A “stony silence” between the late Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry and Meghan was the moment a former Buckingham Palace staffer knew the relationship between them was blown. A switchboard operator who was often in contact with the late Queen has revealed that the procedure was to ring her private number and inform her of the caller’s identity.
On one occasion, a call had come through from Prince Harry in the US, wanting to speak to his grandmother. The operator recalled that the Queen “would always thank you and then you would connect the call and leave them to their conversation”.
However, during this interaction, she did not.
“When I announced to the Queen that Harry was her caller, there was just a stony silence,” she said.
“In fact, it was so uncomfortable that I filled the silence myself by saying ‘Thank you, your Majesty’ and then connected them,” the source told the Daily Mail.
“It was memorable because the Queen would never not acknowledge you.”
The incident occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when Prince Philip’s health was in decline, and Harry and Meghan’s decision to abandon Britain had triggered a series of royal crises that further deteriorated their relationship with members of the Royal Family.
It came after author Sally Bedell Smith published various conversations with Lady Elizabeth Anson on her Substack “Royal Extras”.
Born in Windsor Castle, Lady Elizabeth was the late Queen Mother’s great-niece and also King George VI’s goddaughter. Liza, affectionately known to family and friends, was a high-society party planner and one of Queen Elizabeth’s closest confidantes later in life.
The aristocrat branded Meghan “nothing but trouble” and revealed how the late monarch was “not at all content” following a series of incidents in the lead-up to the Sussexes’ wedding.
