Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped away from royal duties in early 2020 and relocated to the US, settling in Montecito, California where they now live with their two young children, Archie and Lilibet. The couple discussed why they decided to leave the UK permanently in their Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, and cited the intrusive nature of the British press as one of the main reasons for their departure.
However, it wasn’t the only reason that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex waved goodbye to life within the royal fold. As documented in his memoir Spare, Harry’s relationships with his closest family members – including Prince William and his father, King Charles – were increasingly strained when he met and fell in love with Meghan, and he has claimed that things quickly soured for the couple after their wedding in 2018.
In his new biography, Catherine, The Princess Of Wales, royal author Rob Jobson has claimed that William was ‘concerned’ by the speed of Harry and Meghan’s relationship. According to the book, he asked the late Queen Elizabeth II to ban Meghan from wearing any jewellery that had been worn by their mother, Princess Diana.
Jobson writes: “William, still concerned by the match, even sought assurances from the Queen that his brother’s bride-to-be would not wear any jewellery in the collection once worn by Diana, Princess of Wales, even though his wife Catherine had been allowed to wear some, which would be due to her rank.”
William and Kate had already been in a relationship for almost ten years when they walked down the aisle in 2011, but things progressed a lot quicker for Harry and Meghan; the pair started dating in the summer of 2016, were engaged by late 2017, and then married six months later.
Jobson continued: “Harry claimed that the goodwill from William and Catherine disappeared long before the build-up to his wedding. William had confided to his brother that he believed it would be better to give Meghan more time to adjust to the royal way of life and suggested he cool the relationship. Harry felt affronted and judged it to be an insult. As a direct result, his relationship with his brother deteriorated fast.”
It was previously reported that Harry had inherited a ring from Diana, which he had gifted to William upon his engagement to Kate in 2010. However, the estranged royal has since denied the story. In his memoir, he wrote: “The papers published florid stories about the moment I realised Willy and Kate were well matched, the moment I appreciated the depth of their love and thus decided to gift Willy the ring I’d inherited from Mummy, the legendary sapphire, a tender moment between brothers, a bonding moment for all three of us, and absolute rubbish: none of it ever happened.
“I never gave Willy that ring because it wasn’t mine to give. He already had it. He’d asked for it after Mummy died, and I’d been more than happy to let it go.”
