It’s long been speculated that Queen Elizabeth II maintained a polite but strained relationship with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Now, a royal expert claims that tension quietly erupted as early as their wedding day — and it left a lasting mark on the monarch’s view of the couple.
According to biographer Ingrid Seward, the late Queen was deeply unsettled by Prince Harry’s behavior leading up to his 2018 wedding to Meghan. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Seward revealed that the monarch was taken aback by what she perceived as Harry’s “high-handed attitude” during the preparations.
The cracks reportedly began when Harry had a heated confrontation with the Queen’s trusted dresser, Angela Kelly, over last-minute demands involving Meghan’s wedding tiara. Harry was said to be furious that Kelly couldn’t meet his schedule, prompting a royal outburst that forced the Queen herself to step in.
While she managed to de-escalate the incident, the Queen was said to be “not impressed” by Harry’s tone and privately disapproved of the way he handled the situation. “It wasn’t just about the tiara,” Seward suggested. “It was a red flag about how the couple might operate in the future.”
But the tiara drama wasn’t the only royal faux pas that raised eyebrows. Meghan’s choice to wear a white gown also stirred quiet discontent behind palace walls. Some senior royals were reportedly surprised she chose white for the ceremony, considering her status as a divorcee. While not a violation of royal protocol, it was interpreted by some as yet another signal that Meghan and Harry would not be playing by the old rulebook.
These early tensions laid the groundwork for what would eventually become a deep and public rift between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family. What started as whispered concerns in royal corridors would soon explode onto the world stage.
The couple’s Oprah interview in 2021, followed by Harry’s memoir Spare, further cemented the divide — but Seward argues the Queen had her doubts long before the first bombshell was ever dropped.
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Meanwhile, royal commentator Tom Bower has weighed in on where Harry and Meghan go from here — and his outlook isn’t particularly sunny. Speaking to The Mirror, Bower suggested that the pair face a critical juncture in the U.S., where public opinion is starting to shift and their long-term relevance is being questioned.
“They need to find their purpose,” Bower warned. “Other than Harry writing another book or Meghan sharing her own story, what’s next?”
He went on to say that Prince Harry, now 40, lacks a defined role, and without royal duties to ground him, he risks becoming adrift. “Not being close to his family leaves a hole,” Bower added. “His focus must be on filling that in California, with Meghan.”
Still, Bower expressed confidence that Meghan remains devoted to Harry. “I’d be hugely surprised if she didn’t stay loyal to him,” he said. “Everything we’ve seen suggests they are in this together.”
It’s been over six years since that glamorous Windsor wedding, but it’s now clear that the fairy tale came with cracks from day one. From tiara drama to whispered disapproval over wardrobe choices, Queen Elizabeth’s early unease may have been a foreshadowing of the larger royal storm to come.
Now, as Meghan and Harry try to navigate life in California, build new ventures, and raise their children outside the institution that once defined them, experts say they must act fast to secure a legacy of their own—before the public grows tired of the royal drama altogether.
With Harry’s ties to his family fraying and the couple’s media ventures facing scrutiny, only time will tell whether they can overcome the shadow of that Windsor wedding—and prove their critics wrong.
