Three years after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, accounts of the events in the hours and days around her passing have continued to highlight strains within the royal family, including a disputed decision that Prince Harry should travel to Balmoral alone.
Royal sources say that when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex learned on Sept. 8, 2022, that the Queen was unwell, they announced that both would travel to Scotland. The publicity prompted a swift reaction from the palace and members of the royal household, and, according to those sources, King Charles III told Harry that it would not be appropriate for Meghan Markle to be at Balmoral at such a deeply sad time.
A source said Charles pointed out that other partners, including Catherine, Princess of Wales, were not going and that attendance needed to be limited to the closest family. The Sussexes’ initial statement that both the duke and duchess would travel was followed within about 30 minutes by a clarification from the couple’s spokesman that only the duke was going “at the moment.” It was unclear at the time how much direct pressure the palace or senior royals applied to reach that outcome.
In his 2023 memoir Spare, Harry wrote that he found his father’s explanation “disrespectful” and that he “didn’t tolerate it.” He later traveled to Scotland but arrived after the official announcement of the Queen’s death; his private jet landed at 7:52 p.m., about an hour and a half after the palace released its statement confirming the monarch’s passing. Harry said he first learned of the Queen’s death from the BBC and that, as the plane descended, he received a message from Meghan asking him to call.
In the days that followed, the duke and duchess joined senior royals for a Windsor walkabout and attended the funeral service at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19, 2022. The public appearances were described by some observers as a show of unity, but royal commentators and those close to the family later said tensions persisted. Royal author Robert Jobson wrote that Catherine found the joint walkabout “one of the hardest things” she had ever done because of ill feeling between the couples.
Meghan has since spoken about the personal toll of the period. On the second season of With Love, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex said being away from her children for nearly three weeks made her “not well.” Harry described separation from his children and the emotional difficulty of the Queen’s death in Spare.
The events around the Queen’s final hours and the subsequent weeks remain a focal point for accounts of rifts within the family, as well as for reports about how the palace handled communications. In the years since, there have been signs of a partial thaw. Images published in July showed a meeting between aides to the Sussexes and the communications office of King Charles after a so-called “peace summit.”
King Charles is expected to meet Harry in London in September, the first reported meeting between them in 20 months, as the duke returns to attend the triage of anniversary events and the WellChild Awards, a charity he supports. The anniversary of the Queen’s death has continued to prompt reflection on both the public and private aspects of the royal household’s response during a period of national mourning and familial strain.