’Ongoing fears’: Mystery over Harry and Meghan’s final Queen snub

As the royals gather at Balmoral for the first since the death of Her late Majesty, one important question about the Sussexes remains.

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King Charles is, I think we can definitely say, the only person in the entire world whose summer holiday starts with his ceremonial presentation to a Shetland pony. (Well, maybe it’s technically the other way round …)

This week marked an important milestone for the obsessive royal types who argue about cadet branches of forgotten German royal houses, with His Majesty receiving his first official welcome by the Royal Regiment of Scotland as he starts his Balmoral getaway.

Thus some poor lackey was required to fetch the Regiment’s mascot, Corporal Cruachan IV, and make sure the pony’s coat was suitably shiny for his annual moment in the full glare of the media.

So this year’s grand migration has begun, with the royal family en masse having put their out-of-office on right now as they assemble so far north you nearly need thermal knickers.

But before I make too many jokes about tartan unmentionables, it will be a holiday tinged with poignancy, the first such gathering since the death of Her late Majesty last year at Balmoral. Let’s assume there will be a few whisky-soaked, misty-eyed evenings involving teary HRHs ahead.

So let’s rewind to those final weeks, that final holiday of Queen Elizabeth’s, because there is one detail that is worth revisiting – that Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their two kidlets Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet did not visit.

From October 2021, when Buckingham Palace started cancelling the late Queen’s events and she secretly spent a night in hospital, there had been ongoing fears about her health.

Last year, broadcaster and Queen Camilla’s chum Gyles Brandreth revealed that at some stage in her final years, Queen Elizabeth had been diagnosed with a form of bone marrow cancer and therefore “always knew that her remaining time was limited”.

All of which means that this time last year, the House of Windsor knew that their matriarch was not long for this world.

Buckingham Palace started cancelling the late Queen Elizabeth II’s events from October 2021. Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Pause for so many feelings.

The question here is, given this information about Her late Majesty’s declining health, why didn’t Harry and Meghan go and visit her in Scotland?

Such was their respect for the nonagenarian trooper that they named their little girl after her, a far from controversy-free move that saw lawyers’ letters winging about the place in London and much debate about whether Her late Majesty had approved.

Still, the underlying meaning of the gesture was clear – the Sussexes might have decamped to California to speak their truth and make their own nut milk unmolested by Buckingham Palace demands that they open a Leeds off-ramp, but they still wanted to pay homage.

Likewise, as Harry told Oprah Winfrey, “I have a deep respect for her. She’s my Colonel-In-Chief, right? She always will be”.

Against this backdrop of firm feelings and all that “respect” though, the head scratcher here remains, why didn’t they turn up at Balmoral? Why didn’t they take the legendary stateswoman’s two youngest great-grandchildren to see her?

After all, the Sussexes had made the trip to the UK in late May, taking Archie and Lili with them when they returned for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, even carting their own highchair with them via private jet, if the Daily Mail’s pap shots are to be believed.

So, quickie international jaunts were doable. Similarly, they had booked in a five-day charity tour back in Europe for the summer, thus meaning they would be close to his ailing grandmother. Again, why not add on a day or two to see her?

At the time, the Mirror’s royal editor Russell Myers had said that “Prince Charles did indeed invite them to stay with him up at Balmoral with the Queen, but so far they have refused. So they will be skipping a meeting with the Queen, which is quite sad to be honest”.

It’s also key here to remember that last northern summer, while Montecito-London relations were hardly that good, given as we now know – thanks to the duke’s tell-all – that he and his brother Prince William had thoroughly fallen out, much to the detriment of a certain dog

bowl – they were not as dire as they are now.

Then, the royal family and the wider world was still entirely in the dark about what myriad bombshells the duke and duchess would drop via six drawn out hours on Netflix and via Spare. Kabluey.

‘If Harry and Meghan had decided that they wanted to spend some time with his Granny, surely they could have gone’. Picture: Andrew Milligan – WPA Pool/Getty Images

Not only were things nowhere near as fractured as they are now, consider the logistics too.

Balmoral is not some four-bedroom beachside holiday house rented for a fraught week of bathroom-sharing. The main house has a reported 52 bedrooms and there are an untold number of “cottages” on the estate.

For example, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and Love Island’s most devoted secret fan, is currently staying at Craigowan Lodge, probably barely making do with its seven bedrooms and private lift.

My point is, if Harry and Meghan had decided that they wanted to spend some time with his Granny, surely they could have gone.

Nor would they have had to go anywhere near William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales. The late Queen was at Balmoral from August 8 until her death exactly one month later, with various family members, such as the Waleses, only visiting for much shorter stretches. Therefore, there would have been a way for the Sussexes to dodge the Waleses and vice versa.

Basically, the timing and the accommodation situations seem like they would have been entirely navigable should the West Coast exiles have wanted to visit.

Consider too here that even until her death, the late Queen was reportedly forever optimistic that the rift with the Sussexes could be healed.

Earlier this month, a “close figure” told the Daily Mail’s Richard Kay that “Her Majesty never stopped hoping there would be some kind of reconciliation and that the couple would return to the fold one day”.

Even now, after everything that has happened in the last year, Harry and Meghan’s “open invitation to join family gatherings hasn’t exactly been rescinded”, according to the Mail’s royal editor Rebecca English. (Though she adds, it “is certainly not expected to be accepted”).

None of this is to suggest, for a second, that Harry was not entirely devoted to grandmother – however, one thing I have never understood is why they didn’t wait to sit down with Oprah, for him to write his memoir and for them to make that multi-part buffet of kvetching about how rubbish his family had been until after her death.

‘There would have been a way for the Sussexes to dodge the Waleses and vice versa’. Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Spare and the “global event” (always worth a titter) of Harry & Meghan might not have actually been released this time last year, but the deals had previously been announced.

Earlier this year, friends of Her late Majesty spoke to the Telegraph, with one revealing that the Sussexes’ repeated criticism of the royal family had “an impact on the Queen’s health in

her final year”.

As one regal friend explained, “She had lost Prince Philip, and then the constant ambushing of the royal family by a much-loved grandson did take its toll”.

The paper also reported that another “well-placed source” had “absolutely no doubt that the allegations made by the Sussexes affected the late Queen’s health”.

The fascinating counterfactual here is, what if Harry and Meghan had gone to Balmoral – would things be where they are now?

Earlier this year, the Times revealed that Harry had wanted to pull the plug on Spare after the family’s Jubilee visit. A publishing source involved with Spare told the paper: “The book was all ready to go but visiting his grandmother he had second thoughts.

“Just after Harry’s last trip to London, the boss walked in and said: ‘He’s pulled it. He doesn’t

want to do it’.”

At some point, Harry clearly changed his mind, again – however, imagine if the book had been shelved. Would things seem so irretrievably, grievously damaged between Harry, Charles and William?

The biggest disappointment in all of this? In Harry and Meghan not taking up what might have been their final opportunity to stay at Balmoral, it means that the world has thus been denied ever seeing Archie and Lili perched atop Shetland ponies learning to ride.

This is the royal family we are talking about – of course it always comes back to horses.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.