A royal author has claimed that both the late Queen and King Charles “stopped” taking phone calls from Prince Harry after he moved to California.
The Duke of Sussex stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and moved to Montecito, California, with his wife Meghan Markle, but continued to stay in touch with his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Royal commentator Robert Jobson, author of a new book titled Our King Charles III: The Man and the Monarch Revealed, has claimed that as relations between senior members of the royal family began to worsen, the late Queen and King Charles stopped taking Harry’s phone calls altogether.
Jobson writes that Harry regularly phoned his grandmother from California until he “kept trying to air his grievances”.
“In the end, [the late Queen] asked him to speak directly to his father instead,” Jobson claimed.
In an extract from the book published by the MailOnline, the author writes that a source told him: “Her Majesty found Prince Harry’s calls quite difficult and wearisome. She didn’t want to interfere in the father/son relationship and would urge him to speak to his father.”
He alleges that Charles eventually “stopped taking Harry’s calls after his son swore at him and repeatedly asked for funds”.
“When the Queen asked Charles why he hadn’t given in, he told her that he wasn’t a bank,” Jobson writes.
Jobson alleges that the Queen “felt let down” by Harry’s decision to step back from his royal duties, and that she saw the departure of the Sussexes “as a missed opportunity”.
The Queen, however, apparently hoped “her grandson would find peace and happiness” in his new life.
Elsewhere in the book, Jobson writes that Royal aides allegedly described Prince Harry as “Meghan’s hostage” behind the couple’s back.
The author also claimed that the aides believed the Duke of Sussex had Stockholm syndrome – when victims empathise with their captors.
“There was a point when officials joked Harry was the victim of Stockholm syndrome, and he was Meghan’s hostage, but now most just feel Harry has turned his back on everything he has known,” Jobson wrote of the response to Harry’s departure.
The Independent has contacted Buckingham Palace and representatives of the Sussexes for comment.
