Meghan Markle’s ‘bossy’ behaviour in the months leading up to her wedding to Prince Harry included refusing advice from the late Queen’s trusted party planner, it has been claimed.
Journalist and royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith has painted an extraordinary picture of the turmoil behind the scenes on her Substack channel ‘Royals Extra’, based on her conversations with Her Majesty’s cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson.
According to Lady Anson, Meghan’s estranged father Thomas Markle was ‘frightened of coming to the wedding’ in May 2018, despite a plan being put in place for him to enter St George’s Chapel through a side door because he ‘didn’t do steps’.
Born in Windsor Castle, Lady Elizabeth – a great-niece of the Queen Mother and a goddaughter of King George VI – was a high-society party planner, known as Liza to friends.
Sally recalled how she and Liza watched Prince Harry and Meghan’s televised interview announcing their engagement together in November 2017, before Liza formally met the Suits actress the following February to discuss ideas for the royal wedding.
While Meghan ‘was full of charm’, she quickly dismissed any ideas that Liza – who organised Queen Elizabeth II’s 80th birthday party – had for their nuptials by saying she couldn’t ‘make any decisions’ until Harry returned to the UK from Botswana.
‘He will write from Africa,’ Meghan reportedly told Liza.
One of the Queen’s most trusted confidantes, Liza later told Sally that Harry had been in touch to say they had decided to go ‘another way’ with their plans, and claimed his grandmother was ‘content with this’ decision.
‘When I spoke with the Queen, she said she is not at all content,’ Liza told Sally. ‘Meghan could turn into nothing but trouble. She sees things in a different way.’
Formerly Vanity Fair’s Contributing Editor, Sally revealed that during the months leading up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, the Duke’s relationship with the Queen became strained.
Liza told her how Harry had ‘blown his relationship with his grandmother’ and that the Queen became ‘really upset’ over the wedding plans.
The Queen was also saddened after ‘Meghan wouldn’t tell her’ anything about her wedding dress, Sally wrote, adding that Harry was ‘rude to her for ten minutes’ during a meeting.
According to Liza, the Queen was dismayed that Harry had asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to perform the wedding service in St. George’s Chapel without first requesting permission from the Dean of Windsor.
‘Harry seems to think the Queen can do what she wants, but she can’t,’ said Liza. ‘On the religious side, it is the Dean of Windsor’s jurisdiction.’
‘She said she was really upset.
‘I was shocked when the Queen told me this, how she was so saddened. I had no idea about the conversation, that he was rude to her for ten minutes.’
Following these February rows, towards the end of April, Liza claimed that the Queen and her grandson had ‘patched things up’.
Harry apparently visited her alone to smooth things over and later wrote to her with more wedding details.
But more family drama was on the horizon with Meghan’s father Thomas Markle, who was ‘frightened’ about attending the royal wedding.
When Sally asked Liza if Meghan was being bossy, Liza replied: ‘So I gather. Very much so.’
Thomas, 80, who has since relocated to the Philippines for a ‘fresh start’, did not attend the wedding due to health problems.
Harry’s father, now-King Charles, walked her down the aisle before she said ‘I do’ to Prince Harry at the altar in St George’s chapel.
Despite the Queen’s reservations about Meghan, Sally previously wrote, the Royal Family ‘fully embraced her and hoped for the best’.
Referring to Queen Elizabeth’s plans for the couple as ambassadors to the Commonwealth, one senior adviser said Her Majesty hoped Meghan – who is biracial – would represent a new, progressive Britain.
‘Nobody could have tried harder for Meghan than we did,’ the adviser told Sally.
Six months after the wedding, however, it became clear that Meghan’s ‘opinionated and forceful’ demeanour had become a serious cause for concern among senior royals and staff.
One adviser claimed the new Duchess of Sussex wasn’t even trying ‘to fit into the royal family’ and was set, instead, on forcing ‘her view on Harry’.
Speaking after ‘Megxit’ – or the splintering of the Royal Family after Harry and Meghan quit as senior members and moved to the US – another staff member said it became clear ‘very early on’ that Meghan wanted ‘to get out’.
Sally said they also suggested Meghan was expecting ‘more money’ and an even more lavish lifestyle after her marriage into the Royal Family, adding: ‘She wanted that royal title that she could leverage.’
MailOnline has asked a spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to comment.
The revelations come as Meghan continues to scale her lifestyle brand As Ever, with the Montecito-based Duchess launching a new rosé on July 1 – the same day as Princess Diana’s birth anniversary.
Lady Elizabeth Anson was born at Windsor Castle during World War II and with King George VI as a godfather, she grew up surrounded by, and on first name terms with, the royals.
Lady Elizabeth was also royally connected (her mother, a Bowes-Lyon, was a niece of the Queen Mother) but she was also one of the Queen’s closest friends.
For almost 60 years she presided over London’s party scene with a ruthless efficiency. From royalty to celebrity her business, Party Planners, organised the capital’s best and most lavish celebrations.
She first decided to be a party planner when she was 17. She was working as a receptionist at the Hyde Park Hotel in London, but she fell down a flight of stairs and injured herself.
The fall meant she needed to find a job that would enable her to work from home, and was inspired at having to organise her own debutante party when she realised she could make a living from planning celebrations.
Her first event was for the late Queen Mother. ‘She was hosting a party for one of her godchildren,’ Lady Elizabeth previously told Mail on Sunday. ‘I remember charging very little and receiving a letter from the Queen Mother telling me to double the invoice.’
She hosted bashes for everyone from Baroness Thatcher and Sir Mick Jagger, to Tom Cruise and Bill Clinton. Weddings were a speciality: there was pop star Sting’s to Trudie Styler to the slightly more reserved nuptials for Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece (to heiress Chantal Miller).
When Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011, the Queen asked her to organise a party for all the visiting royal guests.
By then she was a veteran of royal party planning. No palace event, it seemed, was complete without input from Lady Elizabeth. She arranged the Queen’s 80th birthday party and that to mark the 50th anniversary of her coronation.
In April 2021, the Queen made Lady Elizabeth a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order as a sign of her personal esteem.
