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Prince Harry agreed to do his bombshell Oprah interview with Meghan Markle less than 24 hours after being told he would be stripped of his military titles, according to reports.
The Duke of Sussex, 36, is said to have become ‘angry’ at losing a number of his military appointments in the wake of ‘Megxit’.
The final deal for him to step back from front line royal duties – which included him being stripped of his titles – was announced in February.
A ‘very cross’ Prince Harry agreed to an interview with US chat show host Oprah Winfrey that weekend, a source told the Sun.
The source reportedly told the paper: ‘Harry and Meghan were very cross before Oprah because the final Megxit separation had just been signed off which included Harry not keeping military roles.
‘That was what made him so angry. He’s very emotional and his military roles were very important to him given that he served.’
It has previously been suggested that the decision to do the bombshell CBS interview came after the Duke and Duchess were reportedly told that their son Archie would not be made a prince under when Prince Charles becomes king.
The topic was brought up in the couple’s jaw-dropping 90-minute talk with Oprah.
Prince Harry (pictured in his military uniform in 2019) agreed to do his bombshell Oprah interview with Meghan Markle less than 24 hours after being told he would be stripped of his military titles, according to reports
It has previously been suggested that the decision to the bombshell CBS interview came after the Duke and Duchess were reportedly told that their son Archie would not be made a prince under when Prince Charles becomes king
Prince Harry’s titles were taken back by the Queen as part of the final deal for him to step back as a front line royal
Prince Harry was stripped of his role as Captain-General of the Royal Marines – handed down to him by his grandfather Prince Philip, as part of the final deal for him to step back as a front line royal.
It was reported prior to the announcement of the final ‘Megxit’ deal in February that Prince Harry, who twice toured Afghanistan with the Army, had hoped to keep the titles.
And he is said to have asked the Queen about the possibility, in what was described as a half-in-half-out role.
But such a plan was vetoed and the title was taken back, along with his role as Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington in Suffolk and Commodore-in-Chief Small Ships and Diving, Royal Naval Command.
The titles were initially returned to the Queen. The move to strip him of the titles ‘devastated’ Prince Harry, according to reports at the time.
Prince Harry later took part in his interview with Oprah, in which he and Meghan Markle made accusations of racism within the Royal Family.
MailOnline has contacted representatives for the Sussexes and Buckingham Palace for comment.
The fresh reports come as The Mail on Sunday yesterday revealed how Prince Charles is to ensure that his two-year-old grandson Archie will never be a Prince.
The heir to the throne has made it clear that Harry and Meghan’s son will have no place among frontline Royals as he plans a slimmed-down Monarchy after he becomes King.
The move has incensed the Sussexes and is thought to have prompted the series of bitter accusations the couple have levelled at Charles and the Royal Family from across the Atlantic.
A grandchild of the sovereign has long had the right to be a Prince, but Charles is determined to limit the number of key Royals, believing the public does not wish to pay for an ever-expanding Monarchy.
Charles has told the Sussexes that he will change key legal documents to ensure that Archie cannot get the title he would once have inherited by right, according to a source close to the couple.
The decision, which follows months of fraught discussion behind the scenes, has plunged relations between Harry and his relatives to a dangerous new low.
‘Harry and Meghan were told Archie would never be a Prince, even when Charles became King,’ confirmed the source.
Prince Charles is to change the monarchy to ensure that his two-year-old grandson Archie will never be a Prince
Charles has told the Sussexes that he will change key legal documents to ensure that Archie cannot get the title he would once have inherited by right
The revelation comes amid a series of explosive claims by respected Royal biographer Robert Lacey.
Meanwhile, The Mail on Sunday has learned that Harry demanded the right to approve at least one writer or journalist to work alongside the usual ‘press pack’ of Royal reporters at the unveiling of the statue to Princess Diana next month, so deep is his distrust of the British media.
The full details of Charles’s plan for a slimmed-down Monarchy have never been revealed, but it has been speculated that only heirs to the throne and their immediate families will receive full titles, financial support from the public purse through the Sovereign Grant and police protection funded by the taxpayer.
Charles and his younger brother, the Duke of York, have already been at loggerheads about what security Andrew’s daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie should receive in future. Now Harry and Meghan have found themselves caught up, too.
Insiders suggest they hadn’t seen the move coming, and were shocked to find that Charles will take the active step of changing legal instruments known as the Letters Patent in order to exclude Archie and others.
The loss will be all the more galling as the Sussexes havemade a point of refusing to use another, lesser title for their son, who is technically the Earl of Dumbarton. They took that decision safe in the knowledge that Archie would become a Prince in due course. Or so they thought.
Earlier this year, a source close to the Sussexes confirmed they did indeed expect Archie to be named a Prince when Charles, Archie’s grandfather, acceded to the throne. Their spokesman at the time was even instructed to remind journalists of that ‘fact’.
The Sussexes finally learned that would not be the case just before sitting down with Oprah Winfrey for their first bombshell interview in March.
Insiders suggest the issue was still raw at the time of the recording – which might help account for the devastating criticisms they unleashed on the show, including the damaging implication that an unnamed senior member of the Royal Family had referred to Archie in a racist way.
