The Duke of Edinburgh is said to have "walked away" from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after the couple's spectacular exiting from the royal family earlier this year.
Back in January, the married couple announced - without consulting other members of the monarchy - that they would stop partaking in their senior royal duties, intending instead to go to North America for a more independent life. After crisis talks and negotiations, an agreement was struck, allowing them to move away.
A new book based on interviews with sources close to the family has now shone a light on how Prince Philip felt about the Megxit situation.
The author of 'Prince Philip Revealed', Ingrid Seward, told Variety Fair this week that the Queen's husband and Prince Harry's grandfather is unable to understand the couple's decision to leave the family.
It's said he has "walked away" from the situation after believing his advice was falling on "deaf ears". The book suggests the 99-year-old was annoyed by how Harry and Meghan never consulted the Queen before their bombshell announcement.
"Philip simply cannot understand how Harry has behaved the way he has done. His grandson’s behaviour is completely alien to him so not unnaturally the relationship has suffered," Seward told Variety Fair.
Seward mentioned how Prince Philip wasn't part of the now-infamous Sandringham showdown between the couple and the Queen where most of the negotiations took place. She told the magazine this signals Philip didn't want to be part of the affair and felt he wasn't listened to.
"It was up to Harry and Meghan to listen but they didn’t and Philip has always been very protective of the Queen so if anyone upsets her, they upset him too. His mantra is the monarchy comes first, second, and third."
The Variety Fair article says Prince Philip was initially fond of Markle, an American actress who married Prince Harry in 2018. But he "harboured doubts" and now apparently compares her to Wallis Simson, the American who led King Edward VIII to walk away from the throne.
In Harry and Meghan's shock statement in January, they said the "geographic balance" between North American and the UK "will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity."
Over the last few months, the pair have spent time encouraging Americans to reject hate speech and misinformation ahead of the US election. Their comments relating to the election have caused many to accuse them of interference.
