Prince Harry says Prince William lost his temper during a family meeting held immediately after he and Meghan Markle announced they were quitting the royal family in January 2020.
“It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me, and my father [King Charles III] say things that just simply weren’t true, and my grandmother [Queen Elizabeth II] quietly sit there and just take it all in,” the Duke of Sussex says in Episode 5 of Netflix’s “Harry & Meghan” docuseries, which dropped Thursday.
“The saddest part of it was this wedge that it created between myself and my brother.”
Harry acknowledges that the Queen, who died in September, had a “responsibility” to her job as monarch, noting that she was also surrounded by aides who advised her that her grandson’s unprecedented move could be “seen as an attack on the institution.”
The prince insists he “never” blindsided his beloved grandmother with the news because he had “so much respect for her.”
But it wasn’t just the meeting, aka the Sandringham Summit, that left a sour taste in Harry’s mouth. A few days prior to making the announcement, Harry says he had been in contact with his father regarding his and Markle’s desire to move to Canada.
“And in one of those [emails], I had mentioned that if this wasn’t gonna work out then we would be willing to relinquish our Sussex titles if need be,” Harry explains.
The news got out quickly.
“It became clear that the institution leaked the fact that we were gonna be moving back to Canada, and the key piece of that story that made me aware that the contents of the letter between me and my father had been leaked was that we were willing to relinquish our Sussex titles. That was the giveaway,” Harry says.
“And I was like, ‘Wow. Our story, our lives, literally got taken from underneath us.'”
The prince, 38, says he immediately requested a meeting with palace officials to discuss how to handle the media frenzy happening as a result, “and that meeting was rejected.” Only after Markle, 41, left town did the summit take place.
“It was clear to me that they planned it so that you weren’t in the room,” Harry says to his wife in the docuseries.
The couple, who share son Archie, 3, and daughter Lilibet, 1, returned to the UK in March 2020 for their farewell tour.
Harry recalls feeling “nervous” and admits tensions were high, specifically during an awkward family reunion at Westminster Abbey, where Harry and William, 40, barely acknowledged each other.
“It looked cold,” Harry remembers, “but it also felt cold.”
