The late Queen decided to intervene and put her foot down after one particular move by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan following their decision to leave royal life
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been at the centre of much drama and controversy since stepping down from the royal family. But there was one particular incident that caused the late Queen to put her foot down.
In his biography Battle of Brothers, royal historian Robert Lacey claims Meghan and Harry’s decision to sell merchandise under their own royal trademark ‘Sussex Royal’ without the Queen’s permission was a step too far and caused the “family to finally hit back”. Members of The Firm producing their own goods isn’t a new concept; King Charles sells various organic products in his Duchy Originals range and royal residences up and down the country sell souvenirs for visitors. But crucially Harry and Meghan failed to get consent from the late monarch before they announced their plan. The couple are said to have spent thousands of pounds trademarking a number of products which ranged from T-shirts to bandanas.
Lacey wrote: “Once again Harry had totally failed to consult the Queen about a major initiative affecting his royal work and image — and the image of the crown as a whole. The family finally hit back. Elizabeth II had always had a soft spot for Harry, and she had been delighted by the arrival of Meghan, whose personal energies seemed to complement her grandson’s so well.
“As Head of the Commonwealth and reigning over an ever more multicultural society in Britain, the Queen had especially welcomed the exciting new dimension that a mixed-race recruit brought to the Windsor identity — and as we shall see later in this series, she herself had spotted when things were going wrong, and had helped devise a strategy she firmly hoped would make things easier for the couple.
“But there were some matters on which Elizabeth II would not compromise — and chief among them was the authority of the crown. By not disclosing their plans to market merchandise under their own royal trademark, Harry and Meghan had trespassed dangerously on that authority. To commercialise the crown required the crown’s consent — and the Sussexes had not sought that.”
It was not the first time the late monarch was forced to speak with the couple about their behaviour. Author Katie Nicholl recalled one “tense” exchange in her book The New Royals, writing that in the run-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding, the bride-to-be went to Windsor Castle for a menu-tasting and clashed with one of the caterers over a dish which was supposed to be vegan.
Nicholl wrote: “Meghan was at the castle to taste some of the dishes and told one of the caterers she could taste egg. She got quite upset, saying that the dish was meant to be vegan and macrobiotic, when suddenly the Queen walked in and said: ‘Meghan, in this family we don’t speak to people like that.'”
