An unaired clip from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry ’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was released by CBS This Morning on Monday. In it, the Duke of Sussex admitted that he believes his grandmother Queen Elizabeth has gotten some “really bad” advice from people around her. “Doesn’t the Queen get to do what the Queen wants to do?” Oprah asked Harry, who replied, “When you’re head of the firm there is people around you that give you advice. And what has also made me really sad is some of that advice has been really bad.”
The Duke recalled the Queen inviting him and Meghan to Sandringham in January of 2020. “My grandmother had said, ‘The moment you land, come up to Sandringham, we’d love to have a chat, come for tea, why don’t you stay for dinner because it’s going to be a long drive and you’re going to be exhausted?”’
The Duke revealed that “the moment” they landed in the UK, he got a message from his private secretary at the time “cutting and pasting a message from the Queen’s private secretary basically saying ‘please pass on to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that he cannot come to Norfolk. The Queen is busy. She’s busy all week.’”
Nonetheless, Harry told Oprah during their sit-down interview that he has a “really good relationship” with the Queen. “I’ve spoken more to my grandmother in the last year than I have done for many, many years,” he shared. “My grandmother and I have a really good relationship and an understanding, and I have a deep respect for her. She’s my colonel-in-chief, right? She always will be.”