Queen Elizabeth feared she was being secretly recorded by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, her biographer has claimed.
The late monarch was reportedly wary to take meetings with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex alone in case the conversations were subsequently leaked.
Harry and Meghan caused the Queen severe “distress”, according to historian Hugo Vickers, who has written extensively about the Royal Family.
Mr Vickers claimed in his biography Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History that the monarch would ask her lady-in-waiting to stay with her during calls with her grandson.
“The distress the Sussexes caused the Queen in the last years of her life cannot be overestimated,” he wrote.
He also alleged the Queen feared having face-to-face discussions with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in case details from the private meetings later featured in their Netflix documentary.
“Trust had been broken, basically. So I think, as far as having somebody in the room, it was … to stop them taking photographs or being wired or God knows what,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
Asked if he believed the monarch feared the couple were wearing secret microphones, potentially to record footage for Netflix, he added: “Yes, wired for recording. It’s always a possibility. I’m not saying it happened.”
Harry and Meghan stepped back from the Royal Family in January 2020 and subsequently moved to California.
They gave a bombshell interview to Oprah Winfrey a year later and recorded a six-part docuseries for Netflix, focused on their decision to step back from the Royal Family.
The Duke also released an autobiography, Spare, in 2023, which included several intimate never-before-revealed details about his life.
Mr Vickers, who admitted he can “never forgive” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for the “stress” they caused the late Queen, also revealed the very telling nickname she gave her grandson following his decision to quit the Royal Family.
Harry was described simply as “a carer for Archie”.
The Queen reportedly offered up this damning verdict when Harry and Meghan announced they would be stepping down as senior royals and moving to the US with their young son, Prince Archie.
Harry and Meghan’s decision to “desert” the Royal Family was viewed particularly disappointing by the monarch who felt her grandson had been “doing a good job before he left”.
Speaking on the Palace Confidential podcast, he shared: “Well, I do remember what the queen said at one point was, you know, one I’m not sure she’s use these exact words, but basically, you know, sort of, ‘One minute he’s captain general of the Royal Marines and the next minute he’s just a childminder’.”
The Queen is said to have felt her grandson “could have done more”.