A detail in the Queen's 2019 Christmas message may have sparked Prince Harry and Meghan's decision to leave royal life. Photo / Getty Images
A detail in the Queen's 2019 Christmas message may have sparked Prince Harry and Meghan's decision to leave royal life. Photo / Getty Images
A decision the Queen made led to Prince Harry and Meghan's decision to quit the royal family, a new book claims.
The book Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan asserts a decision made by the Queen to move a portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their son Archie before she recorded her 2019 Christmas message caused a rift, the New York Post reports.
A source who is quoted in the book claimed the Queen "looked over the tables where the photographs she had so lovingly selected were arranged.
"All were fine but one, [the queen] told the director. Then she pointed to the Sussex picture and said: "That one, I suppose we don't need that one."
The author writes in the book the snub sparked Harry to tell a friend it "felt as if he, Meghan and Archie were being erased from the family".
Prince Harry and Meghan did not appear in the framed pictures seen in the Queen's 2019 Christmas message. Photo / The Royal Family
A source says Prince William noticed the omission in the televised message and was convinced his brother would be "terribly upset". A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge declined to comment.
In response to the books' claims, a spokesperson for the Queen said: "We don't comment on books of this kind as to do so risks giving it some form of authority or credibility."
A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan also declined to comment.
It is the second major claim from the book which has made headlines recently.
Prince Charles was named by the book as the member of the royal family who allegedly questioned the "skin tone" of Harry and Meghan's child Archie, prior to his birth, and he is not happy about it.
In the tell-all, Andersen states that Charles, upon learning of his son's engagement to Markle, mused to Camilla: "I wonder what the children will look like?"
Camilla is said to have been "somewhat taken aback" and replied: "Well, absolutely gorgeous, I'm certain."
Charles is said to have then lowered his voice, asking: "I mean, what do you think their children's complexion might be?''
A spokesperson for the prince told The Sun: "This is fiction and not worth further comment."
