‘Every day there are people who want to be Nelson Mandela’: Madiba’s grandson says Meghan Markle should ‘pull up her sleeves’ and improve lives of ordinary people in UK in new statement after her comparisons with anti-apartheid hero
Nelson Mandela’s grandson today delivered a fresh attack on Meghan Markle and urged her to ‘pull up her sleeves’ and do more for ordinary people after she drew a comparison between her royal wedding day and Madiba’s walk from prison after 27 years of incarceration.
The Duchess of Sussex, 41, used a US magazine interview to suggest her marriage to Prince Harry sparked celebrations in South Africa reminiscent of the release of the legendary anti-apartheid leader.
Zwelivelile ‘Mandla’ Mandela told MailOnline he was ‘surprised’ at her remarks in The Cut magazine when she claimed that three years ago a cast member of the Lion King told her that ‘we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison’.
He declared that ‘every day there are people who want to be Nelson Mandela, either comparing themselves with him or wanting to emulate him’.
Today he told The Times that his advice to the former actress was: ‘Get out there, pull up your sleeves and better the lives of ordinary people in England and in the United Kingdom’, adding: ‘For the personality she is, she can do a lot of good in the global community by adopting the causes that Madiba championed’.
The furore was sparked by a 6,409-word article called ‘Meghan of Montecito’ published yesterday, where the former Suits star recalled an encounter she had at the 2019 London premiere of a live-action version of the Disney classic.
She said an actor from South Africa pulled her aside and told her: ‘I just need you to know: When you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison’.
Mandla said that people across South Africa had rejoiced at his release in 1990, because his dramatic walk to freedom had signalled a victory over apartheid and colonialism.
The African National Congress MP said his grandfather’s release was a moment of huge national significance, which should not be compared to the duchess’s 2018 marriage ‘to a white prince’.
He told MailOnline: ‘It can never be compared to the celebration of someone’s wedding. Madiba’s celebration was based on overcoming 350 years of colonialism with 60 years of a brutal apartheid regime in South Africa. So It cannot be equated to as the same.’
But MailOnline has learned that the story has astonished the Mandela family. ‘Mandla’ Mandela, an MP and Chief of the late South African President’s Mvezo tribe, said he was ‘surprised’ at her remarks.
His grandfather served 27 years in prison before being released and re-uniting opponents and going on to lead his country.
Zwelivelile said when the people of South Africa expressed their joy at his grandfather’s release and danced in the streets, it was for a far more important and serious reason than her marriage ‘to a white prince’.
The African National Congress MP added: ‘We are still bearing scars of the past. But they (Mr Mandela’s celebrations) were a product of the majority of our people being brought out onto the streets to exercise the right of voting for the first time.
‘He spoke for oppressed minorities, children and women and protracting the most vulnerable people in our society.
‘He always spoke about oppressed nations around the globe and yet people are silent on those issues.
‘But this is what we like to see (from) people when they regard themselves as being a “Nelson Mandela”.
‘Then you could be a champion of the causes that he represented.’
He added: ‘My advice to everyone is to live the life Nelson Mandela lived and support the causes he supported.
‘That is the ultimate litmus test. What is the value of people dancing in the street and chanting President Nelson Mandela’s name when what they stand for is diametrically opposed to what he stood for?
‘Nelson Mandela’s release from jail was the culmination of nearly 350 years of struggle in which generations of our people paid with their lives. It can never be compared to the celebration of someone’s wedding.’
Meghan’s claim has sparked rage and ridicule with critics telling her to ‘get lost’ and accusing her of showing ‘utmost disrespect’.
Reacting to MailOnline’s exclusive story today, royal expert Angela Levin said: ‘How long is Meghan going to pour out her drivel? It’s enough already. Not a surprise to learn that Mandela’s grandson is cross Meghan compares her wedding to Mandela’s release from prison.’
Harry and Meghan have built up quite a relationship with the Mandela family in recent years – following in the footsteps of Harry’s parents Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
Just last month, Harry gave a speech at the UN General Assembly for Nelson Mandela Day in New York City on July 18.
The Sussexes met Graca Machel, widow of Mandela, on the last day of their tour of Africa in 2019. Harry also met Ms Machel when he visited South Africa in 2015.