The move has incensed the Sussexes and is thought to have prompted the series of bitter accusations the couple have levelled at Charles and the Royal Family
Charles is determined to limit the number of key Royals, believing the public does not wish to pay for an ever-expanding Monarchy
It also throws a spotlight on one section of the interview which had raised eyebrows at the time. Speaking to Oprah, Meghan recalled how, when she had been pregnant, ‘They [the Royal Family] were saying they didn’t want him to be a Prince or a Princess’.
She continued: ‘You know, the other piece of that convention is, there’s a convention – I forget if it was George V or George VI convention – that when you’re the grandchild of the monarch, so when Harry’s dad becomes King, automatically Archie and our next baby would become Prince or Princess, or whatever they were going to be… But also it’s not their right to take it away.’
This puzzled Royal watchers, who reminded the Sussexes they had very publicly declared that they didn’t want a title for their son, who would be known as Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
Some pointed out that a son of Prince Harry’s – a great-grandchild of the Queen – had no automatic right to be titled a Prince, or receive a security allowance. But that was to ignore the real drama taking place behind the scenes. Because Meghan was actually referring to the secret news that Archie would never become a Prince, not even when Charles was King.
A source said: ‘This is what nobody realised from the interview. The real thing was that Charles was going to take active steps to strip Archie of his ultimate birthright.’
The existing rules for Royal titles were established in Letters Patent dated November 20, 1917.
Charles and his younger brother, the Duke of York, have already been at loggerheads about what security Andrew’s daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie should receive in future
In these, King George V, the Queen’s grandfather, allowed the title of Prince and Princess to be given to the children of the sovereign, the children of the sovereign’s sons and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales – in this case, Prince George.
Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, William’s daughter and younger son, received their titles not by right but as gifts of the Queen, who issued new Letters Patent to that effect in 2013. Similarly, when King, Charles will have the power to change George V’s Letters Patent how he sees fit – and so streamline The Firm.
An insider said: ‘Charles has never made any secret of the fact that he wants a slimmed-down Monarchy when he becomes King.
‘He realises that the public don’t want to pay for a huge Monarchy and, as he said, the balcony at Buckingham Palace would probably collapse.’
Even now, not all grandchildren of the Queen are titled Prince or Princess. As she is a daughter, not a son, of the sovereign, Princess Anne’s children had no automatic right to the title but out of choice she also declined lesser titles for her children Peter and Zara.
The Queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, thought it prudent not to name his daughter and son as Princess and Prince. Instead, they are titled Lady and Viscount respectively.
A Royal source said last night: ‘We are not going to speculate about the succession or comment on rumours coming out of America.’
It comes as Meghan today claimed that her two-year-old son Archie is a ‘voracious’ reader who ‘loves’ her new children’s book, which she also said features a depiction of Princess Diana’s favourite flower and is a ‘love story’ about life with Prince Harry ‘in good times or bad’.
In an interview with NPR Weekend recorded before the birth of her daughter Lilibet, the Duchess of Sussex also revealed that she bought her husband a bench with an inscribed plaque for his first Father’s Day and said she was ‘inspired’ to write the poem after watching him with Archie.
Her new £12.99 book The Bench has topped the New York Times Bestsellers List for children’s picture books but sold just 3,212 copies in the UK its first week since publication on June 8.
Meghan Markle at the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 1, 2019
Meghan Markle has written a children’s book, The Bench, about the relationship between fathers and sons
The NPR interview is her first since she and Prince Harry accused the Royal Family of racism during their explosive sit-down chat with Oprah Winfrey in March – the first of a series of bombshell allegations made by the royal couple this year which have shaken the House of Windsor.
Speaking to NPR producer Samantha Balaban at 2.50pm (9.50am EST), the duchess said: ‘I knew our son would notice all of those elements, and he loves the book, which is great because he has a voracious appetite for books and constantly when we read him a book he goes ‘again, again, again’. But now the fact he loves The Bench and we can say ‘Mommy wrote this for you’ feels amazing.’
The duchess added: ‘I think you can find sweet little moments that we hid in there – of my favourite flower, even my husband’s mom’s favorite flower, forget-me-nots. We wanted to make sure those were included in there. There are many, many special details and love that went into this book.’
She went on: ‘As most of us do, you go, what am I going to get them as a gift? And I thought I just wanted something sentimental and a place for him to have as a bit of a home base with our son.
‘I often find, and especially in this past year, I think so many of us realized how much happens in the quiet. It was definitely moments like that, watching them from out of the window and watching [Harry] just, you know, rock him [Archie] to sleep or carry him or, you know… those lived experiences, from my observation, are the things that I infused in this poem.’
Meghan added: ‘It’s a love story. It’s really just about growing with someone and having this deep connection and this trust so that, be at good times or bad, you know that you had this person. I really hope that people can see this as a love story that transcends the story of my family.’
Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor – Harry and Meghan’s second child, who was born on June 4 in Santa Barbara – also features in the book, which was illustrated before her birth.
Early reviews for the book were not universally positive, although one cooed that ‘the book’s storytelling and illustration give us snapshots of shared moments that evoke a deep sense of warmth’.
