Queen's three words that 'showed her private disappointment in Prince Harry'
Her Majesty rarely revealed her feelings in public, but three cutting words in an official Buckingham Palace statement revealed what she really thought about 'that' Oprah Winfrey interview
The Queen was very careful about expressing her personal opinions in public, conscious of the limits her position placed on her – but once or twice, Her Majesty’s true feelings bubbled to the surface.
Queen Elizabeth's terse response to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's interview with Oprah Winfrey contained the cutting line “recollections may vary”.
In the brief official statement released two days after the interview aired in the US, Her Majesty said that the Royal Family was "saddened" to hear how unhappy Meghan and Harry had been, and stressed that "Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members”.
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But, when it came to some of the more damning accusations made by the Sussexes, Her Majesty’s statement simply said "some recollections may vary” – hinting that in her view, the Duke and Duchess hadn’t been entirely truthful.
During that bombshell interview, Meghan complained that she had been "silenced" by the royal machine, and was offered no support when the stresses of royal life brought on a mental health crisis.
The Duchess had also claimed that there had been "concerns and conversations about how dark [Archie's] skin might be when he's born,” although she refused to name the royals at the heart of that speculation.
Christoper Wilson, writing in the Daily Express, said that the official statement from Buckingham Palace was a hint at Her Majesty’s deep “disappointment” with Harry.
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“The tragedy is that Prince Harry, her darling grandson, was unable to grasp the concept of family beyond the one he created for himself,” he wrote.
“We will never know what anguish [The Queen] went through as he fled Britain for the US so ignominiously with his wife, Meghan, turning his back on everything the Queen herself stood for.
"But her one dry statement, "recollections may vary", tells us all we need to know about her private disappointment”.
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