And in 2018, Harry and Meghan met Mandela’s granddaughter Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela during a visit to the Nelson Mandela centenary exhibition at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.
Charles and Diana were also close with Mandela. The late Princess of Wales met him in Cape Town in March 1997, while she was in South Africa visiting her brother Earl Spencer.
And Charles took Mandela to Brixton in South London when he visited Britain in July 1996.
In addition, Mandela visited Diana’s ancestral home at Althorp in Northamptonshire in November 2002 to see where she was buried.
The Duchess of Sussex, 41, shared the new anecdote in another bombshell interview with a US magazine yesterday – but people have claimed that it was not their experience of what happened on May 19, 2018.
After her claim the hashtag #VoetsekMeghan began trending in South Africa. Voetsek is an Afrikaans word meaning ‘go away’ or ‘get lost’ and is a common slur used by millions in the country.
An angry Twitter user said: ‘No one was rejoicing in the streets of South Africa when she got married. For her to imply that it was the same as when President Mandela was released is the utmost disrespect’.
Another South African claimed: ‘From South Africa, I can promise you 1 thing, nobody but nobody celebrated in the street as with when Mandela was released over a foreign state wedding, yes we watched at home happy for the couple, that was that’.
One critic said: ‘Comparing your marriage to Nelson Mandela being released? What a pompous & arrogant thing to say’. Another said: ‘Her arrogant and yet delusional comparison of herself to Mandela is yet another insult to South Africa’.
Meghan managed to get up South African’s noses after her first Archetypes Spotify podcast where she described the mansion where she stayed on a royal tour with Harry and Archie as a ‘housing unit’.
One South African commentator, Howard Feldman, wrote yesterday: ‘Sorry Meghan only South Africans are allowed to speak ill about the country. Meghan should have stayed out of it’.
In July Prince Harry used his keynote speech at the UN General Assembly for Nelson Mandela Day, in New York City, to again wade into US politics as he blasted the ‘rolling back of constitutional rights’.
The Duke of Sussex launched a thinly-veiled attack on the Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade ruling last month that handed abortion rights back to individual states.
The 37-year-old claimed it was part of a ‘global assault on democracy and freedom’ as he also cited Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine among problems facing the world.
South Africans have already hit out at Meghan Markle after she told of an apparent fire that broke out in her son Archie’s room while she was on a tour of the country.
Archie, then four months old, was not in the room in Cape Town when a heater started to smoke – but the incident left the Duchess of Sussex ‘shaken’ and ‘in tears’, she told tennis star Serena Williams in her new podcast.
Others are understood to recall the incident which took place on September 23, 2019 – and while they do not remember there actually being a fire, the heater was certainly smoking and was unplugged and dealt with.
Despite the upset, Meghan said in the Spotify podcast that she was obliged to continue with official engagements, accusing those running the tour of concentrating on ‘how it looks, instead of how it feels’.
However, South Africans have not taken too kindly to her claims on social media, to the point where ‘#VoetsekMeghan’ – an offensive term meaning ‘go away’ – was trending on Twitter.
One wrote: ‘South Africa… You’re amazing – the #VoetsekMeghan tag is brilliant. She’s single handedly offending the world country by country! Shame really when most of her fanbase is in SA…oopsie!’
Another said: ‘I don’t care about the fire incident but the statement: coming to South Africa was the bravest thing she has done. Speaks volumes. As if she was coming to some apocalypse state or something. She should elaborate on what was brave about it, is it because is in Africa? #VoetsekMeghan’
A third added: ‘So after the supposed fire , Meghan could have taken Archie to their engagements in South Africa. Catherine did it in Australia and New Zealand without issue. Why could she not? You know why? Because then it would no longer be just about her! #VoetsekMeghan’.
Sources have defended the Duchess over the incident, saying it would have understandably caused concern to any parent. The Sussexes were subsequently moved to different accommodation as the tour continued.
There would undoubtedly have been an expectation for Harry and Meghan to go on with their engagements after months of planning on the ground – but as senior royals, the couple would have had the final say on continuing.
And one source told the Daily Telegraph that any announcement about Archie being at risk of fire – or having to cancel an event where they spoke to people about Apartheid – would have overshadowed the couple’s work.
Later that same day following the incident, the couple visited Cape Town’s historic District Six neighbourhood, met residents in its Homecoming Centre and heard from people who were forcibly removed to a township during the Apartheid era, with the Sussexes also carrying out an impromptu walkabout.
