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Daily Record
Daily Record
Entertainment
Magdalene Dalziel & Chiara Fiorillo

Meghan Markle's announcement left Charles 'crushed' as he had '20 minutes' to process it

As the countdown ramps up to the King's Coronation this weekend, royal watchers across the globe are preparing to be on the edge of their seats with the big event.

After weeks of mounting speculation over who will be attending and what the plans will be, there's only two days to go until the Westminster Abbey spectacle on May 6.

It's been confirmed that Prince Harry will be attending the ceremony alone and then it's widely thought he'll be hot-footing it back to the US for his son Archie's fourth birthday party on Saturday, which takes place on the same day as the coronation.

But apparently, it came as a bit of a blow to the monarch when he found out about the developing relationship between his son and Meghan Markle back before they were married and had two kids together.

According to the Mirror, the then Prince of Wales was "crushed" when he was told about the romance and that it was going to be made public just 20 minutes after he'd found out, two royal authors have said.

Charles had been preparing to meet the King of Bahrain and had been on something of a delicate tour in the Persian Gulf sovereign state in November 2016 when the news was delivered.

Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, who are reported to be close with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, said his team had spent months organising the tour, hoping it would be "covered significantly" by the media.

But he was then "crushed" when his tour was overshadowed by Harry and Meghan.

The authors claim Harry gave his dad just 20 minutes' notice before releasing a statement that confirmed his relationship with Meghan - and then he had a go at the media to boot.

In Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, they say: "It was a critical moment that had been in the works for months.

"A statement from Kensington Palace condemning the Press and, in the same breath, confirming Harry’s new girlfriend would all but eliminate coverage of Prince Charles's tour of the Gulf."

The Mirror also reports the writers said: "The team at Clarence House, which had spent months putting together Prince Charles' tour in the hopes that it would be covered significantly, was crushed."

And the book states that Charles "understood that the situation with Meghan had reached a tipping point" despite being "disappointed" by the timing of his son's statement.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their engagement in November 2017 and got married on May 19, 2018.

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