Prince Philip did not want his grandson to marry Meghan Markle.
This, according to royal historian Andrew Lownie’s book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, which was released earlier this year.
The revealing memoir claims that Queen Elizabeth’s brother didn’t mind that Prince Harry was dating Markle… who was best known at the time for her role on the USA Network hit Suits.
HOWEVER, he had the following to say about Harry actually settling down with his then-girlfriend.
One steps out with actresses, one doesn’t marry them, Philip allegedly told Harry many years ago.
Harry and Meghan got together in 2016 and announced their engagement the following year. They got married in 2018, with Philip (above) in attendance.
A different book, published earlier this year by former royal butler Grant Harrold, detailed another off-color remark from Philip following Harry and Meghan’s wedding ceremony.
“Once all the formalities were over, we watched as the happy couple, and then the other members of the Royal Family, filed out of the chapel,” Harrold wrote in The Royal Butler, which was released in August.
“When Prince Philip came out, he turned to the Queen and said, ‘Thank f-ck that’s over.’”
As most celebrity gossip followers know at this point, Philip was not alone in his caution over Harry’s marriage to Meghan, as Prince William was reportedly “nervous” about the wedding.
In Harry’s own memoir Spare, he wrote of his brother’s warnings to him prior to the big day.
“‘It’s too fast’, he’d told me. ‘Too soon’. In fact, he’d actually been pretty discouraging about me even dating Meg,” Harry wrote of William in this controversial book.
Looking ahead, meanwhile, Markle is plotting her return to acting.
Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his wife Meghan Markle react while attending a show during a visit to the National Centre for the Arts in Bogota on August 15, 2024.
Philip passed away at age 99 in 2021, about a year after Harry and Meghan walked away from their duties as senior working royals and relocated to California.
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward previously told Us Weekly that there was no bad blood between Philip and Markle.
She actually alleged that Phillip was “very welcoming” toward the former Suits cast member, explaining four years ago:
“She was a newcomer — and a very different newcomer. At the time of Meghan and Harry’s romance, he wasn’t around nearly as much because he’d retired. He didn’t see very much of Meghan at all [and] he didn’t really have a chance to form a relationship with her.”