District Six is a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town where freed slaves, artisans, immigrants, merchants and the Cape Malay community lived – but in 1966 the government declared it a ‘whites-only area’, and more than 60,000 residents were forcibly removed and relocated to the Cape Flats township about 15 miles away.
‘Bizarre’, ‘breathtaking arrogance’ and ‘doesn’t do her any favours’: Royal experts react to Meghan’s latest jaw-dropping swipe at royal family – as Palace braces for more ‘truth bombs’ in new podcast TODAY
Royal experts today panned Meghan Markle’s latest bombshell interview as ‘truly bizarre’ and said it proved her ‘breathtaking arrogance’ – as the palace braced for yet more ‘truth bombs’ in a new Spotify podcast expected in the coming hours.
In a 6,400-word magazine article to promote her new ‘Archetypes’ podcast with singer Mariah Carey, the Duchess of Sussex made a series of apparent swipes at the royals, warning she could ‘say anything’ now that she has left the Firm.
In further shock claims, Meghan said she and Harry felt forced to leave Britain because ‘just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy’, while Harry, 37, made his own jibe at the royals, saying: ‘Most people that I know and many of my family, they aren’t able to work and live together.’
And the duchess also claimed a South African member of the cast of the West End production of The Lion King told her: ‘When you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison.’
Today, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams described the interview ‘truly bizarre’ – and excoriated the Mandela reference.
He told MailOnline: ‘When she quotes an enthusiastic supporter saying that her marriage into the royal family led to rejoicing in the streets ”the same as we did when Mandela was freed from prison” it’s an utterly crazy comparison which speaks volumes about the person making it.
‘She inhabits a world where, as on Oprah, the truth seems to be subsumed into her truth. Who are the royals who have the half in, half out job they were denied? Why is there not a note of regret that they gave the Oprah interview when Prince Philip was so ill?’
Angela Levin, author of ‘Harry: Conversations with the Prince’, told GMB News ‘It’s breathtaking – her arrogance, her rudeness and her taking everything for granted and not giving anything back attitude.
‘And I think it’s a tragedy that she has convinced Harry that his family is so awful. When you mentioned they saw the Queen at the Jubilee, it was only for 15 minutes because she was extremely busy… they could have come another time.’
Meghan, 41, appeared to tell The Cut that Prince Harry felt he had ‘lost’ his father over his decision to quit his public duties. But in an extraordinary clarification last night, allies of the couple said the duchess had actually been referring to the breakdown of her relationship with her own father.
The interview quoted her as saying: ‘Harry said to me, ”I lost my dad in this process.” It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision.’ Yesterday a source close to Prince Charles said he would be saddened if Harry felt their relationship was lost, adding: ‘The Prince of Wales loves both his sons.’
Tom Bower, whose recent biography of Meghan, Revenge, was highly critical of the duchess, suggested her interview was a form of ‘revenge’.
‘From her position it’s an excellent tactic,’ he told MailOnline. ‘She has taken the high ground, asserting her pristine righteousness, giving no quarter. It’s all about her greatness. Just as I described in my book, she is threatening the Royal Family with worse than her Oprah Winfrey interview That will be delivered during her visit to Britain next week and then in Harry’s book. Her revenge will be merciless.’
Meanwhile, the Mirror’s Royal correspondent Russel Myers told Good Morning Britain it would have been wise for the duchess to ‘hold back’ when millions of people were struggling economically.
‘There’s so much to unpack here, it will be interesting to see the backlash, because people are struggling with the cost of living and Meghan is bemoaning her life while sitting in her mansion. She doesn’t do herself any favours.’
Buckingham Palace will be braced for more bombshells from Meghan when her podcast drops later today.
She used episode one with Serena Williams to take a veiled swipe at life in the Royal Family, while also recounting her horror at a time a small ‘fire’ broke out in son Archie’s room during a tour of South Africa.
The then-four-month-old was not in the room at the time that a heater began to smoke but it left duchess ‘shaken’ and ‘in tears’, she told her friend. Despite her upset, she said she was forced to continue with the couple’s official engagements.
