The Queen was ‘hurt’ by some of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s plans for their wedding at Windsor Castle and declared: ‘But it’s my house – and I’m paying for it’, a close friend of the monarch’s cousin has claimed.
Her Majesty is said to have disapproved of their guestlist and the couple’s preference to invite ‘random’ celebrities over family members in May 2018.
‘That was just yet another irritation for the Queen’, Sally Bedell Smith, an award-winning biographer popular in royal circles said today.
Elizabeth II was also apparently ‘really annoyed’ the Sussexes went directly to the Archbishop of Canterbury to ask him to marry them at St George’s Chapel – even though she was Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
Harry’s grandmother was more excited about Princess Eugenie’s wedding in October that year only for the Duchess of Sussex to announce she was pregnant on the day, it was also claimed today.
Ms Bedell Smith, whose 2012 biography of the Queen won the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence, has claimed the timing of the Sussexes’ happy news had been ‘rude’.
She has described her conversations with Her Majesty’s late cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson, who spoke to the Queen daily towards the end of her life.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, after their wedding St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Windsor, on May 19, 2018. A royal expert and friend of the Queen’s cousin claims that they had upset the monarch
The Queen felt left out of planning and also was not ‘content’ with some of the decisions made, ahas claimed
Her Majesty is said to have disapproved of their guestlist and the couple’s preference to invite ‘random’ celebrities who did not know the royals over family members in May 2018. Oprah and George and Amal Clooney pictured at the church
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 and family.
The Queen’s first cousin arranged the Queen’s 80th birthday party and planned society weddings for more than 50 years.
The monarch was ‘upset’ at not being fully involved in Harry and Meghan’s wedding plans in the months and weeks beforehand, Sally said in a new podcast.
Lady Elizabeth tried to console her by telling her she could ‘look forward’ to Royal Ascot and Princess Eugenie‘s wedding. However, the Queen replied about the Sussex wedding: ‘But it’s my house. And I’m paying for it’.
The Royal Family paid for the wedding, including the service, music, flowers and reception. All 600 guests were invited to a lunchtime reception at St George’s Hall, hosted by the Queen followed by an evening bash for 200 VIPs at Frogmore House, hosted by Harry’s father.
But Harry and Meghan had invited people that ‘barely knew’ knew the Royal Family, it was claimed today.
Sally Bedell Smith claimed on American royal commentator Kinsey Schofield’s Unfiltered YouTube show: ‘Harry and Meghan just disinvited or didn’t invite a whole group of family and cousins. The children of the Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and of the Gloucesters.
‘She [Meghan] and Harry just “exed” them out of the guest list and they added all these other random people who barely even knew the Royal Family. That was just yet another irritation for the Queen’.
Sally added that the Queen ‘was predisposed to be very fond of him [Harry], to love him, and I think it was a real shock for her when he began treating her discourteously after he and Meghan got together’.
Lady Elizabeth comforted her in their daily phone calls by saying she could really look forward to Eugenie’s wedding.
She told the Queen: ‘This is going to be your family wedding. Just concentrate on Royal Ascot and then concentrate on the real family wedding in October’.
The Daily Mail has asked a spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to comment.
Meghan allegedly became increasingly ‘bossy’ and Liza said the Queen was privately ‘very worried’, it has been claimed
The Queen was also reportedly concerned about the relationship between Meghan and Harry’s brother and sister-in-law
Lady Elizabeth died five years ago at the age of 79 and was the Queen’s confidante later in life, affectionately calling the monarch ‘Jemima’ and her ‘Number One Lady’.
Ms Bedell Smith revealed earlier this year on her popular Substack what Liza claimed Queen Elizabeth II herself thought of the Sussexes and their behaviour.
Meghan was apparently ‘full of charm’ and appeared ‘natural, intelligent, and thoughtful’ after she became engaged to Harry in 2017. But as the wedding approached, Meghan allegedly became increasingly ‘bossy’ and Liza said the Queen was privately ‘very worried’.
Ms Bedell Smith wrote: ‘When we spoke two weeks before the May 19 wedding, Liza had just heard from the Queen. “The Number One Lady—I call her Jemima—says the jury is out on whether she likes Meghan,” said Liza.
“My Jemima is very worried.” In Liza’s view, “Harry is besotted and weak about women. We hope but don’t quite think she is in love. We think she engineered it all.”
Liza apparently said: ‘It’s worrying that so many people are questioning whether Meghan is right for Harry. The problem, bless his heart, is that Harry is neither bright nor strong, and she is both’.
The cracks apparently appeared in February 2018. Liza claimed Harry wrote to her and said that his grandmother was ‘content’ with the way the wedding plans were coming along.
Lady Elizabeth Anson, pictured left in red behind the Queen, was not only Elizabeth’s cousin, but one of her closest friends, having supported the monarch through the deaths of her mother, the Queen Mother, and sister, Princess Margaret
Lady Elizabeth Anson, known as Liza, apparently claimed that Harry had to see his grandmother alone to ‘patch up’ their relationship, it has been claimed
But Sally Bedell Smith wrote that Liza had said: ‘When I spoke with the Queen, she said she is not at all content’.
Ms Bedell Smith wrote: ‘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.” As a result, Liza said that “Harry has blown his relationship with his grandmother.
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. They had tea with her the day before yesterday. She was trying to find out about the wedding dress, and Meghan wouldn’t tell her.”.’
Liza at this point predicted that Meghan could ‘turn into nothing but trouble’, remarking that the Suits actress ‘sees things in a different way’.
Following these February rows, towards the end of April, Liza claimed that ‘the Queen and Harry have patched things up’.
Harry apparently visited her alone to smooth things over and later wrote to with more wedding details.
Sally Bedell Smith wrote: ‘Liza also said that Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, was “frightened of coming to the wedding.” I asked her if Meghan was being bossy. “So I gather,” Liza replied, “Very much so.”
‘My Jemima is very worried’, Liza apparently added.
She also said ominously: ‘The wedge between the brothers is really too bad’.
Lady Elizabeth, known as Liza to her friends, died in November 2020 at the age of 79, just shy of two years before Queen Elizabeth passed away in September 2022. Pictured in 1969
Hosted by Royal Historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams, Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things looks at the Royal Family – the secrets, the palace intrigues, and the Crown’s bloodiest moments.
Thomas Markle did not attend the wedding due to health problems. Harry’s father walked her down the aisle. Meghan threw herself into royal duties with her husband and then fell pregnant.
Sally Bedell Smith wrote on her Substack: ‘By late February 2019 when Liza and I spoke on the phone, she said “I don’t trust Meghan an inch. To begin with, she was not bad—a straightforward starlet, used to public speaking and charity work. The wedge between the brothers is really too bad.”.’
At that time the Queen would visit her cousin for dinner at her London home but an increasingly frail Prince Philip would stay at home.
Liza became ill with lung cancer but continued to work despite breathing problems and spent time with the Queen, who made her a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order – an honour only given to those who have given outstanding personal service to a British monarch. She died in November 2020.
The Daily Mail has asked a spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to comment.
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.
When she married, the then 20-year-old Princess Anne was a bridesmaid, and her society cameraman brother Patrick (the Earl of) Lichfield, who gave her away, was — along with the Earl of Snowdon — the royals’ go-to photographer.
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.
A never-heard-before nickname used by Queen Elizabeth’s cousin has been revealed. Pictured, Lady Elizabeth Anson
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.
