Duke of Sussex hoped for support but faces setback amid royal family tensions
Prince Harry was reportedly left deeply disappointed after a family meeting with his aunts, Princess Diana’s sisters, took an unexpected and disheartening turn.
According to royal biographer Tom Bower, the Duke of Sussex had reached out to Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, believing they would see strong parallels between his late mother and Meghan Markle. Instead, they rejected the comparison, reportedly believing Meghan did not share the same qualities as Diana.
“Harry assumed that Diana's family and friends would see a similarity between Diana and his fiancée,” Bower wrote. “He was so disappointed. No one agreed that his vulnerable mother had anything in common with his girlfriend.”
More troubling for Harry, the author added, was the family’s view that Meghan would struggle to fit into royal life — a prediction that seemed to foreshadow the couple’s eventual departure from royal duties in 2020.
Despite the frosty reception, Harry has continued to express his conviction that Meghan and his late mother would have shared a close bond. “So much of what Meghan is and how she is, is so similar to my mum,” he told Express UK in 2022. “She has the same compassion, the same empathy, the same confidence. She has this warmth about her.”
While his ties with the Royal Family remain strained, Harry has kept a connection to his mother’s side, though this encounter suggests even those bonds are not without complications.