At the end of the episode released last Tuesday at around 1pm UK time, Meghan confirmed she would be back ‘next week, when we hear from the one and only…Mariah Carey’. The subject of their discussion, which was ‘The Misconception of Ambition’ with Ms Williams last week, has not been revealed.
But talking about her guests, and the themes they will cover, Meghan said: ‘They’ve all in some way borne the brunt of the labels we’ll be picking apart, and of course I know a thing or two about these labels myself.’
In addition, the interview saw Meghan:
Refer to her and Harry as being ‘like salt and pepper’ because they ‘always move together’;- Say she has ‘never had to sign anything that restricts me from talking’ but she is ‘still healing’;
- Claim she faced problems in the UK from being an American, not necessarily a black American;
- Say she has made an ‘active effort’ to ‘forgive’
The couple have given a series of interviews since starting their new life in California, including the notorious Oprah Winfrey interview in which Harry claimed his father had stopped taking his calls.
In the latest interview with New York magazine The Cut, Meghan was asked if her relationship with the royals and with her own family could be healed.
She replied: ‘It takes a lot of effort to forgive. I’ve really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything.’
But her apparent description of Harry’s relationship with his father Prince Charles threatened to cause fresh hurt.
She told interviewer Allison P Davis: ‘Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process’. It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision.’
Later a source told the New York Post she had meant she did not want Harry to lose his own father.
And journalist Omid Scobie, who co-wrote a flattering biography of the Sussexes and is close to the couple, tweeted: ‘There seems to be confusion in some headlines about this quote in The Cut interview.
‘I understand that Prince Harry is actually referring to Meghan’s loss of her own father, and Meghan is saying she doesn’t want Harry to lose his.’
Asked about the confusion regarding Meghan’s comment, The Cut declined to comment.
A source added: ‘This line is a direct quote from Meghan’s interview with Allison, and as a general rule, we don’t comment or speculate on sources’ intent outside of the text of the story.’ Meghan said she and Harry felt they had to leave Britain because of negative media coverage, including of their £2.4million refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.
When they were planning their departure, Meghan said they asked the Royal Family if they could be allowed to work on behalf of the monarchy and make their own money, and were willing to live in a Commonwealth country to help the transition. But she told the interviewer: ‘That, for whatever reason, is not something that we were allowed to do, even though several other members of the family do that exact thing.’
In fact, no other working royals are allowed to make their own money at the same time as performing official duties.
There are fears the Sussexes are planning to ramp up media appearances, culminating in the publication of Harry’s highly anticipated memoir. Sources have previously hinted at Harry’s ‘truth bombs’, of which there may be more to come.
In the latest interview, Meghan hinted she had more to say about her life in the Royal Family, but was ‘still healing’.
She said: ‘It’s interesting, I’ve never had to sign anything that restricts me from talking… I can talk about my whole experience and make a choice not to.’ Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
‘Upsetting the dynamic of the Royal Family’
Meghan said that she and Prince Harry were ‘happy’ to leave Britain and were ‘upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy… just by existing’ before they stepped down as frontline royals and moved to North America.
The Cut reported today that 41-year-old Meghan listed a ‘handful of princes and princesses and dukes who have the very arrangement they wanted’, although none of these royals are named in the article.
And Meghan, speaking to New York-based features writer Allison P Davis, said: ‘That, for whatever reason, is not something that we were allowed to do, even though several other members of the family do that exact thing.’
Asked ‘Why do you think that is?’, she simply replied: ‘Why do you think that is?’, with the interviewer Ms Davis saying that she said this ‘right back with a side-eye that suggests I should understand without having to be told’.
The article states that Harry and Meghan suggested to ‘The Firm’ that they should be allowed to work on behalf of the monarchy but make their own money, with the Duchess saying: ‘Then maybe all the noise would stop.’
The article says: ‘They also thought it best to leave the U.K. (and the U.K. press) to do it. They were willing to go to basically any commonwealth, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, anywhere.
”Anything to just … because just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy. So we go, ‘Okay, fine, let’s get out of here. Happy to,’ ‘ she says, putting her hands up in mock defeat.
‘Meghan asserts that what they were asking for wasn’t ‘reinventing the wheel’ and lists a handful of princes and princesses and dukes who have the very arrangement they wanted.
”That, for whatever reason, is not something that we were allowed to do, even though several other members of the family do that exact thing.’
‘Why do you think that is? I ask. ‘Why do you think that is?’ she says right back with a side-eye that suggests I should understand without having to be told.’
Meghan says she has made an ‘active effort’ to ‘forgive’
The Duchess was asked during the interview whether forgiveness can exist between her and her own family as well as members of the Royal Family.
She told The Cut: ‘I think forgiveness is really important. It takes a lot more energy to not forgive. But it takes a lot of effort to forgive. I’ve really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything.’
The article also refers to Meghan’s estranged father Thomas Markle, a retired lighting director who now lives in Mexico.
The report said that Meghan discussed how two families had been ‘torn apart’.
And it quotes Meghan as saying: ‘Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process.’ It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision.’
Meghan says she can say what she wants but is ‘still healing’
The Duchess says towards the end of interview that she has ‘never had to sign anything that restricts me from talking’.
She also says: ‘I can talk about my whole experience and make a choice not to.’
The interviewer then asks Meghan why she does not talk, and she replies: ‘Still healing,’.
Harry says ‘many’ of his family ‘can’t work together’
Harry and Meghan run Archewell from their shared home office at their mansion in Montecito, California.
The article in The Cut refers to them having ‘two plush club chairs placed side by side behind a single desk, facing into the room like thrones’.
And it quotes Harry as saying: ‘Most people that I know and many of my family, they aren’t able to work and live together,’
The article also refers to him enunciating the word family ‘with a vocal eye roll’.
Harry added: ‘It’s actually really weird because it’d seem like a lot of pressure. But it just feels natural and normal.’
It comes after a royal expert said today that Harry and Meghan are very unlikely to visit the Queen at Balmoral when they return to Britain for a trip next week, and warned that the ‘family rift is getting worse, not better’.
The Sussexes have an ongoing row about their security with the Home Office – and tensions with the Royal Family have been deepened by mounting concerns over what will be published in Harry’s upcoming biography.
These issues will no doubt worsen after Meghan’s latest comments published in The Cut today, in addition to her making veiled criticisms of the family in her new Spotify podcast released last week.
Royal expert Phil Dampier told MailOnline today that he would be ‘very surprised’ if the Sussexes visit the Queen at Balmoral, where she is likely to remain for the next few weeks as concerns grow over her mobility issues.
He added that there is little ‘goodwill on both sides’ and that the royals will be ‘wary’ of Harry amid what could be in his book. Mr Dampier also said that a ‘visit to Scotland would create awkward family tensions for everyone’.
The Sussexes, who last went to Balmoral in 2018, are not planning to visit the Highlands estate, according to the Daily Telegraph – which also reported that they are still waiting on decisions around their security in the UK before they decide whether to travel off schedule.
A Home Office panel is also set to decide whether they qualify for protection by the Metropolitan Police.
On September 5, the Duke and Duchess will travel from their home in California to visit Manchester for the One Young World Summit, where Meghan will give the keynote address at the opening ceremony.
The couple will then head to Germany for an event to mark a year until the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf on September 6, before returning to the UK for the WellChild Awards in London on September 8 where Harry – a long-term patron of the charity – will give a speech. The Sussexes are expected to leave their children Archie and Lilibet at home in California.
There are no official engagements scheduled for September 7 – at least, none that have been announced at this stage – meaning they could go and visit family.
But Mr Dampier told MailOnline: ‘I would be very surprised if Harry and Meghan visit the Queen at Balmoral. They have ongoing issues about their security travelling around the country, though obviously they would be secure within the Castle grounds.
‘They have a tight schedule anyway so would find it hard to fit in. But above all, I just don’t get the impression at the moment that there is much goodwill on both sides. Prince Charles is up in Scotland at the moment, as are other royals, and under normal circumstances Harry would want to see his father as well as his grandmother.
‘But these are not normal times and I fear the family rift is getting worse, not better. Meghan didn’t help with her recent podcast in which she made veiled criticisms of the royal family. And of course Harry’s book is hanging over the family like a bad smell. All the time the royals don’t know what he will say in his book they will be wary of him.
It is believed that the couple will spend much of their time in the UK next week at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor – much like when the California-based couple were in England in June, when they kept a low profile.
Harry, 37, last saw his 96-year-old grandmother during her Platinum Jubilee, where he reportedly only had around 15 minutes with her.
He and Meghan also visited in April, when they secretly met with Prince Charles and the Queen on their way to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games at The Hague.
After this trip, the Duke spoke about ensuring his grandmother has ‘the right people around her’ when he appeared to make a swipe at royal household staff during an interview with NBC including the so-called ‘men in grey suits’ who advise the Queen.
This latest news comes as warring brothers Prince William and Harry will reportedly not mark the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death on Wednesday together – neither in public or private.
The Queen normally spends the months of August and September at her Highlands retreat, where she is joined by other family members at stages.
William, Kate and their children, Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, are among those who have already visited this year.
Balmoral has had a number of adaptations in recent years, including her Craigowan Lodge, which was fitted with a wheelchair-friendly lift in 2021.
The castle was bought for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852 for £32,000, and it has been the Scottish home of the royal family since. She usually arrives at the estate in mid-July.
The Queen is also ‘carefully considering’ whether she is fit enough to attend the Braemar Games next weekend as concerns grow over her mobility issues, The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday.
The Highland Games, which are often attended by the Queen and the Prime Minister of the day, are usually a highlight in the monarch’s calendar.
This year’s competition – which will see contestants battle it out in caber-tossing and tug-of-war in front of spectators – is the first to be held since the start of the pandemic.
A source revealed that the Queen is keen to attend if her health will allow it. She was last seen in public on July 21, when she flew to Aberdeen Airport to begin her annual holiday at Balmoral.
The source added that in the past fortnight, Her Majesty has been delighted to receive ‘family visitors’ at her Scottish estate with ‘lots of the great-grandchildren’.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their children Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte headed up last week, while the Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children Lady Louise and Viscount James have also been to visit. It is also said that the Prince of Wales is visiting the Queen daily.
Prince Andrew had also been in Balmoral, keen to speak to the Queen about whether it is possible for him to carve out a new working role within the Royal Family, according to the source.
Another source added that there had been ‘a change in the past few weeks’ in the Queen’s mobility, which meant that she was ‘resting’ a lot more.
The 96-year-old is likely to concede that she will no longer be able to fly down to London to appoint a new Prime Minister. It had been hoped the Queen would head to Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace to fulfil what is known as her ‘personal prerogative’ – to invite a new leader to form a government.
But her health on recent days ‘may make it unlikely’, according to a well-placed source. The decision will be announced this week. The nine-mile trip to Braemar for next weekend’s games, however, may yet be possible.
Her Majesty asked the couple and their two children, three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, one, to stay at her Scottish residence and told royal staff to prepare, it was reported in July.
It was said that the Sussexes would not have to spend time with other royals such as Charles and William.
A Balmoral insider previously told The Sun and Page Six: ‘Staff have been told to expect the full list of royals including Harry, Meghan and their children. They are preparing for the Sussexes.’
Another source is reported to have said: ‘I would be stunned if they did turn up.’
But since then, the Telegraph reported overnight that sources say a visit to the Queen is not anticipated but there may well be more unplanned engagements.
Speaking of meeting his grandmother at Windsor Castle in April, Harry said: ‘It was great. It was really nice to see her in some element of privacy. Being with her it was great, it was just so nice to see her, she’s on great form.
‘She’s always got a great sense of humour with me and I’m just making sure that she’s protected and got the right people around her. Both Meghan and I had tea with her, so it was really nice to catch up with her. We have a really special relationship, we talk about things that she can’t talk about with anybody else.’
Royal author Tom Bower told MailOnline then that he believed the comment by Harry was directed at the Queen’s private secretary Sir Edward Young in addition to the Duke’s father Prince Charles and brother Prince William with whom he has an ongoing feud.
Meanwhile the Duke of Cambridge, 40, and the Duke of Sussex have agreed to end public commemorations over Diana and will instead remember their mother with their own families this week.
The pair have not spoken face-to-face since they unveiled a statue of their late mother the Princess of Wales last summer.
They put their strained relationship aside briefly for the unveiling of the highly anticipated statue in her memory in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, her former London home.
In 2017, William and Harry marked the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death by creating a memorial garden at Kensington Palace, taking part in a documentary and loaning belongings to an exhibition.
Wednesday will be the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death, but the brothers will grieve privately to ark the poignant occasion, reported the Telegraph.
But Prince Harry said last week: ‘I want it to be a day filled with memories of her incredible work and love for the way she did it.
