It really cannot be stressed enough: in the 72-hour ordeal of Queen Elizabeth II’s death and the first hours of King Charles III’s reign, the British media were grotesquely focused on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. You would have thought that QEII only had one grandson, that was the importance and significance given to Harry’s travel arrangements to Balmoral. You would have thought that Meghan had personally slapped QEII on her deathbed, that was how the British media wrote and spoke about her. So, there was a question hanging over that 24 hour period on Thursday: what exactly happened when Harry and Meghan announced that they would travel to Balmoral together, and why did Harry end up going alone? Well, the Sun and the Daily Mail had the answer: the soon-to-be King Charles III called Harry shortly after the Sussexes’ spokesperson said that Harry and Meghan would be traveling together. Charles apparently told Harry to leave Meghan in Windsor.

It is understood Harry was at Frogmore when Charles told him in a phone call from the dying Queen’s bedside not to bring Meghan with him to Balmoral.

A source said: “Charles told Harry that it wasn’t right or appropriate for Meghan to be in Balmoral at such a deeply sad time. It was pointed out to him that Kate was not going and that the numbers really should be limited to the very closest family. Charles made it very, very clear Meghan would not be welcome.”

Out-of-favour Harry was also refused a seat on the RAF plane that took his brother Prince William and his uncles Prince Edward and Prince Andrew up to Scotland.

Harry and Meghan had announced on Thursday lunchtime, without consulting the rest of the family, that they would be “travelling to Scotland” together. But Harry agreed to go alone after the intervention. As a result, he had to find his own plane and the delay meant he did not arrive at Balmoral until 7.52pm — nearly 90 minutes after it was announced to the public that the Queen had died.

[From The Sun]

True story, the Countess of Wessex came to Balmoral with her husband, William and Prince Andrew. Sophie was close to QEII, that’s true. But I’m just pointing out that it wasn’t *only* blood relatives in Balmoral. I’m also quite sure Princess Anne’s husband Tim was there. Imagine telling Harry – who loved and adored his grandmother so much – that he could not bring his wife, the woman he loves, to Scotland during what was probably one of the saddest and most emotional moments of his adult life. Harry was told that it was “inappropriate” and Meghan “isn’t welcome.” It’s absolutely disgusting. As is the hatchet job Kensington Palace organized about the ordeal:

It was a fortunate coincidence of sorts that Harry and Meghan were in the country when the prince’s grandmother passed away, sparing him an emotional and undoubtedly traumatic transatlantic dash as the Queen’s health failed. Despite the rancour of the past few years, no one would begrudge him the chance to mourn his beloved ‘Granny’, with whom he had always enjoyed a warm and fun-loving relationship.

But as the royal households were consumed in concern for the ailing monarch, the Sussexes prompted an unprecedented flurry behind the scenes by announcing that Harry and Meghan would both be travelling to Balmoral.

News of their plans came via the small group of media the Sussexes deem it appropriate to deal with and tweeted out by journalists at 1.53pm. The statement read: ‘From a spokesperson: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be travelling to Scotland.’ This was, of course, news to the Palace and it did not go down well. Many behind royal walls, frankly, were incredulous.

There was half an hour on Thursday following the Sussexes’ initial announcement during which matters quickly came to a head.

It is still unclear how much pressure was brought to bear by the Palace itself – or whether senior royal were involved – but a spokesman for the couple frantically began to ‘clarify’ their position, informing those same journalists that ‘only the duke was travelling at the moment’. Exactly what happened is open to speculation. Some say that Harry and Meghan hadn’t considered that William’s wife wouldn’t be there, with Kate staying in London instead, and when it was pointed out that she wouldn’t be, they realised how bad it looked. Others believe Meghan was effectively banned, using the argument that Kate – now the Princess of Wales – was staying at home.

Either way, their hurried announcement that only Harry would be making the trip north from the capital prompted a sigh of relief among aides.

Putting aside the anguish of the past few years, the initial decision in itself, that both Sussexes would travel, was seen as wholly inappropriate, according to palace insiders, for one very simple reason: this was a private, family moment.

Although most have assumed that Kate stayed behind because it was her children’s first day at school, which is in part true, she instinctively knew this was an occasion for the Queen’s blood family.

[From The Daily Mail]

Kate “instinctively knew this was an occasion for the Queen’s blood family.” Again, Sophie was there. And it’s a much better argument – and more reasonable?? – to say that Kate didn’t want to miss picking up her children from their first day of a new school? Again, there have been so many changes for those kids, it’s weird that Kate and William aren’t leaning into that as opposed to “Kate is better than Meghan because no one had to outright ban Kate from Balmoral!” Like, what is the f–king damage with these pieces of sh-t? The cruelty seems to be the point. The point is that Charles and William were in the position to attack Meghan and snub Meghan and they both took that opportunity.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.