Royals

Oprah interview with Prince Harry: Duke claims Queen cancelled get-together after he announced plans to step down

He was looking forward to seeing her at Sandringham

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In his Oprah interview, Price Harry claimed the Queen cancelled their plans to see each other following his decision to step down from royal duties.

In a clip from the interview aired on US show CBS This Morning on Monday (March 8) that wasn’t included in the Oprah programme, Harry claimed his grandmother had received “bad” advice.

Prince Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview aired in the US on Sunday evening (Credit: Splashnews.com)

What did Prince Harry say about the Queen in the unseen Oprah interview clip?

Speaking to Oprah Winfrey, the Duke of Sussex explained that, when he returned to the UK after informing his father of his and Meghan’s plans to step down, the Queen unexpectedly cancelled a get-together they had planned at Sandringham.

Read more: Piers Morgan and Meghan Markle: Paul Sinha mocks ‘screaming’ GMB host

He said: “That announcement that we put out on January 8 in 2020, that was… the contents of that were put into a letter to the institution, to my father, which was then shared at the end of December while we were in Canada.

“To then get back on the 6th, after my grandmother had said, ‘The moment you land, come up to Sandringham, we would love to have a chat, come and stay because it’s a long drive’. Wonderful, I loved that.

US show CBS This Morning showed some unseen clips from the chat (Credit: CBS This Morning)

“The moment we landed in the UK, I got a message from my private secretary, Fiona, at the time…”

Meghan then cut in and said that, within the Royal Family, private secretary is similar to a CEO role.

There are people around you who give you advice… some of that advice has been really bad.

Harry continued: “…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’.

“After she just invited me. ‘The Queen is busy all week, do not come up here’.”

Harry said he then called his grandmother for an explanation.

In one clip, Harry said the Queen cancelled a get-together after Megxit (Credit: CBS This Morning)

Duke ‘knew what was going on’

He explained: “So I rang her from Frogmore that night and said, ‘I hear you’re now busy’. And she said, ‘Yes there’s something in my diary that I didn’t know I had’. I said, ‘Well what about the rest of the week?’ And she said, ‘That’s busy now as well’.

“Okay, I didn’t want to push because I knew what was going on.

Oprah asked: “But doesn’t the Queen get to do what the Queen wants to do?”

Oprah asked if the Queen gets to do whatever she wants (Credit: CBS This Morning)

The Duke of Sussex replied: “No, when you’re head of the firm there are people around you who give you advice. And what also made me sad is that some of that advice has been really bad.”

ED! contacted the Royal Family for comment.

In another previously unseen clip, Harry said someone at a fundraising event warned him to be careful regarding the media – and claimed the British public was racist.

Read more: Will Prince Harry and Meghan Markle name their new baby Diana?

However, Harry said he refuted that claim.

Speaking to Oprah, he said: “[The person told me] ‘You need to understand that the UK is very bigoted’.”

“I stopped and said, ‘The UK is not bigoted, the UK press is bigoted. Is that what you mean?'”

The person told him no, they meant individuals living here in this country. Harry continued: “I completely disagree. But unfortunately if the source of information is racist, or corrupt, or biased, then that filters out to the rest of society.”

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor