Prince Edward says rift with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is ‘very sad’

The Queen’s youngest son has opened up about the divide between Harry, Meghan and the British royal family in a surprisingly candid interview.

Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest son, Prince Edward, called the rift with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “very sad” in a new interview with the BBC.

“I stay way out of it. It’s much the safest place to be,” he said with a big smile when asked about the “situation.”

The 57-year-old Earl of Wessex also laughed about it being a routine family drama.

In interviews on what would have been the 100th birthday of his late father, Prince Philip, who died in April, Edward appeared to dismiss the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s gripes as being something every royal has been through.

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Prince Edward has broken his silence on the Prince Harry, Meghan Markle royal rift. Picture: BBC

“We’ve all been there. We’ve all had that same spotlight shone on our lives. We’ve been subject to massive intrusion and all the rest of it,” he told the British broadcaster.

“We all deal with it in different ways,” he said of his nephew Harry who quit life as a senior royal and joined his wife in a damning TV tell-all with Oprah Winfrey claiming they suffered racism from within the family.

In a separate interview, Edward teased CNN’s Max Foster for the way he nervously asked about the “family rift.”

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Britain's Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex at Sandringham in 2018. Picture: Paul Ellis/AFP

“Are you euphemistically referring to Harry and Meghan?” Edward asked him with a laugh.

“It’s very sad,” he said, repeating his claim that “we’ve all been there before” and citing “excessive intrusion and attention in our lives.”

“It’s just … families are families, aren’t they?” he told Foster, again laughing. “It’s difficult for everyone. But that’s families for you.”

In both interviews, he called the arrival of the Sussexes’ baby daughter, Lilibet Diana, “fantastic news”.

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey aired in March.

“We just wish them all happiness,” he told the BBC. “Absolutely, hope they’re very happy.”

The interviews were Edward’s first since the death of his father, Philip, who he told the BBC was a “larger-than-life person.”

“Once met, never forgotten,” he said.

He said the Queen was coping “remarkably well” well despite losing the “fantastic partnership” of her husband of 73 years, insisting, “I think everybody’s in pretty good shape, really.”

This story originally appeared on NY Post and has been reproduced here with permission