‘I want it to be a day to share the spirit of my mum with my family, with my children, who I wish could have met her. Every day, I hope to do her proud.’
Meanwhile, the Duke of Cambridge and his family are moving from Kensington Palace to Adelaide Cottage – just a ten-minute walk from Windsor Castle, later this month.
If the Sussexes stay at their home, Frogmore Cottage, will only be a short five-minute walk from the Cambridges, who will be just 800m away when they relocate to Adelaide in the next few weeks.
It will be the first time the two couples have been neighbours since Prince Harry and Meghan moved out of Kensington Palace in 2019.
But a source reportedly said the Sussexes’s visit will be focused on ‘supporting several charities close to their hearts’, and they have no plans to see the Cambridges.
It comes as a French documentary has claimed Harry ‘slammed the phone down’ on Prince William after being confronted with witness statements portraying Meghan as a bully of female staff.
In turn, William – ‘who already didn’t like his sister-in-law very much’ – became so angry at his brother’s insistence on protecting his wife from criticism that he jumped in a car ‘towards Kensington Palace to go and confront Prince Harry’.
The explosive claims are contained in a documentary by the most popular TV news outlet in France.
BFM TV displays emails – disclosed as part of the Duchess of Sussex’s privacy claim against the Mail on Sunday – in an investigative documentary series called ‘Red Line: William and Harry, the enemy brothers’.
It claims that traumatised staff resigned from the Royal Household and set up a WhatsApp group called ‘The Sussex Survivors’ Club’. The documentary is timed to come out next week.
Diana died in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, at the age of 36 – when William was 15 and Harry 12.
While both understand the historical significance of the anniversary, and the fact that many around the world are keen to mark the occasion, it is a much more personal landmark for them.
Friends say they both still feel intense sadness that their mother has been longer out of their lives than in them, and that she has missed seeing the birth of her first grandchildren.
In other royal news, US celebrity gossip website Page Six reported that Harry’s highly-anticipated memoir may not be published until next year.
The Duke of Sussex‘s tell-all book had been due out in time for Christmas, but it is claimed the release date is now ‘up in the air’.
A source told Page Six that industry experts had expected a November publication date. They said: ‘I have heard that Harry has some truth bombs in his book that he is debating on whether to include or not. So this [delay] is no surprise if he needs more time to work on the book.’
Publisher Penguin Random House announced last year it would bring out Harry’s ‘literary memoir’ in late 2022.
It said he would be sharing for the first time the ‘definitive account’ of his life. It has been feared by Buckingham Palace that Harry will use the memoir to settle old scores.
‘My marriage was likened to the release of Nelson Mandela’: From royal jibes to new N-word claims, the Duchess of Sussex lifts the lid on gilded life with Prince Harry
Meghan’s latest interview lifts the lid on her gilded life in the millionaires’ haven of Montecito in California.
Over 6,400 gushing words, American journalist Allison P. Davis describes everything from the Soho House-branded rosewater candles that she burns to the conjoined palm trees at the Sussexes’ home which the loved-up couple compare to themselves.
In New York magazine The Cut, she even quotes Meghan telling her what to write after the duchess answered a question with ‘moaning’ and ‘guttural sounds’. But it was her and Harry’s apparent jibes at the Royal Family that caused jaws to drop on this side of the Atlantic last night.
‘I LOST MY DAD’
The interviewer explains that Meghan discussed how ‘toxic tabloid culture has torn two families apart’, an apparent reference to Meghan’s falling out with her own father, Thomas Markle, and Harry’s fractured relationship with Prince Charles.
She is quoted as saying: ‘Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process.’ It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision.’
Her comment was widely interpreted as meaning that Harry felt he had ‘lost’ his father because of the fallout.
But hours after the piece was published, an ally of the couple came out to suggest that is not what she meant. Royal reporter Omid Scobie, known to be close to them, said: ‘I understand that Prince Harry is actually referring to Meghan’s loss of her own father, and Meghan is saying she doesn’t want Harry to lose his.’
US publication Page Six separately quoted a ‘highly placed royal insider’ as saying: ‘I’m not aware that Harry has broken up with his father. Charles gave Harry and Meghan millions when they left the UK. Right now, the family are all at Balmoral, and I’m sure they are aghast at this interview.’