A BOMBSHELL new book claims the Queen told her most trusted staff that she was relieved Meghan did not attend Prince Philip’s funeral.

Author Tom Bower alleges that she told her aides on the day of the funeral: “Thank goodness.”

It was on April 17th and just a month after her grandson Harry and wife Meghan had sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a sensational interview that rocked the Royal Family.

In 'Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors', biographer Bower details how the Queen made the observation at Windsor as she prepared to go St George's Chapel for the service, where the world watched as she sat alone due to Covid restrictions.

Bower writes: "On 9th April, 2021, Prince Philip had died. His funeral was set for 17th April. Harry arrived in London just before the service.

"The mood was sombre. Daily, the media extolled Philip's remarkable life and devotion to the country. The Duke had planned a simple funeral at St George's Chapel, Windsor.

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"The rehearsals displayed faultless military drill. Few would not be touched by the perfection of British ceremonial tradition. The weather was forecast to be outstanding. The only uncertainty was the relationship between Harry and his family. How would he cope with his father and brother?

"Meghan had cited her seven months' pregnancy as the reason for not travelling.

"In Windsor Castle the Queen was preparing to face the public on one of the saddest days of her life. Philip had been her rock for the previous 70 years.

"To comply with Covid restrictions she would grieve alone inside the chapel. 'Thank goodness Meghan is not coming,' the monarch said."

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Buckingham Palace last night declined to comment on the claims made in the book.

It was just a year after Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40,  had quit their royal duties and a month after their explosive interview.

They told Oprah there had been "several conversations" within the Royal Family about how dark their baby might be.

Meghan said that her sister-in-law Kate had made her cry during a discussion about flower girl dresses and said had had suicidal thoughts during her pregnancy but was refused help.

Harry added that he felt "let down" by Prince Charles and claimed his father had "stopped taking my calls".

On the day of the funeral, to avoid any problems with William, the brothers were separated by their cousin Peter Phillips as they walked towards St George's Chapel.

While the Queen look dignified, William tense, Kate serene and Charles visibly anguished, Bower writes Harry's impatient flapping of his order of service was down to his nervousness over his upcoming Apple TV series about mental health.  

“Looking at his family standing in St George’s Chapel,” Bower writes, “Harry must have known that the Apple TV series would widen the rift.”

After the service Kate manoeuvred to engineer a conversation between the brothers.

But Bower writes of Harry: “He wanted to return to California as fast as possible.”

Apple TV released Harry’s The Me You Can’t See in May that year.
It was widely interpreted as denouncing William, dishonouring Charles for causing a cycle of “genetic pain” and criticising the Queen.
Harry said of his family: “I’ve seen behind the curtain. I’ve seen the business model. I know how this operation runs . . . I don’t want to be part of this.”

Finally, he said, “We did everything we possibly could to stay there and carry on doing the role and doing the job”, but there were “forces working against us”.

Despite the apparent family rift, when their daughter was born on June 4, 2021, she was given the Queen’s childhood nickname of Lilibet.

Bower writes: “Meghan’s lawyers registered the lilibetdiana.com website. After the birth, but before the public announcement, Harry called the Queen. He told his grandmother about the birth and their decision to call their daughter Lilibet.

“To stymie the Sussexes, the Palace told the BBC that the Queen was ‘never asked’ for permission for the use of her name. In his telephone call, Harry was ‘telling’ the Queen about the name.”

Bower adds that once the BBC broadcast that report, the Sussexes’ PR machine was activated. Meghan’s spokeswoman claimed that Harry would not have chosen the name if the Queen had not been “supportive”.

Their lawyers announced that unless the BBC apologised and withdrew the report, the Sussexes would sue. But the Palace supported the BBC and the Sussexes’ legal threat “evaporated”.
William and Harry came together again the following month to unveil a bronze memorial to their late mother, Princess Diana, in Kensington Palace’s Sunken Garden, West London, on what would have been her 60th birthday.
Bower writes: “The ceremony would not trigger a reconciliation. William’s reluctance to attend was well known.”
When the Queen announced on the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne that Camilla would be Britain’s next queen Harry did not comment.
But Bower says their relationship with the Queen was critically important for Harry and Meghan’s status.
They both returned to the UK for the Platinum Jubilee.
Bower writes: “Charles preferred that the Sussexes, as private citizens, were not invited on to the balcony or to ride in a royal carriage. Instead, they would be confined to the VIP enclosures.”
To achieve his goal Harry asked the Queen’s resistant advisers.
Bower writes: “When this failed he asked the Queen if he could visit her in Windsor on his way to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games.
“At the last moment, keen to see her grandson and instinctively forgiving of Meghan, the Queen agreed to meet the couple on 14th April. William avoided the problem with a previous arrangement to ski with his family in France.”
After spending the night with his cousin Eugenie, Harry and Meghan were driven to Windsor Castle.
Bower writes: “On the Queen’s insistence they met Charles and Camilla before her. The Sussexes arrived late. Their first encounter was civilised but failed to resolve the fraught relations created by their Oprah Winfrey interview.
“By contrast, there was no tension drinking tea with the Queen. Yet the issue of their appearance on the balcony remained unresolved. The danger of allowing the meeting surfaced six days later.”
The couple flew to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games.
Bower writes: “But festering was their fury that the Palace had refused all of their demands for a prominent role at the Jubilee in return for returning to Britain with their children.”
Harry spoke to an American NBC TV reporter.
Bower writes: “His ‘special’ relationship with the Queen, he told the world, meant that the Queen confided in him secrets unknown to others of her family.
“Her four children and seven other grandchildren, he implied, were excluded from her confidence. More inflammatory, he declared his duty was to make sure his grandmother was ‘protected and got the right people around her’.”
Bower continues: “He appeared to speak from the heart . . . it seemed Harry had resumed the war against his family.”
Downing Street even issued a statement that the Queen was well protected.
Bower writes about how he refused to answer whether he missed his “brother and dad”.
The author adds: “Asked about Diana’s ‘presence’ in his life, he replied, ‘It’s constant. It has been over the past two years, more so than ever before’.
“He added, ‘It’s almost as though she’s done her bit with my brother and now she’s very much helping me. She got him set up, and now she’s helping me set up’.”
Harry also declared that America was his “home”.
Just four years after the couple’s wedding, Bower writes, the Royal Family had been transformed from a relatively harmonious group, embracing multi-culturalism as part of their service to Britain and the Commonwealth, into a beleaguered institution uncertain of its future.
He adds: “To their harshest critics, they had become agents of destruction.”

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He adds: "To their harshest critics, they had become agents of destruction."

© Tom Bower, 2022. REVENGE: MEGHAN, HARRY AND THE WAR BETWEEN THE WINDSORS by Tom Bower, to be published by Blink Publishing, on 21st July at £22

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