Prince Harry Explains Why Queen Elizabeth Didn't Defend Him Amid Royal Exit

Prince Harry is giving some backstory behind his chaotic exit from royal life and his family's reaction to his and his wife, Meghan Markle's, decision to relocate to California in 2020. In the newly released volume II of the couple's Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, Harry goes into detail for the first time about the events of early 2020 when the couple was seemingly at odds with the royal family. 

He specifically speaks of his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, saying the late monarch was aware of the struggles the couple was facing at the time. 

"She knew that we were finding things hard. I'd spoken to her many times about it," Harry says of royal life. 

Harry recalls being told the queen was no longer able to see him in January 2020, after she had specifically told him she was available. 

"I remember looking at H and being like, 'My gosh, this is when a family and a family business are in direct conflict. Because they're blocking you from seeing the queen, but really what they're doing is blocking a grandson from seeing his grandmother,'" Meghan says. 

The couple talks about various stories leaking about them relocating and changing their roles, leading them to finally release a statement about their decision. But they both claim that the royal family was well aware of their intentions in advance. 

"This idea that I supposedly blindsided my grandmother never happened. I have so much respect for her," Harry says in the interview, which was conducted prior to the queen's Sept. 8 death. 

"This has been ongoing for a month, several months. I think in some people's minds it was me going, 'Post!'" Meghan says, miming pressing a button on their Instagram post of the statement.

Harry says he then requested a meeting of the senior members of the royal family, claiming it was denied until Meghan had to go back to Canada to be with their son, Archie. 

"Imagine a conversation, a roundtable discussion about the future of your life when the stakes are this high and you as the mom and the wife and the target, in many regards, aren't invited to have a seat at the table," Meghan says. 

"It was clear to me that they planned that so you weren't in the room," Harry adds. 

Harry recounts the "terrifying" experience of having his brother, Prince William, "scream and shout" at him while he claims his father, King Charles III, was saying things "that just simply weren't true."

Harry goes on to add, "And my grandmother quietly sit there and take it all in."

The Duke of Sussex doesn't appear to harbor resentment toward his grandmother, even further explaining why she wouldn't choose to defend him in this scenario. 

"You have to understand from the family's perspective, especially from her's, there are ways of doing things and her ultimate mission, goal, slash, responsibility is the Institution," he says. "People around her are telling her, 'By the way, that proposal or these two doing X,Y, Z, is going to be seen as an attack on the Institution,' then she's going to go on the advice she's given." 

Harry describes the experience as "really hard" saying that he thinks the members of his family "had to believe that it was more about us and maybe the issues we had as opposed to their partner, the media, and themselves and that relationship that was causing so much pain for us. They saw what they wanted to see." 

Harry notes that the "saddest part" of the whole situation is "this wedge created between me and my brother so that he's now on the Institution's side."

Harry adds that similar to the allowances he makes for his grandmother in this regard, he also understands the same to be true for his brother. 

"Part of that I get. I understand, right? That's his inheritance," Harry says of the next in line to the British royal throne. "So to some extent it's already ingrained in him that part of his responsibility is the survivability of the continuation of this institution."

The footage and interviews for the docuseries were all completed by August 2022, notably before the Sept. 8 death of Queen Elizabeth II. 

In the first three episodes of the docuseries, which were released last week, a disclaimer was put on the series that reads, "Members of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content within this series." 

"That is incorrect. Neither Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace nor any members of the royal family were approached for comment on the content of the series," a source close to the royal family previously told ET in regard to the disclaimer. "[The Palace] is not aware of any such approach for comment."

ET has reached out to Netflix for comment on the claims. Meanwhile, a Netflix source previously told ET that communications offices for King Charles and Prince William were contacted in advance and given the right to reply to claims within the series. 

Additionally, ET has learned that Kensington Palace did receive an email from a third-party production company about the Netflix docuseries. The email originated from an unknown organization's email address. The office contacted Archewell Productions and Netflix to attempt to verify the authenticity of the email and that it was genuine but received no reply. The email did not contain the substance of the allegations made in the Netflix program or address the entire series. In the absence of any verification or reply from Archewell or Netflix, there was not any reply.

Volumes I and II of Harry & Meghan are currently streaming on Netflix. 

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