome but he couldn’t say that to Harry so he personally intervened and asked Kate to stay back so that it was fairer on Meghan.

“Kate deliberately stayed away but she desperately wanted to be there with the Queen in her last moments. That’s eaten Kate up and has built up resentment towards Meghan.”

Jobson – whose new biography, Our King: Charles III: The Man And The Monarch will be released in New Zealand on May 2 – added that Charles was with his mother when she died at 3.10pm, along with Camilla, Princess Anne, and the Queen’s longtime doctor.

Sadly, William, Edward, Andrew and Sophie arrived almost two hours too late, at 5pm, while Harry didn’t join them until just before 8pm.

Harry opened up about the devastating hours surrounding his grandmother’s death in his memoir, Spare, in January, revealing that he’d first read the news of her passing on the BBC website after landing in Scotland.

After Buckingham Palace issued a statement about the Queen’s declining health, a spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced the duo would both be “travelling to Scotland” together.

Charles was said to have discovered the Sussexes’ plan to head to Scotland together via the media, and Harry has revealed he called him shortly after.

“Then my father called again. He told me I was welcome at Balmoral, but … without her,” he wrote.

Harry added: “He started to explain his reasons, but they didn’t make any sense at all, and it was disrespectful as well. I did not tolerate it from him. Don’t even think about talking about my wife like that.

“Repentant, he said, stammering, that he simply didn’t want the place to be full of people. Nobody’s wife was going to go, not even Kate, he told me, so Meg shouldn’t either.”

Harry also wrote that when he finally arrived at Balmoral Castle, where the Queen died peacefully aged 96, he was welcomed by his aunt, Princess Anne, before going to see his grandmother on her deathbed.

“I stayed in one place without moving, gazing at her for a long time, gathered strength and continued going forward,” Harry wrote.

The father-of-two said he whispered to his grandmother that he “hoped she would be happy” and that she would now be with “grandpa” Prince Philip, who died a year prior aged 99.

He also told her he “admired her for having fulfilled her duties until the very end”.