How Princess Kate's decision lead to Meghan Markle's absence at Queen's deathbed

Meghan Markle’s absence from Queen Elizabeth’s deathbed was facilitated by Princess Kate’s major decision, per a new biography.

It was previously understood that both Princess Kate and Meghan Markle were asked to stay back from the Queen’s deathbed when she died in September 2022. But, Royal expert Robert Hardman makes a new claim in his book Charles III: New King, New Court.

Hardman claims that Princess Kate wasn’t told to stay back, but she decided to stay at home to be with her kids. This helped in telling Prince Harry to visit his grandmother without Meghan Markle since Kate would also stay back.

"It was by luck rather than judgment, but it made it a lot easier to tell Harry that he was coming alone," Hardman wrote, per Daily Mail.

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To inform Prince Harry that he had to come alone, his father called him up. Dishing on the phone call between Harry and Charles, Hardman wrote: "We can easily imagine the dread with which the Prince of Wales approached that call. The Sussexes' capacity for taking offence was well known and everyone was conscious that any conversation could end up in the public domain — as, indeed, this one did three months later."

Harry recalled the conversation in his memoir Spare, calling his father “disrespectful,” before adding: "I wasn't having it. Don't ever speak about my wife that way."