Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left ‘livid’ over surprising Christmas ‘snub’
Harry and Meghan were reportedly left devastated after their photo with baby Archie was excluded from Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas broadcast, with the snub allegedly becoming the ‘final straw’
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last marked Christmas as working royals, they were allegedly left seething over a perceived slight from the late Queen Elizabeth during her yearly televised message.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex dramatically stepped back from their Royal roles in January 2020, with one specific incident reportedly serving as the “final straw” just weeks beforehand. During 2019’s festive season, Harry and Meghan, accompanied by seven-month-old Prince Archie, spent the holidays in Canada alongside Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland, and they were purportedly pushed to breaking point whilst watching the late Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas broadcast.
As the monarch delivered her speech to the nation, family photographs were prominently displayed on her desk, yet one notable image was absent – there was no picture of Meghan and Harry with their newborn son.
According to the book Finding Freedom, writers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand suggested the Sussexes felt the Royal Family were “conspiring against them” through this action, as the couple believed they had “long been sidelined by the institution and were not a fundamental part of its future”.
The authors penned: “One didn’t have to look further than the family photos displayed during the Queen’s Speech on Christmas Day. In the Green Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, where the Queen delivered her address, viewers glimpsed photos of the [Waleses] and their children, Charles and Camilla, Prince Philip, and a black-and-white image of George VI.
“Noticeably absent was a photo of Harry, Meghan, and their new baby, Archie.”, reports the Mirror.
The authors clarified the Palace’s rationale for the omission, as Royal insiders maintained that the selected photos were intended to depict the “direct line of succession”. However, Omid and Carolyn suggested that Harry and Meghan perceived this as “yet another sign that they needed to consider their own path.”
During the festive season in 2019, the Royal duo skipped the Queen’s pre-Christmas luncheon at Buckingham Palace and were absent from the customary Royal family gathering at the monarch’s private Sandringham estate on Christmas Day.
This marked the second occasion Prince Harry has missed spending December 25 with his immediate family, the first being when he was touring Afghanistan during his Army service in 2012.
In 2020, the couple chose to withdraw from their roles as senior royals and relocated to America, where they currently reside with their children Archie and Lilibet.
A year later, in 2021, the pair sat down for a sensational interview with Oprah Winfrey, during which they shared their reasons for leaving Royal life and made shocking revelations and accusations about the Royal Family.
Since then, relations between the Sussexes and the Royal Family have been strained, particularly following the launch of their Netflix docuseries in 2022, Harry’s memoir Spare in 2023, and a series of frank criticisms of the Firm during public appearances over the years.
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