Though Queen Elizabeth II never publicly uttered a bad word about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, a source claimed the late monarch didn't bite her tongue when talking about the Sussexes behind closed palace doors.
According to an insider, the mother-of-four confessed to not liking the American actress during a dinner at her Balmoral estate in August 2022 - just one month before she passed away at age 96.
"At the drinks before the dinner, a small group were talking to the monarch and she explained that Harry meeting Meghan had become a complete catastrophe and described her as evil," the insider told a news outlet. "By this point we all knew the queen's health was in decline and she had months left, she seemed regretful about how things had panned out."
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"It was out of character for the queen to use such a word as 'evil' to describe Meghan, but she saw straight through her. It was a startling sentence to hear from the most forgiving woman on earth," the source added, noting, "everybody's eyebrows hit the ceiling" when she made the remark.
The queen's quiet disdain for Meghan may be why the latter wasn't allowed to tag along with Harry when he flew out to the U.K. to try and visit the British icon during the royal's final hours - though in the end, his plane touched down too late.
In order for Meghan to not realize that she was the only one the family didn't want by Her Majesty's bedside, Kate Middleton was asked to stay back while Prince William went to see his dying grandmother.
According to royal expert Robert Jobson, King Charles "wanted to say Meghan was not welcome. But he couldn't say that to Harry, so he personally intervened and asked Kate to stay back so that it was fairer on Meghan."
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"Kate deliberately stayed away but she desperately wanted to be there with the queen in her last moments," he explained in a past interview. "That's eaten Kate up and has built up resentment towards Meghan."
The Spectator spoke to the insider about Queen Elizabeth's words against Meghan.